Our tour is designed to seek the many upper-elevation endemics and specialties of the central Peruvian Andes amid some of the finest montane scenery in the world. We'll begin on the arid slopes above Lima—with Great Inca-Finch, Bronze-tailed Comet, and Rufous-breasted Warbling-Finch as possibilities—as we work our way up altitudinally. In the Cordillera Blanca to the north, we'll bird Huascaran National Park, home to the highest peak in the country (Huascaran, at 22,200 feet), which preserves almost a million acres of high-Andean wilderness and supports perhaps the largest Polylepis woodland in South America, complete with Giant Conebill and Tit-like Dacnis and a host of endemics, from White-cheeked Cotinga and Rufous-eared Brush-Finch to the very local Plain-tailed Warbling-Finch.
Based in Huanuco, we'll explore the Carpish Mountains and Bosque Unchog. Here deep canyons and rainshadows isolate portions of the eastern cordillera from other such blocks, and in this isolation some of the most distinctive birds in Peru have evolved. Along the famous Paty Trail, we'll seek east-Andean forest specialties, including three fabulous antpittas, before heading for Bosque Unchog, where we camp for two nights at the edge of elfin forest, a necessary evil allowing us opportunities to see such local endemics as the monotypic Pardusco, the local Bay-vented Cotinga, and the enamel-plated Golden-backed Mountain-Tanager, among others. After a search for the flightless Junin Grebe on the lake of the same name, we'll ascend to Ticlio, the highest point on any major highway system in the world (at 15,800 feet), in the arid puna of the western cordillera, home to the rare and local White-bellied Cinclodes, the curious Olivaceous Thornbill, and the exquisite Diademed Sandpiper-Plover.
The scenery in this region is unparalleled, but this tour spends a large amount of time above 10,000 feet (reaching nearly 16,000 feet on a couple of days), so please be sure to take this into consideration if you have interest!
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