There is no more spectacular hummingbird in the world than Peru’s aptly named Marvelous Spatuletail. Photo: Gary Rosenberg
Manu may be better known, but northern Peru is home to some of the country’s most sought-after species, especially one of its most spectacular hummingbirds, the Marvelous Spatuletail. The mountain pass at Abra Patricia also provides some of the most exciting birding in the Andes, including the possibility of the little-known Long-whiskered Owlet. Now that a new and comfortable eco-lodge has been built right at Abra Patricia—where the owlet has recently been seen!—birding this remote portion of Peru has become both easy and comfortable. The tour will fly to the city of Tarapoto, where we’ll bird the interesting Huallaga River Valley before traveling by paved highway to the Rioja area, then on to Abra Patricia for a multiple-night stay at the new lodge. The Abra Patricia road is perhaps the best in the Andes for tanagers, with the possibility of twenty species in the genus Tangara! It is also home to a number of scarce endemics and near-endemics, from the diminutive Johnson’s Tody-Tyrant and Royal Sunangel to such spectacular birds as White-capped Tanager and Red-ruffed Fruitcrow.
Day 1: The tour begins this evening in Lima, where we’ll spend the night.
Day 2: We’ll fly this morning to Tarapoto. After checking in to our hotel we’ll spend the afternoon birding the recently paved “tunnel road” northeast of town, where humid tropical forest and foothill species mingle, among them perhaps Orange-breasted Falcon, White-fronted Tyrannulet, Dotted Tanager, and Short-billed Honeycreeper. A cliff face is home to a nesting colony of White-tipped Swifts, and gaudy birds such as Curl-crested Aracaris and Andean Cocks-of-the-rock may be feeding in fruiting trees along the road. At dusk there is a chance for Band-bellied Owl. Night in Tarapoto.
Day 3: We’ll drive south of Tarapoto to rain-shadow forest along the Huallaga River, an area still relatively poorly known ornithologically. At the Rio Upaquihua we’ll bird a patch of semi-deciduous forest where several rare species occur, including Pheasant Cuckoo, Common Thornbird, Chestnut-throated Spinetail, Rusty-backed Antwren, the recently described Mishana Tyrannulet, White-bellied Pygmy-Tyrant, Rufous Cassiornis, Sulfur-bellied Tyrant-Manakin, Ashy-headed Greenlet, and Yellow Tyrannulet. This is also home to the endemic huallagae race of Northern Slaty Antshrike. Along the Huallaga River itself we may see Comb Duck, Pied Lapwing, and Sand-colored Nighthawk. In the afternoon we’ll visit another road near Tarapoto that offers us one more chance to see a few Amazonian humid-forest birds before we leave this interesting area for the west. Night in Tarapoto.
Day 4: We’ll depart Tarapoto early to drive along the Mayo River to the town of Rioja. Our main destination will be the dry woodland at the foot of Morro de Calzadas, a unique, locally managed nature preserve not far from Rioja; here and in the nearby area we’ll search for Striolated Puffbird, Cinereous-breasted Spinetail, Stripe-necked and Pearly-vented Tody-Tyrants, Lesser Elaenia, Striped and Fiery-capped Manakins, Pale-breasted Thrush, Black-faced Tanager, Black-billed Seed-Finch, and as night falls, Blackish, Spot-tailed, and Rufous Nightjars, as well as Band-bellied and Striped Owls. Night in Moyobamba.
