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Tumbesian and Maraņon dry deciduous forest and cloud forest: a route full of endemics

This trip is a neo-tropical birders dream. The route taken is designed around some of the most endangered and localized birds to be found in the neo-tropics. The beauty of this trip is that, although centered on certain special birds, we see so much of more widely distributed species on the way and tremendous scenery and places little visited by foreigners. Because many areas are isolated and no adequate accommodations are available, we will necessarily have to camp some nights.  See note at the end of the day by day description

DAY 01    Tumbesian Lowlands
We will start our birding day with a visit to Pomac Historical Sanctuary, where our main objectives will be the endangered Peruvian Plantcutter and the rare Rufous Flycatcher. A whole set of other interesting birds will also be on our target list, including the Necklaced Spinetail, Cinereous Finch, Scarlet-backed Woodpecker, Collared Antshrike, White-edged Oriole, Superciliated and Fasciated Wren, Pacific Hornero, Streaked Saltator, Pacific Parrotlet and White-tailed Jay. Later we will move to a dryer area where Tumbes Swallow can be found. After this busy morning we will head north of Olmos town to explore some rolling hills where the Tumbes Hummingbird, Sparrow Tyrant and Tyrannulet and Gray-and-White Tyrannulet will be our targets. Sulphur-throated Finches are possible as well. Later we will move to Olmos for overnight.

DAY 02      White-winged Guan
>An early start will took us to the Frejolillo ravine near the Limon Village, where we will have the opportunity to find the White-winged Guan, a cracid thought to be extinct for a hundred years until it was rediscovered by Gustavo del Solar and John O’Neill. With the help of a local guide, Lino Rico, we will try to locate this extremely rare bird. On the walk, we will look for other Tumbesian specialties like the Saffron Siskin, Ecuadorian Trogon, White-headed Brush-Finch, Elegant Crescent-chest, Baird’s Flycatcher, Tumbes Pewee, Tumbes Swift, Pacific Elaenia, Pale-browed Tinamou among others. The morning will pass slow, and after a good lunch, we will leave the coastal strip behind and head to one of the lowest passes in the Andes: The Abra Porculla, at 2137 meters. Making selected stops along the way, we will pay particular attention to a side trail where we have seen Piura Chat-tyrant, a very rare and local endemic. Other birds we may see include: Black-cowled Saltator, Three-banded Warbler, White-winged and Bay crowned Brush-Finch’s Chapman’s Antshrike and Rufous-necked and Henna-hooded Foliage-Gleaners. Dropping over the east side of the pass we'll drive straight through to Jaen, where we will spend the night.

DAY 03     Marañon Endemics
Pre-dawn start and breakfast in the field at first light. We'll drive to a side road where we have had success with the endemic Marañon Spinetail and Crescentchest. Here we will see other Marañon endemics including Chinchipe Spinetail, Marañon Slaty-Antshrike and Marañon Thrush. The distinct Marañon races of Speckle-breasted Wren and Black-capped Sparrows are here too as well as Tataupa Tinamou and, surprisingly, Military Macaw. After lunch in the afternoon as it cools down, we'll bird the arid desert south of Jaen. Our target bird here is the endemic Little Inca-Finch, fairly common in the scrub among columnar cacti. Here also are Red-crested Finch, Dull colored Grassquit, Drab Seedeater, the endemic Spot-throated Hummingbird, Purple-throated Euphonia and Brown-crested Flycatcher. In the evening the sky fills with Lesser Nighthawks. We will spend the night in Jaen.

DAY 04     Marveluos Spatuletail
Early morning transfer to Bagua Chica. If we have not seen Little Inca Finch yet we’ll for sure see it here. Then on to an area of rice fields to look for Spotted Rail and Paint-billed Crake. We'll drive during the heat of the day with a brief stop along the Marañon river where we can see some Amazonian species such as Yellow-billed Tern and Pied Lapwing. The riverine scrub should hold White-lined Tanager. We continue up the Utcubamba river, keeping an eye out for Fasciated Tiger-heron and Torrent Duck passing through Pedro Ruiz and onto Florida de Pomacochas. Here we will be looking for the rare and spectacular Marvelous Spatuletail, perhaps the classiest of all Hummingbirds. Overnight at Hotel Puerto Pumas

DAY 05    Pomacochas
All morning at Florida de Pomacochas. If we missed the Marvelous Spatuletail yesterday we will give priority to it. We will also explore the San Lorenzo trail. Patches of good cloud forest remain and some of the possibilities here that we have seen in the past include Torrent Duck, Speckled Hummingbird, Mountain Velvetbreast, Collared Inca, Chestnut-breasted Coronet, Golden-headed Quetzal, Versicolored Barbet, Gray-breasted Mountain-Toucan, Strong-billed Woodcreeper, White-tailed and White-banded Tyrannulets, Inca Flycatcher (endemic), Chestnut-crested Cotinga, White-capped Tanager, White-collared Jay, Andean Solitaire, Silver-backed and Straw-backed Tanagers plus lots more. Then we will head to a brand new lodge at the legendary Abra Patricia for spending the night.

