June 13-25, 2026 with Dan Lane
This is a tour route I have guided on over twenty times, and I still feel excitement before every departure! In two weeks this year, we managed over 450 species, and every year there are surprises waiting. Our tour route provides a transect from the lower foothills near the western edge of the Amazon basin up into the subtropical cloudforests of the northern Andes of Peru. This is one of the world’s most biodiverse regions, particularly in the realm of birds. So, as a result, we have an extensive list of potential species we might encounter (our base checklist for the tour is over 700 species!). The presence of several sites where we have access to hummingbird feeders and also feeders for skulky understory species such as tinamous, doves, antpittas, and crakes really increases our chances of seeing a few previously-difficult species! And of course, the region is also known for the concentration of Peruvian endemic and recently-described birds, adding to the mystique of the area.
We started the tour in Lima, catching a flight to the busy city of Tarapoto, in San Martin department, and from there drove up into the Alto Mayo valley, stopping for Oilbirds along the way. We spent the next two days birding near Waqanki, a birding lodge that sits on the edge of the town of Moyobamba, visiting feeders, the forested trails of the lodge, and the nearby reserve of Morro de Calzada. The area is very birdy, and we were nearly overwhelmed by the numbers of birds we were clocking! We spent a pre-dawn and an evening searching for nightbirds in addition to the outings for diurnal birds here. Finally, though, we pulled up stakes and headed up into the highlands, to our main lodge—the Owlet Lodge at the pass (usually called Abra Patricia by birders)—which was our base for most of the next week. From here, we explored the trail system and hummingbird feeders on the grounds, as well as stretches of road nearby. We also rode our bus back downslope to see what other elevations had to offer, some stops at other feeding stations and trails, and visited the area around Lake Pomacochas, where a reserve called Huembo has been established for our banner bird: Marvellous Spatuletail. Once the time to depart arrived, we headed back downslope towards Tarapoto, staying at Pumarinri Lodge on the banks of the Huallaga River. From here, we explored the forest of the Escalera mountains, separating us from the Amazonian lowlands, and the curious semi-deciduous forest at Quebrada Upaquihua. Finally we caught our flight back to Lima.
Our tour provided many memorable moments. Of course, some of those that stuck with us were the company with which we shared the tour, our crew that kept us fed and attended to our every need, and the staff of the lodges we visited—we owe them all a big thank you! We also enjoyed meeting the folks who have taken it upon themselves to create and manage some of the reserves we visited. Norbil of Arena Blanca has been particularly impressive with his drive and ingenuity in creating the feeders and gardens we spent an entire morning enjoying! There we had amazing views of Uniform Crake, a species that was unimaginably difficult previously to see at all. Hummingbirds that really amazed us included the Marvellous Spatuletail (obviously!), Wire-crested Thorntail, Koepcke’s Hermit, Royal Sunangel, and even the “common” Golden-tailed Sapphire was a sight to behold. Our views of the legendary Long-whiskered Owlet were fantastic, as were our views of Band-bellied Owl and Common Potoo. More colorful species were also on our list, particularly the tanagers, where the small Tangaras in their mixed flocks were crowd pleasers, but the loud White-capped Tanagers (or are they jays?) showed off to us on several occasions! Cotingas provided us a few good shows, particularly the rare Red-ruffed Fruitcrow and a showy male Andean Cock-of-the-Rock. Finally, we had some great luck with skulky understory species such as the difficult Chestnut-crowned Gnateater, Rusty-tinged, Chestnut, and unexpected Scaled antpittas! These and many more species all made our tour pretty magical.
Mammals observed:
Spix's Saddle-back Tamarin (Saguinus fuscicollis)
San Martin Titi (Plecturocebus oenanthe): heard only
Colombian Red Howler (Alouatta seniculus): heard only
Brown Capuchin (Sapajus apella)
Bolivian Squirrel (Sciurus ignitus)
Black Agouti (Dasyprocta fuliginosa)
Herps observed:
Ameerega trivittata: the green and black poison dart frog in the Escalera.
It was great to bird with you all at this special place! Hopefully we can do it again soon!
You can see my complete trip report on eBird at this link: https://ebird.org/tripreport/547017
You can download a combined PDF of this page and the eBird report at this link: https://fieldguides.com/triplists/pms26TRIPLIST.pdf
-- Dan (the Barbet)