Fabrice Schmitt on his just-concluded private tour to the wilds of Peru

I'm just come back from a two week private tour in North and Cenral Peru to look for White-masked Antbird and a few more of Peru's local and rare birds. It was a challenging but a very successful trip with not only good views of the White-masked Antbird, but also Scarlet-banded Barbet, Long-whiskered Owlet, Pale-billed and Bay Antpitta, Buff-fronted Owl, Marvelous Spatuletail, Creamy-bellied Antwren, and Cloud-forest Screech-Owl, among many others.

That trip took us to some very remote parts of the country, and we had to use small planes and 4x4 vehicles to reach some of them. The location for the Scarlet-banded Barbet was definitely the most difficult to reach: six hours on an extremely muddy road to travel only 30 miles! Look at the picture below. Have you ever been on a muddy road like this one?? We wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t for a bird!

White-masked Antbird

Scarlet-banded Barbet

Long-whiskered Owlet

Marvelous Spatulatail

Pale-billed Antpitta