MARVELOUS SPATULETAIL AT NORTHERN PERU WITH THE BEST OF TUMBES SPECIALTIES – OCTOBER-2024

MARAÑON BIRDS & MANU ROAD AT SOUTHERN ANDES WITH MACHUPICCHU AND TAMBOPATA BIRDS.

23 DAYS OF BIRDS, CULTURE & NATURE

PARTICIPANTS:    MORGAN SVENSSON TEAM X 06

BIRD HOTSPOTS: CHAPARRI AREA – ABRA PORCULLA – YANAHUANCA FOREST – CRESTA SAN LORENZO – UTCUBAMBA VALLEY – CRUZ CONGA – LA ENCAÑADA – CHONTA RIVER – JESUS TOWN – CHORRILLOS PORT – MACHUPICCHU FOREST – PIURAY LAKE – HUACARPAY LAKE – ACCJANACO PASS – PILCOPATA – SAN PEDRO – MANU ROAD.

BIRD GUIDE:   JESUS CIEZA

TOUR DESCRIPTION

Our first bird day started from Cusco where we visited 02 nice water spots along the andes and got some good birds like Puna pipit, White tufted grebe, Grassland yellow finch, Many colored rush tyrant, Wren-like rushbird, Andean gull, Andean lapwing and some Chilean flamingos. Nice morning birding southern andean lakes with resident birds and some boreal migrants too, then we moved to another place by the famous Inca’s sacred valley where we added some more birds like the endemics, Creamy crested spinetail Chesnut breasted mountain finch, Green and White hummingbird and White tufted Sunbeam plus many other resident hummingbirds like Mountain velvetbreast and Sword billed hummingbird. All these bird places along with nice andean views and surrounded by nice snowy peaks.

Following day we had to take the train for 02 hours to Aguas calientes town where we had some more good birds like Ashy headed tyrannulet, Andean cock of the rock, Gould’s Inca, Sclater tyrannulet, Andean motmot, Variable antshrike and Versicolored barbet. Some more birds around Machupicchu like the endemic Inca wren, this beatiful wren was spotted while having a guided tour at Machupicchu citadel.

Once we finished with this interesting Machupicchu visit we headed to the famous Manu road and at the beginning before reaching the proper cloud forest at the proper Manu road entrance we got some good birds like the endemic Creamy crested spinetail, Bearded mountaineer and the uncommon Diademed tapaculo. We also went for Paramo walk to see Grass wren and other cool birds like White browed conebill, Great sapphirewing, Andean swallow and some yellow billed teals by a nice andean water spot. Around and along these 02 nice lodges like Wayqecha and Cock of the rock lodge we could add some more birds like the well known Gray breasted mountain toucan, Blue banded toucannet, Golden headed quetzal, Slaty Tanager, Bolivian Tyrannulet, Creamy crested spintail, unadorned flycatcher, yellow throated cholorospingus, fawn breasted tanager, black faced brush finch, hooded mountain tanager, geoffroy’s daggerbill, wire crested thorntail, the endemic peruvian piedtail, yungas manakin, the uncommon buff tailed sicklebill and at night we went for lyre tailed nightjar getting a nice view of a male flying over.

Lower down we visited few more places with nice bamboo forest and feeders where we could add more birds to our main list. This time on the way to the lodges we could also get the endemic Black backed tody flycatcher, red billed scythebill, cinnamon faced tyrannulet, yellow breasted antwren, cuzco warbler, wedge billed woodcreeper, ornate flycatcher and Paradise tanager. At Guadalupe lodge we could add lemon throated barbet, great potoo in a nice perch, stripe chested antwren, McConnell’s flycatcher, long tailed tyrant, white thiged swallow and many more. Then the following day we went for a forest walk into bamboo getting good views of fiery capped manakin, flammulated pygmy tyrant, slate colored grosbeak, ornate stipplethroat, bamboo antshrike, manu antbird, black spotted bare eye, pectoral sparrow, large headed flatbill, white lined antbird, chesnut crowned foliage gleaner, yellow billed nunbird, rufous motmot and many others. Then we also had the chance to visit two local feeder stations where we could add many more birds since the places are surounded by nice vegetation, the extra birds around here are Rufous crested coquette, blue fronted lancebill, many spotted hummingbird, Golden tailed sapphire, amazonian grosbeak, gould’s jewelfront, gray braested sabrewing, King vulture in a nice perch, good view of black hawk Eagle, the special fine barred piculet, some more bamboo birds like dusky tailed flatbill, dot winged antwren, another good bird like plain softail, plum throated cotinga, rufous breasted hermit and many more.