Day 5: We’ll depart early for the famous Abra Patricia area, where we’ll spend the early morning in a white-sand forest patch at the bottom of the road, searching for specialties such as Napo Sabrewing, Dusky Spinetail, Northern Chestnut-tailed Antbird, Thrushlike Antpitta, Olive-chested Flycatcher, White-browed Purpletuft, and Masked and Burnished-buff Tanagers. As we ascend we’ll be looking particularly for mixed-species foraging flocks, among which flycatchers, tanagers, and antbirds will vie for our attention. Some of the many exciting birds along the road might include Ecuadorian Piedtail; Speckle-chested Piculet; Equatorial Graytail; Yellow-breasted, Ash-throated, and Rufous-rumped Antwrens; Andean Cock-of-the-rock; White-collared Jay; Huallaga, Golden, Saffron-crowned, Flame-faced, and Spotted Tanagers; and Golden-collared Honeycreeper, to name just a few. We’ll arrive at our comfortable new lodge in the late afternoon. At dusk we’ll make our first effort for Long-whiskered Owlet, a species unknown to science until 1976 and never encountered alive in the wild until it was recently discovered at our lodge! The owlet is known only from this site and one other. With newly acquired tape recordings at hand, our odds of seeing the owlet have improved but are still far from certain. Night at ECOAN Long-whiskered Owlet Lodge.
Days 6-8: We’ll have three full days to bird the Abra Patricia area, where we’ll be mostly in the cool middle elevations of the subtropical zone, concentrating on an area known to birders as “Garcia,” where the Long-whiskered Owlet and Ochre-fronted Antpitta were first discovered. In this atmospheric habitat of stunted forest festooned with moss and epiphytic growth, the flocks have a different makeup from those lower down, including such birds as Spotted Barbtail, Black-billed Treehunter, Rufous-capped Antshrike, and Vermilion and White-capped Tanagers. The local Royal Sunangel and Cinnamon-breasted Tody-Tyrant can be found here, too. Along the streams we can expect Fasciated Tiger-Heron, Torrent Duck, and White-capped Dipper. Our birding will be dominated by searching through tanager flocks galore—no fewer than 20 species of Tangara tanagers can be found between Tarapoto and Abra Patricia!
On one morning we’ll cross over the pass and drive an hour or so to the town of Florida on Lago Pomacochas, where we’ll hike a short distance onto a brushy hillside where Marvelous Spatuletail is resident. The male spatuletail has only four tail feathers, two of which are rackets that bob in an animated fashion on the ends of long, bare shafts—truly a sight to behold! Our local guide will know the best areas for this incredible hummingbird. In the evenings we’ll try for nightbirds again, perhaps finding the rare and local Cinnamon Screech-Owl or the spectacular Lyre-tailed Nightjar. Nights at ECOAN Long-whiskered Owlet Lodge.
Day 9: On our final morning at Abra Patricia we’ll concentrate on the highest elevations around the pass. Here, from second growth along the roadside, Johnson’s (Lulu’s) Tody-Flycatcher sputters undignified “Bronx cheers” at passers-by. In the taller cloud forest of the temperate zone, we may see Rusty-tinged, Chestnut, and Rusty-breasted Antpittas, which sing from secluded sites on the forest floor. Streaked Tuftedcheek, Grass-green and Hooded Mountain-Tanagers, and Chestnut-breasted Chlorophonia are all members of the mixed-species flocks at this elevation. Using a newly acquired tape of the Ochre-fronted Antpitta, we have a chance of finding this very local Peruvian endemic. In the afternoon we’ll drive back to Tarapoto, stopping along the way for any interesting flocks. Night in Tarapoto.
Day 10: This morning we’ll fly from Tarapoto back to Lima. As our flight is in the morning, we’ll have most of the day to bird around Lima. After a stop at Pantanos de Villa, a marsh reserve at the edge of Lima, we’ll drive south along the coast to the town of Pucusana. The picturesque harbor is enclosed by a rocky shoreline that is home to Peruvian Seaside Cinclodes. A patch of scrub on the way back to the highway may be swarming with Peruvian Sheartails and Amazilia and Oasis Hummingbirds, and we could spot a Short-tailed Field-Tyrant. As we head back toward Lima, we’ll stop at Lurin to watch the beach and ocean for shorebirds and seabirds. Humboldt Penguins have been seen swimming just offshore here. The tour concludes tonight in Lima.
Updated: 17 January 2011
Prices
- 2012 Tour Price : $4,350*
- Single Occupancy Supplement : $550
Notes
Maximum group size eight with one leader.
* Tour invoices paid by check carry a modest discount. Details here.