June 15-27, 2024 with Dan Lane & Jesse Fagan
This, our 16th year of running this tour, resulted in some great memories! The route is one of the most diverse birding routes in Peru, and as a result, in the world, and we really did well list-wise with around 460 species in eleven days! Unfortunately, two of the most-sought species in the region, Marvelous Spatuletail and Long-whiskered Owlet, played hard to get. We got fleeting views of the former, and a few of us only heard the latter despite three strong efforts. Ah well, so it goes… But we nevertheless scored some rare and poorly-known stars on this visit, and that is something to celebrate. Our route covered less than 200 miles, yet we encountered more bird species than one typically can in most US states in a year, or most of Europe in a lifetime! Kind of amazing when put into such perspective.
We began our trip by flying from the country’s capital, Lima, to the busy city of Tarapoto, nestled in the foothills just at the edge of Amazonia. From here, we drove northwest up into raised valley of the Mayo River, and the city of Moyobamba, where we enjoyed our first lodge, Waqanki (the local name for the Fiery-throated Fruiteater). After a couple of days birding in the diverse Mayo valley and foothill slopes, we ascended to our main lodging, the Owlet Lodge, in an area lovingly called Abra (meaning “Pass”) Patricia by birders. This stretch of road climbing the mountains and crossing to the drier Utcubamba drainage on the western slope, may be home to more recently-described (post-1975) bird species than any other in the world: 11 species, with at least another 3 species awaiting description! The elevational transect along the slope here from about 3000 feet at the Arenas Blancas private reserve to 8000 feet at Owlet Lodge permits access to a phenomenal avifauna, and one we spent a lot of time studying. After several days in this area, we descended once again into the Mayo valley to visit the rice growing district north of Rioja for open country and water birds, then continued back to Tarapoto, our base for the last two days of birding. The first of these was spent in the outlying ridge of the Cordillera Escalera, a low humid ridge that is home to the Koepcke’s Hermit reserve. Our last birding morning was spent along the flank of the Huallaga River, one of the larger Amazonian tributaries in Peru, and a remnant deciduous forest scrap at a site called Quebrada Upaquihua. It was hot that morning, but we managed to see a good smattering of the different birds in these habitats before we returned to town, showered, had lunch, and departed back to Lima.
Highlights from the tour included visiting the blind at Arenas Blancas and watching an adult and young Cinereous Tinamou defending food against an adult and young Little Tinamou, followed by visits by Gray-cowled Wood-Rail, both White-tipped and Gray-fronted doves, Orange-billed Sparrow, and a group of Rufous-breasted Wood-Quail, all in the space of an hour! The many hummingbird feeders, allowing us a tally of 48 hummingbird species, including the snazzy Royal Sunangel and glimpses (sadly, not better views) of male Marvelous Spatuletails. Several nocturnal outings logged us views of four owls (and an additional 7 heard, including the local Long-whiskered Owlet) and five nightjars (plus two more heard), and Common Potoo. The Oilbird slot canyon on the way to Moyobamba produced fine views this year! We also had great views of some tough forest species such as Rufous-rumped Antwren and Ecuatorial Graytail, three species of antpittas, the recently recognized Cryptic Becard, the very local (in Peru) Plumbeous Euphonia, and an impressive list of furnariids, flycatchers, and tanagers, among others. Hard to fret with results like that! In addition, we managed views of four monkeys, including the endangered and local Rio Mayo Titi Monkey, a Brown-eared Woolly Opossum, and many butterflies, moths, some herps, and more!
Jesse (the Motmot) and I really enjoyed having you join us on this tour, and we hope you enjoyed the experience too! We look forward to seeing you again in the future with binoculars in hand and a taste for adventure in your mouth!
Good birding to all! Dan (the Barbet)
Mammals
Brown-eared Woolly Opossum (Caluromys lanatus)
Andean Saddle-back Tamarin (Saguinus leucogenys)
Common Squirrel Monkey (Saimiri sciureus)
Peruvian Night Monkey (Aotus miconax)
Rio Mayo Titi Monkey (Callicebus oenanthe)
Red Howler Monkey (Alouatta seniculus) heard only
Northern Amazon Red Squirrel (Sciurus igniventris)
Additional animals:
Ground Snakes (Genus Atractus)
You can see my complete trip report on eBird at this link: https://ebird.org/tripreport/262920
You can download a combined PDF of this page and the eBird report at this link: https://fieldguides.com/triplists/pms24TRIPLIST.pdf
Good birding to all! Dan (the Barbet)