This is a short but richfull birding trip in the dry West Andean Slope and the barren but diverse high-elevation puna, this is home of lots of endemic birds, with small and restricted habitat for most of them,
Santa Eulalia Valley is accesible in a short time and good birding, here you will find a rewarding variety of habitats in this small area. Some of the star birds include Humboldt Penguin, Great Inca-Finch, White-cheeked Cotinga, Diademed Sandpiper-Plover, Junin Grebe, the last one critically endangered.
Day 1: COSTAL BIRDING.
We start the tour by heading far to the south direct to Lomas de Asia a new birding spot where we can look for Thick-billed Miner, Raimondi’s Yellow-finch and Cactus Canastero, three of them are endemic, we drive back to Pucusana and Pantanos de Villa between these two sites we should see nearly all of our targets: Peruvian Thick-knee, Coastal Miner, Surf Cinclodes, Blackish Oystercatcher, Inca Tern, Humboldt Penguin, Red-legged Cormorant, Peruvian Boobies, Peruvian Pelican Many-colored Rush tyrant and a variety of more common species. In the afternoon we’ll drive up to Santa Eulalia.
Night: Santa Eulalia. L:D
Day 2: SANTA EULALIA VALLEY.
The spectacular scenery of the Santa Eulalia Valley provides an appropriate backdrop for tracking down a number of rare endemic birds. Our primary targets are the extremely localized Rufous-breasted Warbling-Finch and Great Inca-Finch; while looking for them we’re likely to encounter other goodies like Bronze-tailed Comet, Black Metaltail, and Rusty-crowned Tit-Spinetail, Black-necked Woodpecker, Rusty-bellied Brush-Finch – all Peruvian endemics. More common species we may encounter through the day include Canyon Canastero, Giant Hummingbird, Peruvian Sheartail, White-capped Dipper, White-winged Cinclodes, Andean Swift, Torrent Duck, White-tipped Dove, Sparkling Violetear, Peruvian Sheartail, Purple-collared Woodstar, Pied-crested Tit-Tyrant, White-browed Chat-Tyrant, White-capped Dipper, Chiguanco Thrush, Cinereous Conebill, Blue-capped Tanager, Blue-and-Yellow Tanager, Mourning Sierra-Finch, Band-tailed Seedeater, Golden-bellied Grosbeak, Scrub Blackbird and Andean tinamou sometimes cross the road, around midmorning Andean Condor can impress us flying by in front of our eyes.
Night: Santa Eulalia. B:L:D.
Day 3: MILLOC – MARCAPOMACOCHAS.
This is one of the most exciting birding days in Peru, in spite of a relatively low total species count due to the high elevation – almost every bird we’ll see is a specialty! We’ll start by scouring a patch of Polylepis forest for the rare White-cheeked Cotinga. Other birds here include Stripe-headed Antpitta and Striated Earthcreeper. Giant Conebill, We’ll then move up the Milloc Valley, ticking off puna birds on the way: Black Siskin and Bright-rumped Yellow-Finch are common, while we’ll concentrate on finding Black-breasted Hillstar and a variety of canasteros (including the endemic Junin Canastero) and ground-tyrants (including the rare migrant Black-fronted Ground-Tyrant). In the afternoon we’ll bird the famous Marcapomacocha area where we will hope for a plethora of special birds, including the enigmatic Diademed Sandpiper-Plover, the stunning White-bellied Cinclodes, and the incongruous Olivaceous Thornbill. Additionally we can get streak-Throated Canastero, Common Miner, Slender-billed Miner, white-winged Diuca-Finch, Gray-Breasted Seedsnipe, and with luck rarities like Puna Tinamou, Rufous-Bellied Seedsnipe and Dark-Winged Miner, We’ll return to paved roads in the late afternoon, after a tiring but very rewarding day of birding and bumping along dirt roads, we drive to la Oroya to spend a night.
Night: La Oroya. B:L:D.
Day 4: JUNIN LAKE.
We’ll do whatever present conditions require to find the Critically Endangered Junin Grebe this morning. Currently we plan to take a small motor boat out into the deeper parts of Lake Junin to ensure good views of this hard-to-identify bird. Our second main target is Junin Rail ( Laterallus tuerosi), this species is recently described, known from a very small area of marshland around Junin lake, where habitat quality is declining There are many other interesting birds at Lake Junin, including Puna Plover and Andean avocet (seasonal), and a variety of waterfowl, Plumbeous Rail, Silvery Grebe, White-tufted Grebe, Cinnamon, Puna, Yellow-Billed Teals , Andean Negrito, Slate-colored and Giant Coot, Chilean Flamingos are sometimes present. We’ll drive back to Lima in the afternoon. if times allow we have a final scan around the pas for Rufous-bellied Seedsnipe and ln lower elevation for Black Metaltail and rusty-crowned Spinetail.
Night: Lima. B:L:D.
