2006 Narrative
Of all the tours that I lead in a year, I can’t think of another tour that combines a huge number of Peruvian endemics, numerous regional “Tumbesian” endemics, and unbelievable scenery. We crossed from the Pacific Ocean through the Andes, down into the foothills of Amazonia, and back through the magnificent Rio Marañon Valley, through the Andes back to the Pacific. What an amazing journey! And what an outstanding list of specialty birds! Unlike other areas in South America, Northern Peru has only recently been accessible to birding tours, and a combination of comfortable hotels, recently paved highways, and easy (but necessary) camping, allowed us to sample one of the most exciting birding routes, where numerous species have been described to science, or rediscovered during the past 30 years!
We began our tour with a day on the coast, in particular, a visit to Playa San Pedro and Pucusana. Highlights of the day included close studies of Surf Cinclodes, Peruvian Thick-knees, hundreds of Inca Terns, hundreds of Gray Gulls, Kelp Gulls, Belcher’s Gulls, Peruvian Boobies, both Guanay and Red-legged Cormorants, and a wide variety other coastal species. A day on the coast is always productive. We ended the day by flying to the northern city of Chiclayo where our odyssey through the north began in earnest.
Outside of Chiclayo is a wonderful forest reserve at Batan Grande. Here we saw our first specialized endemics, Peruvian Plantcutter and Rufous Flycatcher. Other great birds were also present including White-tailed Jay, Tumbes Swallow, Superciliated Wren, Fasciated Wren, Coastal Miner, and Short-tailed Field-Tyrant, all regional specialties. We continued on to the White-winged Guan Canyon where we had our first night of camping. The White-winged Guan is a very interesting species, once thought to be extinct until rediscovered in remote canyons on the western slopes of the Andes in northern Peru. Camping at the base of the canyon allowed us early access into the canyon, and greatly increased our chances of seeing the guans. Our local guide knew just where to take us, and we had great scope views of no fewer than six guans! The canyon is actually quite beautiful, and other interesting species we saw included Tumbes Tyrant, Baird’s Flycatcher, and Elegant Crescentchest. A Peruvian Screech-Owl graced our camp site in the evening.
Working our way north took us over a low pass known as Abra Porculla. Here our target was Piura Chat-Tyrant, one of the few localities known for this rare flycatcher. We were rewarded with excellent scope views of this specialty, as well as other nice species such as Black-cowled Saltator, Three-banded Warbler, Chapman’s Antshrike, Rufous-necked Foliage-gleaner, Bay-crowned Brush-Finch, and another Elegant Crescentchest. Not a bad morning! Continuing down into the Rio Marañon Valley for the first time, we saw our first Marañon endemics, the Marañon Crescentchest (seeing both crescentchests in one day!) and the shumbae subspecies of Collared Antshrike, almost certainly a good split. In a small side canyon we saw our first inca-finch, the Little Inca-Finch, a member of the genus Incaspiza that evolved in the Marañon Valley itself. North of the city of Jaen we encountered a few more endemics, the Marañon Spinetail, Spot-throated Hummingbird, and the Chinchipe form of Necklaced Spinetail. A stunning Yellow-cheeked Becard was another nice regional specialty we saw there. It was then off to one of our main destinations, the upper Utcubamba Valley and Abra Patricia.
The upper Utcubamba Valley is “the” location for one of the great birds of the world, the Marvelous Spatuletail, and the road that descends down into Amazonia from Abra Patricia is the location where no fewer than four new species to science were described from in the 1970’s. Combining the two made for some very exciting birding. The paved highway below Abra Patricia is certainly the best “tanager” road I know of. Seeing a few species of Tangara tanagers is always a thrill, but fourteen species was ridiculous. Add to that incredible species such as White-capped, Yellow-throated and Huallaga Tanagers, the birding along this road can’t be beat. Other amazing birds we saw included Ash-throated Antwren, Johnson’s Tody-Tyrant, Royal Sunangel, and Bar-winged Wood-Wren, all described relatively recently from this region. In the white-sand forests near Aguas Verdes at the bottom of the road, we encountered Zimmer’s Antbird, a recent split from Chestnut-tailed Antbird, and Dusky Spinetail, a seldom-seen species. The list from along this road is huge, and next year we plan on exploring farther east toward Rioja breaking into to Amazonia lowlands!
The real prize of this area is the Marvelous Spatuletail, clearly one of, if not the best hummingbird in existence. We hired a local guide to take us up through some pastures, through a patch of forest to a site where he claimed was a territory for a male spatuletail. We were not disappointed! We watched as a male returned repeated to a small brushy area at the edge of the forest, and all of us were incredibly impressed by this sensational bird—the discs are so huge—and the way it manipulates them is really amazing! More than satisfied, we descended back to our bus and continued on to Leymebamba, our jumping off point to the Rio Marañon Valley!
Abra Barro Negro (Black Mud) is the last high pass along the road that descends down to the Rio Marañon. We began the morning pre-breakfast in search of nightbirds, but only heard our targets, Swallow-tailed Nightjar and Rufous-banded Owl. A displaying Andean Snipe was also heard. Morning brought a number of interesting birds, but the real target here was Russet-mantled Softtail, a highly range-restricted ovenbird, and we were rewarded by finding a nest! Other highlights here included Hooded Mountain-Tanager, Mountain Cacique, and several hummingbirds such as Shining Sunbeam, Great Sapphirewing, and Tyrian Metaltail. The descent to the Rio Marañon was one of the more amazing drives any of us had encountered. Our amazing crew skillfully navigated the narrow road as we dropped some 7000 feet to the valley bottom. Before reaching our camp site, we found two critical target species, Yellow-faced Parrotlet and Peruvian Pigeon. Our camp was comfortable, if not warm, and as the sun set we watched Marañon Thrushes perched up along the river. Our journey back up the other side was equally breathtaking in terms of scenery, and complete with several endemics and specialty birds. We began with several Buff-bridled Inca-Finches, and more Yellow-faced Parrotlets, stopped at Limon and successfully found both Gray-winged Inca-Finch and Chestnut-backed Thornbird, stopped near the pass for lunch and Jelski’s Chat-Tyrant, and finished off the day with great views of Black-crested (Marañon) Tit-Tyrant.
The last portion of our journey brought us through the higher elevations from Celendin to Cajamarca, where many new and interesting birds for the tour were seen. This is the best road I know of for White-tailed Shrike-Tyrant, and we saw several in direct comparison with the more common Black-billed. High elevation species such as Slender-billed Miner, Bar-winged Cinclodes, Streak-throated Canastero, and Peruvian Sierra-Finch made for enjoyable birding on this travel day. We finished the day along the Rio Chonta outside Cajamarca with stunning views of a male Gray-bellied Comet. Before completing our loop back to the Pacific Ocean, we made a side trip to San Marcos for yet another highly specialized endemic, the Great Spinetail, and were rewarded with great close-up views of a pair. Our afternoon travel to Trujillo, Peru’s third largest city made us appreciate just how rugged the western Andes could be. We finished the tour with a flight back to Lima and a day trip to Lomas de Lachay where we found another Peruvian endemic, the Thick-billed Miner, as well as Least Seedsnipe.
It was really an amazing trip filled with fabulous Andean scenery, a high number of Peruvian endemics, and truly special birds such as White-winged Guan and Marvelous Spatuletail. Our trip total of some 420 species was not too bad either!
Gary Rosenberg