From its headwaters on the slopes of the towering Andes, the mighty Amazon River courses nearly 4000 miles through equatorial South America. At any one time, the Amazon--with its 1100 tributaries--contains two-thirds of Earth's fresh water. Its vast basin covers two-and-a-half million square miles and contains nearly 5 percent of the world's remaining rainforest. Among the countless riches of Amazonia is a bird life without equal, both in overall number of species and in number of species coexisting at any particular site. But even more impressive than sheer numbers is the fantastic diversity of form and function--from screamers and guans, toucans, trogons, and barbets to hummingbirds, woodcreepers, antbirds, manakins, and seed-finches, each species is a part of the complex web of organisms and habitats that constitutes Amazonia.
The Peruvian Amazon is one of the richest regions in Amazonia. More than 600 species of birds have been recorded between the city of Iquitos and our lodges downstream on the Amazon and Napo. Many are of rare or local occurrence; some are only recently (or have yet to be) described to science. At the white-sand forests of the Allpahuayo-Mishana Reserve, a short drive from our comfortable hotel in Iquitos, we'll search for several species of birds unknown to science as recently as 1998 (Ancient Antwren, Allpahuayo Antbird, Iquitos Gnatcatcher and Mishana Tyrannulet), That's going to provide plenty of excitement, but we'll seek other white-sand rarities lurking out there as well, everything from Rufous Potoo to Pompadour Cotinga and Zimmer's Tody-Tyrant. Then it's down the incredible Amazon and up the Rio Napo to the forest lodges at Explorama, ExplorNapo, and ACTS. We'll spend a week here in pursuit of raiding army ant swarms, a host of river-island endemics, secretive understory birds on forest trails, and sorting through mixed-species canopy flocks from the amazing ACTS canopy walkway.
Select the KEY INFO tab or click here for our itinerary plus space requests, status, fees, limits, and guides for any departure.