The spectacular Sunbittern is one of the scarce species we can hope for at Manu Wildlife Centre. Photo: Gary Rosenberg
The Manu Biosphere Reserve is without question one of the most exciting birding destinations in the world. We’ll visit protected habitats ranging from orchid-laden cloud forest, where Andean Cocks-of-the-rock perform their mating displays right along the road, to untouched Amazonian rainforest, where as many as ten species of monkeys abound and Giant Otters still patrol the gorgeous oxbow lakes. Few accessible Amazonian locations remain as wild and undisturbed as Manu, with its stunning vistas of intact forest, five species of macaws seen daily, and a bird list of nearly 1,000 species. Our first lodges are reached by bus, but after several days of birding on foot, we enjoy a delightfully relaxed day on the boat, motoring down the Upper Madre de Dios River to our final lodges. Very comfortable accommodations, great food, non-strenuous birding on flat trails, and easily accessible canopy platforms make a visit to Manu even more appealing.
We offer as well an extension to the awe-inspiring Incan ruins of Machu Picchu.
Day 1: The trip begins this evening in Cusco. Night in Cusco.
Day 2: We’ll leave Cusco this morning and make several stops in the intermontane valleys before arriving at the last Andean pass, Ajcanaco. Some of the target birds for the morning are Andean Condor, Aplomado Falcon, Andean Flicker, Creamy-crested Spinetail, the endemic Chestnut-breasted Mountain-Finch, and Mourning, Peruvian, Band-tailed, and Ash-breasted Sierra-Finches. Near the pass we’ll look for flocks in the patches of treeline forest in hopes of encountering Scarlet-bellied Mountain-Tanager, Yellow-collared Tanager, White-browed Conebill, and Black-throated and Moustached Flowerpiercers. We’ll look particularly for Line-fronted and Scribble-tailed Canasteros, local species found only at high elevation. As we descend the eastern slope of the Andes to our accommodations at 8,400 feet, the forest becomes more continuous. The vast array of birds here includes White-collared Jay and Mountain Cacique, and we’ll hope to see mixed flocks of tanagers, flycatchers, and furnariids. In the evening we’ll go to a favorite spot where we have had luck finding Swallow-tailed Nightjar. Night at Wayqecha Lodge.
Day 3: At breakfast we’ll be greeted by a dawn chorus of Great Thrushes, Black-faced Brush-Finches, and Puna Thistletails. With luck we’ll also hear Red-and-white Antpitta—with even more luck, we’ll even see one. We’ll then spend the rest of the day working the high-elevation cloud forests from our lodge at 9500 feet (2900 meters) down to our next lodge at 4600 feet (1400 meters), where possibilities include Shining Sunbeam, Amethyst-throated Sunangel, Gray-breasted Mountain-Toucan, Marcapata Spinetail, and Barred Fruiteater. Lower down, as we walk along this little-traveled road, we’ll keep an eye out for such birds as Masked Trogon, Crimson-mantled Woodpecker, Slaty-backed Chat-Tyrant, White-winged Black-Tyrant, Inca Flycatcher, Blue-banded Toucanet, Chestnut-bellied Mountain-Tanager, and a wide variety of other hummingbirds, flycatchers, and tanagers. The birding will be fantastic, of course, but perhaps equally exciting are the fabulous vistas of undisturbed cloud forest as the road descends to San Pedro. Night at Cock-of-the-rock Lodge.
