Trip to Peru December 2-9

PHOTOS TO COME SOON...having an issue with uploading photos here for now.  The linked eBird lists have some great photos.

I made a trip down to Peru and then Bolivia in early December with the primary focus being on finding a few more range restricted warblers (the Bolivia portion of trip is covered in another post). Although the five target species of warblers were the main focus I also found a multitude of other species along the way which is not surprising given the biodiversity of the area and the fact I have never been to either area before (I did step briefly into Peru at the border with Ecuador during my trip to southern Ecuador in 2021...part 1 and part 2). Trying to get this trip organized took me a couple years and lots of correspondence to various tour companies. I finally went with kolibri expeditions as it was the only company that had access to guides in both countries and actually returned messages. The trials and tribulations leading up to the tour continued until I left with lots of flight changes (Don’t ever use Avianca Airlines…horrible customer service and massive changes to flights with no compensation or notice...their idiocy cost me several hundred dollars on their useless tickets plus hundreds more for new flights). The tour had many moving parts with multiple flights on multiple airlines over several days.  

I flew out of Boston on December 2nd to Miami and then onto Lima, where I spent the night at a hotel at the airport before a morning flight out to Cusco where I met my guide for the Peru part of the trip. I arrived a bit after nine and then caught up with the guide and driver and we started the very long drive to Cock of the Rock Lodge with a number of birding stops along the way. Our first stop was to a wetland area known as Laguna Muyna and this spot started wracking up new life birds for me including some waterfowl, Plumbeous Rail, Wren like Rushbird and Many colored Rush Tyrant. More stops along the way produced more birds and more lifers for me including such varied species as Chestnut breasted Mountain Finch, Bearded Mountaineer, White browned Chat Tyrant and Tit like Dacnis. The roads got progressively more winding and I was getting more and more hungry and this led to me getting the worst case of motion sickness I have had in a long time. Usually I have no trouble with it but this ride was brutal. A late lunch stop at Wayqecha Lodge around two gave me a needed break from the drive and some badly needed nourishment. The stop also added three more new species for me. After a little poking around the lodge we continued the drive to Cock of the Rock Lodge with a few more stops along the way. Highlights on these stops including a Leymebamba Antpitta coming into get worms put out for it, Blue banded Toucanet, my first target warbler species of the trip with Pale legged Warbler and an Andean Potoo. We finally arrived at the lodge around six and there was still enough light to get a few birds before dark settled in for the night. There is only limited power at the lodge with power available to charge phones, batteries, etc for three hours (6-9pm) using batteries charged up by solar during the day. The rooms have no power overnight besides two small battery lights that charge during the day by solar. It was a good day for birds with a total of 83 species to start my stay in Peru. A total of thirty of these species were life birds for me. 

After a number of thunderstorms overnight I awoke to overcast conditions and some light rain that unfortunately picked up as more thunderstorms rolled in. I had some good luck early on when I found a pair of Two banded Warblers before the guide was even up and got some marginal photos of the birds. The rain picked up and didn’t stop until around ten so we didn’t get going elsewhere until later than planned. Although a bit slow overall at the lodge I still added a number of lifers as I watched the hummingbird and fruit feeders. A troop of monkeys also arrived to add some excitement to the morning with one figuring out how to get to one of the hummingbird feeders and drinking it down. We finally headed out along the Manu Road around 10:30 and made a few stops and turned up a nice mixed flock and a number of other birds scattered around. We came back to the lodge for a late lunch and then went even further down the road and had more good luck with a number of active spots with a good mix of birds including my third target warblers species (Cuzco Warbler) making an appearance. Tough to get photos as they stayed hidden most of the time, occasionally popping out very briefly. Another stop further down the road produced nine lifers! Our final stop before heading back to the lodge was a stop at Bamboo Lodge which produced a couple more lifer. It started raining a bit as we drove back to the lodge and the rain then picked up from there with more thunderstorms. By the end of the I had 89 species total with 29 of those being life birds (including two species of warblers)

After another rainy, thunderstorm filled night I was out on my own a bit before breakfast with the main goal being to get some better photos of Two banded Warblers and I successful in that quest. It stayed rain free during my time before breakfast around the lodge thankfully. After breakfast we headed up the road and into some rain almost immediately. We made a stop in the fog and light rain not far above the lodge and had a mixed flock that turned up some new birds but the best waited until the end. Just as we were about to leave the guide and I both noticed a bird pop up on a bare branch. At first glance it resembled a Summer Tanager but something was off about it. The build was similar but different and the bill was more yellow/pinkish in color. The bird stayed in view for a total of around ten seconds before dropping down out of sight, never to be seen again despite a lot of effort. Although the looks were short, they were long enough to get the field marks for what appeared to be a very rare tanager, the Inti Tanager. This tanager was only recently described to since in 2021. It breeds in small range in Bolivia and then in the non breeding season disperses to a few areas of western Peru. Really wish I got a photo of it but I had to be content with just a look at it. We then worked our way further up in elevation and the rain increased which kept activity overall low and even kept us stuck in the vehicle as it was just raining too hard at times. The mixed flocks we did find held a number of new species for me and I’m sure we missed some due to the weather. In the mid afternoon we headed to a nearby Andean Cock Of The Rock lek and we were not disappointed with multiple males present and displaying. I had seen the species before in Ecuador but it is not a species you can really get tired of seeing. After about 45 minutes at the lek we did more roadside birding as we made our way back to the lodge. The light rain returned intermittently as we walked down the hill, turning up an occasional group of birds. We made it back to the lodge for dinner and were rewarded with an owl to end the day when a Rufescent Screech Owl called. The day ended with a total of 87 species with a lucky 13 of those being lifers.

