Photo Gallery
Gary Rosenberg
One of the most exciting birding roads in South America is the paved highway to Abra Patricia, which crosses over the Andes and drops down into the Amazonian Lowlands.
Many new birds to science have been described from this road, including this very attractive flycatcher, Lulu’s Tody-Tyrant; the name has recently been changed to Johnson’s Tody-Tyrant, in honor of the scientist who discovered the bird.
This is the best road we’ve ever birded for tanagers, with more than 15 species of gaudy Tangara tanagers possible in a single day! Hooded Mountain-Tanager can be found near the highest part of the pass at Abra Patricia.
Perhaps the most-beautiful of the tanagers found along this road is the stunning and surprisingly easy-to-see White-capped Tanager.
Hummingbirds are always great crowd-pleasers, and one of the real specialties of northern Peru is Royal Sunangel, reliably found nowhere but at Abra Patricia.
The real gem of this trip, though, is Marvelous Spatuletail, simply put, the most spectacular hummingbird in the world!