Our last day driving back to Cusco city we also had some extra bird stops and got a good views of Black and chesnut Eagle being chased by mountain caracaras, a perched aplomado flacon, Brown bellied swallows, the colorfull scarlet bellied mountain tanager. Then another quick stop for the endemic chesnut breasted mountain finch where we could also get peruvian sierra finch and others. Later that night we went to visit a local shopping center and had a nice dinner around the main Cusco city. Then we took our flight to the tropical jungle and spent days at two birdy places where we added new birds like Eastern woodhaunter, black tailed trogon, rufous motmot and we were lucky to have a tree near the lodge with many red and green macaws feeding, around here we also had the chance to visit a nice bird tower where we could get common nighthawk, white thraoted toucan, and heard many birds from above like starred woodquail, thrush like antpitta, great tinamou, cinereous tinamou and many others night birds like tawny bellied screech owl, amazonian pygmy owl and crested owl. The following day we started early to go and see the biggest macaw clay lick and this time we had good time and birds like scarlet macaws, blue and yellow, red and green, chesnut fronted macaw, Orange cheecked parrot, blue heade parrot, mealy amazon, dusky headed parakeet plus many other like sungrebe, black skimmer, pied plover, collared plover, smooth billed ani, yellow browed sparrow and many more. Then on the way back to the lodge while searching for animals we could get some extra birds like the uncommon Orinoco goose, blue throated piping guan, large billed tern, capped heron, laughing falcon, burrowing owl and giant cowbird.

In the afternoon we went for another walk and got western olivaceous flatbill, curl crested aracarí, scaly breasted wren, starred woodquail, chesnut winged foliage gleaner and gray antwren. This time we also visited the little canopy bridge they have to increase our bird list and got a nice vew of Amazonian pygmy owl, yellow billed nunbird, rufous motmot and Ocellated poorwill calling around. Our last morning around Tambopata river we went to try the tower once again and some terra firme birds where we got some new birds like Tiny hawk in front of us, gray rumped Swift, Brown rumped foliage gleaner, round tailed manakin, white shouldered antshrike, slate colored hawk, fasciated antshrike, gray antbird, olive oropendola and some birds calling around like black antbird, thrush like antpitta, black faced antthrush, purple throated fruitcrow and white throated tinamou. Our last stay was at Paradise lodge where we had a nice and the biggest canopy bridge and two nice towers from where we could get a nice view of Crested owl, the special black faced cotinga, Golden green woodpecker, western striolated puffbird, the uncommon purple throated cotinga, black capped becard, red legged honeycreeper, forest elaenia, grayish mourner, gilded barbet, gray headed kite and many others around the lodge like pale legged hornero, dull capped attila, saffron finch and rusty margined flycatcher. Next day we visited the popular lake Sandoval and on the way to the lake we added some new birds like Chesnut woodpecker, white flanked antwren, gray crowned flatbill, short tailed pygmy tyrant, plumbeous antbird, amazonian trogon, yellow margined flatbill plus the birds around the lake like Agami heron, greater ani, sunbittern, sulphury flycatcher, point tailed palmcreeper, long billed woodcreeper, silvered antbird, red bellied macaw, amazonian streaked antwren, hoatzin and many others.

The next day we took our flight to Lima arriving a little late but with good time to bird a bit of the pacific coast, this time we visited Chorrillos fishing port where we had great views of the endemic Surf cinclodes, the colorfull Inca tern plus some extra birds like belcher’s gull, kelp gull, peruvian booby and many others that increased our peru bird list plus a nice and fresh sea food facing the pacific ocean.