After a final night at Cock of the Rock Lodge we had an early breakfast and then started the less than comfortable, twisting ride back up the mountains toward our destination for the day at Wayqecha Lodge (a location we stopped at for lunch a few days prior). We broke up the trip with lots of roadside birding and the weather gods mainly kept the rain away. We had a lot of the same species early on as we were hitting the same areas we had been on previous days. Nonetheless there were still some new birds for me…the tropics always produce even when visiting the same spot several times. We had lunch on the road and eventually arrived at the lodge a little after two. I checked out the feeders a little and then got settled in the room. The guide then came by and suggested a walk down one of the trails. Although it was a bit wet and slippery in spots and the overall density of birds was somewhat low I added multiple life birds for the effort. We walked for over two and a half hours and almost made it to the end of the trail where the driver was going to pick us up and a recent landslide had taken out the trail. After a little bit of work we made it across, which was a good thing as it was already getting close to dark and retracing our route would have been pure hell. I ended the day with a total of 103 species with 15 life birds. 

On Saturday the 7th we began our day trying to see another antpitta that comes in close for photos, this time it would be a Urubamba Antpitta. Just as we were about to make a short walk to the spot the guides heard a Gray breasted Mountain Toucan and eventually it showed well. We then walked to the spot for the antpitta and after a bit of waiting and wondering if it would show it provided a fine performance. After breakfast we started the extremely long and tiring drive to our next destination, Opal Lodge. This involved driving down the mountain range we were on and crossing over to another range and then down the other side to a new lowland area. We made a few stops along the way but most of the day was driving. The stops we did make were productive and I added a few new species thanks mainly to getting to some higher habitats. The highest point we reached was a pass through the Andes (Abra Malaga pass) that topped us out at 4100+ meters with snow covered mountains with glaciers hovering above us. We had to contend with a little rain and lots of clouds but it didn’t dampen our birding too much. We finally arrived at our lodging for the night around five and checked in to the Ipal Ecolodge. It was not what I was hoping for and was more rustic than I prefer with no windows and just screens on the rather basic cabins. Bugs and critters could get in everywhere and it was not a restful night of sleep. The day ended with a total of 60 species with 12 lifers…not a huge amount of diversity compared to some other days but the higher elevation areas we visited are not nearly as diverse as lower elevations. 

My final full day in Peru found us up early after a very restless night in the rustic setting. It rained again overnight and that continued into the morning. I also started developing symptoms of a cold (the guide got a cold our first full day of birding and I had avoided catching it until Sunday). After checking out the birds coming to the feeders on site and having a breakfast we made a drive to a location where a family has set up feeders and is becoming known as a great spot for a variety of species including lots of tanagers and hummingbirds coming in close and allowing great photo opportunities. The place did not disappoint and we stayed for four hours! It was really amazing to see so many great birds up close. We were going to go for a walk around the property but as soon as we headed out it started to rain and we got wet, again. We quickly returned to the covered area (the second floor to the families house) and continued to observe from there. I took hundreds of pictures of a variety of birds. We finally left the spot around 12:30 to drive a few hours to our last lodging of the trip in the town of Ollantaytambo. (It’s a busy town as it is the jump off point for the train to Machu Picchu). We picked up a few birds as he went back up over the pass through the Andes but the weather was bad with rain and wind. We finally arrived at our lodging before dinner and I took a long, hot shower to warm up. After dinner we discussed plans for the next day with my flight departing to Bolivia around noon. Initially we were going to bird for perhaps an hour or so and get to the airport around 9 but the guide decided we didn’t have the time so Sunday would be the last day of birding for me in Peru. On the morning of the 9th we were supposed to have breakfast at the hotel and then depart around seven for a two hour drive. Instead they decided to leave when we were suppose to have breakfast and we had a bagged breakfast to go so I ended up at the airport at 8:30AM. My cold symptoms had worsened and I contemplated canceling the trip to Bolivia and heading home early but decided to go through with it. 

My totals for the trip to Peru included 285 species in total with 112 life birds.  To show you the diversity in the tropics I saw more species in several days in Peru then I saw for the entire year in the US (285 species vs 283 species)