Day 5: PELAGIC BOAT TRIP
We pick you up from your hotel to take a boat for our pelagic birding trip, priority is to see sea bird we spend most of day birding in the ocean; attracting seabirds we use Chumming: We make a gue of rotten fish entrails and old fish left-overs, oil mixed with pop-corn. this smells horrible, all the seabirds have acute sense of smell. When chumming the boat suddenly gets surrounded by Storm Petrels some albatross and several different species of sea birds: Peruvian Diving-Petrel, Sooty Shearwater, Cape Petrel, Markham´s, White-vented, Wilson´s and Wedge-rumped Storm-Petrels. Chilean and South Polar Skuas; Waved, Gray-headed, and Salvin’s, Albatross and more birds depending of the season.
after a pelagic trip we drop you in your hotel for a good and long rest.
End of the trip.(This day is completely optional.)
What to Bring:
- During this tour we are not going to take any domestic flight, but just for your information please do not bring too much luggage. For domestic flights you can hold 23 kg. ( 50.7063 lbs.) and 8 kg. (17.637 lbs.) in hand luggage. Extra costs run by yourselves.
- Lightweight comfortable clothing is recommended, i.e. standard field pants and shirts for the
entire trip, some jackets, gloves, for cold places is enough, at least for Marcapomacochas and Junin - Sunblock and hat or cap.
- An umbrella and rain poncho.
- Rubber boots / gumboots specially for Marcapomacochas. (waterproof shoes would be enough)
- Small flashlight for owling – I will have a strong owling light (guide).
- You will need a fleece or other jacket – Sometimes it’s very cold, please consider this.
- This is noted for the high elevations. We will be in all kinds of weather, but no special clothing is
necessary. If you are a person that gets cold easily – perhaps a little more clothing, like a warm hat or
light-weight gloves would be in order. - Please using camouflaged clothing would be ok not really any military clothing avoid the second.
- Shower thongs / rubber flip flops will be useful.
Recommendation:
- Binoculars.
- Extra Batteries.
- Camera (Optional).
- Telescope (Optional).
General:
- Birding will primarily be on forested roads and some trails – difficulty is easy to moderate level.
- We will be moving between 0 – 4700 meters, asl (15419.95 feet, this just on one day). Mostly between 2500 and 4000 meters.
- We will experience all kinds of weather, but no special clothing is necessary.
- We will have electric power at all our destinations. There are sockets inside all rooms with 220 volt
electricity. - Please note be sure and bring extra batteries.
Medical and Health Information:
High altitude information you may find useful. Arriving in Lima is not a problem because is basically sea level, them gradually we will go to the andes, the highest point during the tour is 4700 meters, we’ll be birding mostly roadside so effort its minimal, Adjusting to higher altitude is a very individual thing.
Some may feel no effects at all, some may have minor effects, and others may experience great difficulty. any way we have oxygen just in case.
You may feel the lack of oxygen, and will easily get «out of breath» for the first two or three days, so take it easy. You may feel a little nauseous, have a headache, or tire easily.. You will acclimatize to it by producing more red blood cells, so you should make sure you stay well hydrated, as the extra cells thicken your blood.
Drink lots of water, while avoiding alcohol or caffeine. Dehydration can make any effects of altitude worse. Try to avoid overeating the first day.
Please keep in mind our birding tour will be over a wide range of altitudes – and we will be acclimatizing as we move through the different habitats.
By the time we reach the very high altitude of the Puna we should be adjusted to the altitude. We will be taking our time, birding slowly, and enjoying ourselves. That being said, your safety and well-being is of first importance above all else.
Therefore, I will be making frequent checks to make sure everyone is feeling well.
If someone in the group isn’t feeling well our driver will be ready to take the person or the group to lower altitude very quickly.
There are medications available for altitude sickness. Please check with your doctor. For the headache, you can take an over-the-counter medicine, such as
acetaminophen (Tylenol), ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin), or naproxen (Aleve).
Travel insurance
Our suggestion is that you use travel insurance service. The normal price of this tour not cover travel insurance.
Books:
Birds of Peru is the best field Guide.
If you consider you can bring some other field guide are welcome.
+ Prices Include:
- Private transport in all the way.
- Boat to Junin Lake.
- All accommodations in all the tour (Lima/Lima).
- Three meals per day (breakfast, lunch/ picnic or box lunch depending where we are, dinner, snacks, water available all the time).
- Bird guide specialist.
- Bird checklist per person.
- Entrances to all Birding spots.
- Transfers in Lima.
- Basically full board in a private tour.
- Oxygen Bottle.
– Not included:
- Laundry, calls, medical costs or hospitalization, excess baggage charges, insurance, or other items of personal nature.
What I (guide) will have with me
- Recording stuff Roland R-05/Microphone SENNHEISER ME66/K6.
- Two iPods- speakers.
- A Swarovski ATX 80 scope 20-60 zoom
- Green laser pointer
- Owling light.
- GPS.
- Personal Swarovski Binoculars.
- I will be carrying the new field guide Birds of Peru this can be found on www.amazon.com.
Tour Calendar 2023:
- 17th March 2023.
- 5th April 2023.
- 28th May 2023.
- 20th July 2023.
- 11th September 2023.
- 3rd November 2023.
If some our fixed departure doesn’t work with you, we can propose a fixed departure with your available dates , also if you need private or customized tour, please contact us for more information, all our tours are totally flexible and adjustable to your needs.
This tour in special we can open any time of the year.
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- https://www.tanagertours.com
- info@tanagertours.com
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