Day 4: We’ll spend one full days and one morning exploring the forest around Union and San Pedro, one day in the 7,500-foot zone and one day in the 4,600-foot zone. Birding the middle elevations of the Andes is like visiting a bird buffet, with fancy quetzals and cotingas and mixed flocks of dazzling tanagers. Among the many possibilities are Crested and Golden-headed Quetzals, Blue-banded Toucanet, Amazonian Umbrellabird, Chestnut-crested Cotinga, Chestnut-backed Antshrike, Stripe-chested Antwren, Slaty Gnateater, Yungas Manakin, Andean and White-eared Solitaires, Deep-blue Flowerpiercer, and Golden, Paradise, Blue-necked, Golden-eared, and Orange-eared Tanagers. We’ll visit one of the two nearby Andean Cock-of-the-rock leks to watch up to ten males engaged in their strange mating dance, from as close as we can focus our binoculars. Hummingbirds on the lodge grounds include Violet-fronted Brilliant, Many-spotted Hummingbird, Booted Racket-tail, Wedge-billed Hummingbird, and White-bellied Woodstar, all coming to the feeders or the porterwee bushes. We’ll also do some night birding here; Rufescent Screech-Owl and Band-bellied Owl are possible, but the real treat will be the Lyre-tailed Nightjar show: watching a male Lyre-tailed swoop across the sky at dusk is truly awesome. Night at Cock-of-the-Rock Lodge.
Day 5: After a pre-dawn breakfast we’ll leave San Pedro and spend the day birding slowly down to Amazonia Lodge at 1,500 feet. We’ll pay special attention to the stretch between 4,500 and 2,500 feet, a zone in which much of the forest on the Andean slopes has been replaced by cash crops such as tea, coffee, and coca. In this part of Peru, though, the forest remains relatively untouched, and in the past we’ve seen many species restricted to the “upper tropical” zone, including Peruvian Piedtail, Versicolored Barbet, Ornate Antwren, Cinnamon-faced Tyrannulet, Ornate Flycatcher, Black-backed Tody-Flycatcher, and Chestnut-breasted Wren. On one stretch of the road we’ll search for a still undescribed new species of “tanager” seen on WINGS tours in 2000 and 2003. Along another section of the road is a large stand of Guadua Bamboo, where we’ll look for specialties such as Manu Antbird and Bamboo Antshrike. At lower elevations close to Pilcopata (the last town we’ll see for the next ten days) we’ll bird along the road in search of such species as Yellow-billed Nunbird, Scarlet-hooded Barbet, Red-billed and Slender-footed Tyrannulets, and Golden-bellied Warbler, to name just a few. We plan to cross the Madre de Dios River and reach Amazonia Lodge before dusk. Night at Amazonia Lodge.
Days 6-7: We’ll spend two full days at Amazonia Lodge. This family-run converted tea hacienda has a birdlist of over 620, and species are still being added every year. The lodge is in the transitional zone at 1,500 feet, where the last low foothills of the Andes begin to flatten out into the Amazon Basin proper. The possibilities here are endless, and include Blackish Rail, Uniform Crake, Buckley’s Forest-Falcon, Razor-billed Curassow, Hoatzin, Blue-headed and Chestnut-fronted Macaws, Koepcke’s Hermit, Rufous-crested Coquette, Wire-crested Thorntail, Bamboo Antshrike, Southern Chestnut-tailed and Black-throated Antbirds, Rusty-belted Tapaculo, Ringed Antpipit, Red-billed Tyrannulet, Johannes’s Tody-Tyrant, Hauxwell’s Thrush, Black-capped Donacobius, and Band-tailed, Round-tailed and Fiery-capped Manakins—in a word, tons of birds. We’ll have the chance to go night birding here as well, and in the past we’ve seen Tawny-bellied Screech-Owl and Great, Long-tailed, and Common Potoos. The lodge is very comfortable, and we’ll enjoy lounging on the porch sipping lemonade while we watch hummingbirds at the flowers or horneros in the garden. We’ll be reluctant to leave this very birdy place, but even more awaits us in the Amazon lowlands. Nights at Amazonia Lodge.
Days 8-13: We’ll spend the early morning birding at Amazonia Lodge, then as the day begins to warm we’ll board our motorized canoes for the four-and-a-half-hour trip down the Alto Madre de Dios River to its confluence with the Manu River. On the enjoyable river journey we’ll be able to see typical riverside species such as Pied Lapwing, Fasciated Tiger-Heron and Large-billed Tern. Flyovers may include many species of macaws and parrots as well as raptors – we’ve seen flocks of Swallow-tailed Kites migrating and such memorable species as Black-and-white Hawk-Eagle, Great Black-Hawk, and King Vulture. Traveling down the Madre de Dios is always exciting, and one never knows what will be around the next curve: a Bat Falcon on a snag, Swallow-winged Puffbirds sallying out from the tops of trees, flocks of migrating Eastern Kingbirds, a group of Horned Screamers on a sandbar, dozens of Sand-colored Nighthawks covering a dead log, or even a Giant Anteater caught mid-stream in its rare river crossing.
