Peru Birds and Culture

Lima

You are met on arrival at Lima airport and driven to your hotel beside an ancient olive grove, now a lovely city park, in the upmarket residential district of San Isidro.

Pucusana and Pantanos de Villa marsh

You are driven south from Lima, birding, to the fishing village and weekend retreat of Pucusana. In countryside en route you may find Peruvian Thicknee, Yellowish Pipit, and Short-tailed Field Tyrant. Take a boat trip around the bay at Pucusana for Humboldt Penguin, Inca Tern, Peruvian Booby, Peruvian Seaside Cinclodes, Blackish Oystercatcher, Grey Gull, Peruvian Pelican, Guanay and Red-legged Cormorant. En route back to Lima visit the RAMSAR coastal marsh at Pantanos de Villa for Great and White-tufted Grebe, Andean Coot, Andean Duck, Puna Ibis, Wren-like Rush-Bird, Many-coloured Rush Tyrant, Least Bittern, Burrowing Owl, Cinnamon Teal and White-cheeked Pintail. On an adjacent beach look for terns, plovers, sandpipers and Coastal Miner.

El Olivar Park then Arequipa

A stroll in lovely El Olivar Park by your hotel is a civilised way to start the day with a little unguided birding. Amiable upmarket locals bid you “Good morning” in English as they jog, walk and tai-chi amid the century-old olive trees. Many of Lima’s common birds are found here: Canary-winged, Scarlet-fronted and Red-masked Parakeet, Blue-and-white and Barn Swallow, Rock Croaking and Eared Dove, Peruvian Sheertail, Oasis and Amazilia Hummingbird, Ferruginous Pygmy Owl, Vermillion Flycatcher, Blue Gray Tanager, Bananaquit, Saffron Finch, Scrub Blackbird, Shiny Cowbird, Longtailed Mockingbird, Groove billed Ani, Southern-bearded Tyrannulet, Pacific House Wren, Coastal Miner, and Red-backed and Harris Hawk. After breakfast at your hotel you are driven to the airport for a late morning flight to Arequipa. You are met at the airport and taken on a private tour of the ‘White City’. On your visit to Santa Catalina Monastery look for Peruvian Sheartail in its flower-filled gardens.

Colca - Canyon

A morning’s journey by road across the altiplano of Pampa de Augada Blanca at 4500m, passing llama, vicuna and Andean Geese, to your hotel in the Colca Canyon. Afternoon free.

Condor Cross, Lake Lagunillas to Puno

An early start to Condor Cross on the lip of the canyon. Here you have a very high chance of eye-level views of Andean Condor gliding soaring and circling past you on thermals rising from a precipitous section of the canyon, flying so close you can hear the wind in their feathers. Lunch at Chivay then drive (4hr) across the Salinas y Aguada reserve to Puno on Lake Titicaca. The tourist bus pauses for a photo stop and leg stretch at Laguna Lagunillas: a short opportunity for puna birds such as Chilean and Andean Flamingo, Giant Coot, Andean Hillstar, Puna Plover, Puna Snipe, Silvery Grebe, and Mountain Parakeet.

Lake Titicaca

Lake Titicaca is home to all the high Andean waterfowl including the endangered, flightless endemic, the Short-winged (or ‘Titicaca’) Grebe. You take a boat trip to the floating reed islands of the Uros and then on to Taquile Island, while watching out for the Titicaca Grebe, White-tufted Grebe, Cinnamon, Puna and Speckled Teal. Back in Puno your hotel garden close to the lake shore may offer Wren-like Rushbird, Many-coloured Rush- Tyrant, Puna Yellow-Finch, Puna Canastero, Mourning Sierra-Finch, Black-throated Flowerpiercer, White- winged Cinclodes, Andean Flicker, Bare-faced Ground-Dove, and Eared Dove.

The Sacred Valley of the Incas

Early flight to Cusco to be met on arrival and driven into the Sacred Valley. You break the journey at a wayside enterprise where you can feed llamas and alpacas, and see traditional spinning, weaving and dyeing. At the picturesque market town of Pisac you browse the stalls or, for a small entrance fee, visit a small botanical garden with hollyhocks, arums, cacti, agapanthus and plot of local vegetables, pulses, corn and potatoes. You visit the very fine Incan ruins at Ollantaytambo up steep stone steps. Stay in the Sacred Valley for 3 nights.

Two days of excellent birding with a specialist local bird guide, targeting the Abra Malaga region. In dense montane scrub near Penas you search for Great Sapphirewing, Cinerous Conebill, Shining Sunbeam, Rusty-fronted, Junin Canastero and Taczanowski’s Tinamou (luck required). Continuing beyond Abra Malaga Pass, with the chance of condor overhead, you take a trail to a patch of elfin polylepis where the critically endangered Royal Cinclodes is found with other polylepis specialists: White-browed and Tawny Tit-spinetail, Line-fronted Canastero, Ash-breasted Tit-tyrant, Giant Conebill, Blue-mantled and Purple-backed Thornbill

Another early start to bird beyond Abra Malaga pass in lush cloud forest and Chusquea bamboo. Star birds here are Imperial Snipe and Parodi’s Hemispingus, and the endemics Marcapata Spinetail, Puna Thistletail, Inca Wren, Unstreaked Tit-tyrant and Cusco Brush-Finch. Among many others are Scaled Metaltail, Stripe-headed and Undulated Antpitta, Puna, Diademed and Trilling Tapaculo, Saphire-vented (Coppery-naped) Puffleg, Sierran Elaenia, Golden-collared Tanager, Andean Ibis and Three-striped Hemispingus, and local endemics Chestnut-breasted Mountain-finch and Creamy-crested Spinetail.

Machu Picchu

This morning you are taken to the train station at Ollantaytambo for the train journey to Machu Picchu along the narrow gorge of the Urubamba river (Torrent Duck and White-capped Dipper). You are met at the village and guided to the bus that runs up the switch-back mountain road to the Incan sanctuary itself. Take lunch, then meet your local guide for a tour of the ruins. While exploring the citadel you might take your eyes away from the Incan stonework for Cusco Brush-Finch, Green-and-White Hummingbird, White-tipped Swifts and in the bamboo areas, Inca Wren. Back by bus to the village to stay 2 nights.

A free day at valley level, with excellent birding along a seldom-used railway track beyond the village for Sclater’s and Bolivian Tyrannulet, Silver-backed, Saffron-crowned, Flame-faced, Rust-and-Yellow and Beryl-spangled Tanager, Grey-breasted Mountain-Toucan, Mitred and Barred Parakeet, Pale-eyed Thrush, Masked Fruiteater, Black-streaked Puffbird, Oleaginous Hemispingus, Capped Conebill, White-eared Solitaire, Highland Motmot, Andean Guan and Andean Cock of the Rock.

Cusco

Morning free for further birding or a return to Machu Picchu for a walk to the Sun Gate for a classic view of the ruins. Train back to Ollantaytambo, alight and return by road to Cusco.

Your local guide collects you from your hotel this morning for a visit to Sacsayhuaman astride its hill above the city. You return for lunch and join a shared tour of Cusco, visiting the Temple of the Sun, the Plaza de Armas and the Cathedral.

Amazon

Travel to the Amazon for 4 nights at a lodge in Tambopata which we will help you select. With extra days and longer logistics you could instead visit Manu or Iquitos.

At your Amazon lodge.

At your Amazon lodge.

At your Amazon lodge.

Lima

Returning by air to Lima you are met on arrival and transferred to a city centre hotel for the night.

Return to Lima airport for your flight onwards or home.