DAY 06     Abra Patricia
Full day at Abra Patricia. This famous collecting site is home of some of the least known Peruvian birds. We may bump into mixed flocks with Blue-browed, Metallic-green and other Tanagers. Exploring side trails we may see the Lulu’s Tody-Tyrant, Tyrranine Woodcreeper and Spotted and Rusty-winged Barbtails. During the two full days we have here, we'll bird various altitudinal zones between 1200 and 2200 meters. We have recently located Ash-throated Antwren here. Target birds - some very rare - we hope to see include Cinnamon-breasted Tody-Tyrant, Bar-winged Wood-wren (endemic), Royal Sunangel (endemic), Equatorial Graytail, White-capped and Scaly-naped Parrots, Straw-backed, Metallic-green, Blue-browed and White-capped Tanagers, Wedge-billed Hummingbird, Crimson- mantled Woodpecker, Montane Woodcreeper. We may hear or see if we are lucky Ochre-fronted (endemic) or Rusty-tinged Antpittas (endemic). We may also find Long-tailed Antbird, Large-footed Tapaculo, Golden-faced Tyranulet, Sulphur-bellied Tyrannulet, Ecuadorian Tyrannulet, Fiery-throated and Scaled Fruiteaters, Cock of the Rock, Lanceolated Monklet., Fine-barred Piculet (endemic), Barred Becard , Sharpe’s Wren, Black-crested Warbler and more. We’ll also look for a new Antvireo related to Bicolored. Night birding should be good here with Rufous-banded Owl, Lyre-tailed Nightjar, Rufous-bellied Nighthawk, Cinnamon Screech Owl. This is also the type locality for Long-whiskered Owlet and we will certainly be on the alert for any strange vocalizations at night. We will spend the night at the Abra Patricia lodge.

DAY 07     More Abra Patricia
On this day we will repeat the itinerary from yesterday with the difference that we will on the afternoon we will keep descending to around 1000 meters. In the afternoon we will visit the Aguas Verdes bridge. One of our targets will be the endemic Black-bellied Tanager (also known as Huallaga Tanager). On some trails we will enter shortly we might see Zimmer’s Antbird, Equatorial Graytail, Plain-backed Antpitta, Burnished-buff Tanager, Dusky Spinetail and many others. At dusk we will go to Moyobamba to spend the night at Hotel Puerto Palmeras.

DAY 08    Moyobamba and Rioja
Early in the morning we will visit the open grasslands with some tree islands and some marshes in the Rioja area. We have had Buckleys Forest Falcon before calling from one of these islands where tyrants like the Stripe-necked Tody-Tyrant, Yellow Tyrannulet and Olive-chested Flycatcher are also possible. In the marshy areas we will look for Russet-crowned Crake and Wedge-tailed Grass-Finch. At midmorning we will retrace our tracks from yesterday stopping wherever we feel we have some gaps or where we encounter flocks next to the road. We will spend the night in Pomacochas in Puerto Pumas again.

DAY 09     Utcubamba river
We will drive for birding the dry forests of the Utcubamba river. We will pass Pedro Ruiz and Chachapoyas and we’ll bird the river edges. Here we will look for the Buff-bellied Tanager, Peruvian Screech-owl, Black-necked Woodpecker and others. We will spend the night in the small town of Leymebamba.

DAY 10    Abra Barro Negro
An early start will took us over the Abra Barro Negro. Here we will look for the endemic Russet-mantled Softtail. Other birds include Puna Hawk, Andean Lapwing, Andean Flicker, Violet-throated Startfrontlet, Great Sapphirewing and Rufous-capped Antshrike. Later we will drop into the spectacular Marañon canyon. We should see the pretty Buff-bridled Inca-finch (endemic) in the open Bombax forest and we'll camp near a mango grove that holds a healthy population of Marañon Thrushes (endemic). Other birds to look out for on this day include Peruvian Pigeons (endemic) assemble in large groups in the evening.  

DAY 11    More Marañon Endemics
We'll spend the whole day birding the west side of the Marañon canyon. Initially birding the riverine and agricultural vegetation, we should see Peruvian Pigeon (endemic). In the Bombax woodland there should be Buff-bridled Inca-finch (endemic) and the endangered Yellow-faced Parrotlet (endemic). We'll slowly bird up the valley side to Limon, where Chestnut-backed Thornbird (endemic) and Gray-winged Inca-finch (endemic) are our targets. Buff-bellied Tanager (endemic) is here too. The afternoon we’ll devote to searching for Jelski’s Chat-tyrant (endemic) and commoner Andean species. In the afternoon we’ll continue to Celendin for the night.

DAY 12      Andean Scrub
Early morning birding in remnant humid forest. On this road we'll make planned stops for some Andean species we may not have seen: Peruvian Sierra-finch, Shining Sunbeam and others and also stop on the high puna grasslands for Cinclodes, Canasteros, Pipits, Ground-tyrants and Sierra-finches, Rainbow Startfronlet, Black-crested Warbler, Marañon Tit-tyrant, Many-striped Canastero. We’ll make a special effort for the Cajamarca race of the Rufous Antpitta (a for sure split). We plan to be at our very comfortable hotel early to-day in good time for dinner.  

DAY 13      Cajamarca
All day excursion out of Cajamarca for one of our targets of the day: the endemic Great Spinetail. Easier to see species are Buff-bridled Inca-Finch (endemic) and Fasciated Wren. In the afternoon we’ll go to our stakeout for the endemic Gray-bellied Comet picking up Black Metaltail along the way.

DAY 14    Trujillo
Leaving Cajamarca we drop over the pass above town and into the pacific drainage. We’ll stop at a bushy ravine where we have seen Unicolored Tapaculo (endemic) and our 4th Inca finch of the trip – the Rufous-backed. We’ll make a few more stops on our way to Trujillo.