We’ll spend six nights based in the Manu and upper Madre de Dios basin of Peru’s southern Amazonian lowlands - the first three at the recently renovated Romero Rainforest Lodge and the next three at Manu Wildlife Centre. Both offer the same regional avifauna but each will provide us with many different species. Romero, located on the smaller Manu River within the National Park, has been visited by few birding groups and is known as the best place to see the highly local Black-faced Cotinga. It has excellent access to several oxbow lakes as well as a network of trails and a short observation tower.
Situated just upriver from the Blanquillo Macaw Lick is Manu Wildlife Center, where we’ll spend the remaining three nights. One morning we’ll visit the lick and from our blind observe the spectacle of hundreds of parrots and macaws at close quarters. Here we’ll see the beautiful Orange-cheeked Parrot and perhaps the recently described Amazonian Parrotlet. We’ll spend the rest of the time birding the extensive trail system.
The region encompassing these two lodges has the greatest variety of forest types anywhere in the Manu region and thus the highest biodiversity and greatest number of bird species. Large stands of bamboo coupled with the extensive varzea, terra firme, and mature transitional floodplain forest ensure a mind-boggling variety of birdlife. Some of the more interesting and unusual species in the bamboo are Rufous-headed Woodpecker, Manu Antbird, White-cheeked Tody-Flycatcher, Peruvian Recurvebill, and various foliage-gleaners and antbirds. We’ll certainly look for the rare and local Rufous-fronted Antthrush, here located on song-advertised territories. Some of the scarcer species here include Bartlett’s Tinamou, Razor-billed Curassow, Pale-winged Trumpeter, Sunbittern, Pavonine Quetzal, Purus Jacamar, Cream-colored Woodpecker, Banded Antbird, Royal Flycatcher, Musician Wren, Pale-eyed Blackbird, and Yellow-shouldered Grosbeak, to name but a few. We’ll also visit oxbow lakes at both lodges where we’ll see Hoatzin and Sungrebe, and with luck we’ll spot one of the two Giant Otter families that live in the area. Night birding may produce potoos, Amazonian Pygmy-Owl, Spectacled Owl, and Ocellated Poorwill, among others.
Day 14: After three days in the area, we’ll spend most of the day traveling down the Madre de Dios to Boca Colorado (two hours) and then by land back to Cusco (five hours with stops). Night in Cusco.
Day 15: The tour concludes this morning in Cusco.
Machu Picchu Extension
Day 15: We’ll leave Cusco early in the morning for the three-hour train ride to the famous Inca ruins of Machu Picchu. From the train we’ll see Torrent Duck and possibly White-capped Dipper on the Urubamba River, and we’ll get even closer looks below Machu Picchu. At the ruins, birding will take a back seat as we enjoy a guided tour of this mysterious archaeological complex, although we’ll be on the lookout for White-tipped Swifts flying overhead and Inca Wrens duetting from the bamboo hillsides. After lunch we’ll descend into the Urubamba Gorge for a late afternoon’s birding in the subtropical forest along the river near Aguas Calientes. Specialty birds here include Sclater’s and Mottle-cheeked Tyrannulets, Variable Antshrike, Silver-backed Tanager, and Ocellated Piculet. After birding we’ll have an opportunity to visit the many gift shops in Machu Picchu. Night in Aguas Calientes.
Day 16: We’ll take the morning train back to Cusco in time to connect with flights to Lima and home.
Updated: 01 March 2012
Prices
- 2012 Tour Price : $5,500*
- Single Occupancy Supplement : $770
- With Machu Picchu Extension : $6,500
- Single Occupancy Supplement : $970
Notes
This tour is limited to eight participants with one leader.
* Tour invoices paid by check carry a modest discount. Details here.