The following morning we took the plane for more than an hour to bird the Tumbes specialties along the northern pacific coast and get some specific bird species that inhabit this dry scrub hábitat created by the special humbolt current leaving great unique birds and some endemics that are only shared with Ecuador. Here we had very good time with really good birds like Elegant crescentchest, Tumbes tyrant, short tailed woodstar, Black faced ibis, the special Tschudi’s nightjar, Lesser nighthawk, Superciliated wren, Peruvian theeck-knee, Tumbes hummingbird, Tumbes sparrow, Black capped sparrow, white winged guan and many more. Our second day birding northern peru we had a great bird stop getting Peruvian plantcutter, Rufous flycatcher, Tumbes swallow, Coastal miner and some others while heading to the lowest part of the andes. One more stop at the famous bird site known as Abra porculla for some extra birds like Gray chinned hermit (porculla hermit), Ecuadorian piculet, Tumbesian tyrannulet, white winged brush finch, Chapman’s antshrike, Spot throated hummingbird and many more. Then we finally spent our night at Jaen city considered the lower part of the famous marañon valley¡¡

Next day we continue with some marañon birds at the popular Yanahuanca forest, local protected area with many good birds that are considered marañon specialties, here walking around we could get Marañon spinetail, Northern slaty antshrike, Marañon crescenchest, Marañon tyrannulet, Marañon gnatcacher, Drab seedeater and Red crested finch. Later that day we finished our bird day at a nice local feeder where we could get some extra birds plus the star of northern peru, being the famous Marvelous spatuletail and some good birds like Buff bellied tanager, marañon thrush, Chesnut capped brushfinch, Andean emerald, andean slaty thrush and many others. This time we spent our night at Pomacochas, this area is located in the amazonas región. The following day we tried Cresta San Lorenzo, a nice walk with very interesting birds but at the same time hard walk since this steep walk can go around 3000m. but very rewarding since here the hábitat is covered by nice bamboo and mountain forest where we could get some good birds like Pale billed antpitta, Peruvian wren, Lacrimose mountain tanager, Mountain velvetbreast, Superciliared hemispingus, yellow breasted brushfinch plus White throated screech owl late that day.

The following day we continued with Marañon specialties and the birds found along the Utcubamba valley like Peruvian pigeon, Black necked woodpecker, Marañon thrush, Mitred parakeet and other specialties found along the special Atuen road like Utcubamba tapaculo, Rainbow startfrontlet, Sapphire vented puffleg, Russet mantled softail, Gray browed wren, Bluish flowerpiercer, Gray breasted mountain toucan, Black tailed trainbearer and many others. This time we spent our night around leymebamba area in a nice lodge surrounded by nice vegetation where we could get Koepke’s screech owl.

Next day we continued with more birds along this bumpy long road that goes through different hábitats and end up at Celendin town, Cajamarca department. But before reaching this town we had many bird stops like the famous marañon specialties at the upper part and others like Chachapoyas antpitta, Leymebamba antpitta, Chesnut crowned antpitta, Rufous winged tyrannulet, Neblina Tapaculo, Great sapphirewing, Black crested warbler and once at the upper Marañon valley we could also get Yellow faced parrotlet, Buff bridled inca finch, Chesnut Backed Thornbird, Gray winged inca finch and many others. Our bird list was still growing since Cajamarca city our last bird stop had very good birds and habitat so next day we birded around Celendin town and got some new bird species like Plain tailed warbling finch, Cajamarca antpitta, Paramo pipit, Tufted tit tyrant, Plain colored seedeater, Jelki’s chat tyrant, Rufous chested tanager, Line cheecked spinetail, Black crested tit tyrant, Rufous webbed Bush tyrant, Rufous eared brushfinch and many others.

Our last birding day was around Cajamarca city and Jesus town, these 02 places hold very good birds and restricted species like Gray bellied comet, Black metaltail, Great spinetail, Groove billed ani, andean tinamou, White winged black tyrant, Black throated flowerpiercer and others.

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