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Peru is a country of extreme contrasts: it includes tropical rainforests, dry deserts, high mountains, and rich ocean. These, of course, have also allowed it to be a country with a unique avifauna, including a very high rate of endemism. Nowhere is that endemism more apparent than in the north of the country, a region that has been a magnet for world birders for many decades! Here, one can encounter some of the Tumbesian endemics of the deciduous forests of the northern coast, the Mara˜on endemics of the extensive dry valleys within the Andes, and also some of the humid forest Andean endemics of the north of the country. Some of these are political endemics of the country of Peru, and others spill across the border into Ecuador (birds do not obey human politics, and borders and biogeographic barriers are rarely concordant, you see), but many are birds that get the juices flowing for many who pore over the field guide eyeing the exotic therein.
Northern Peru is a region that has proven itself bountiful to those who wish to explore it, for even though avian exploration there began as long ago as the late 1600s, new species are still being described as recently as in the past several years! And there are yet more to come! This tour is sandwiched, geographically speaking, in between other tour routes that Field Guides offers: to the north is the Southwest Ecuador Specialties tour (among others), which gets within spitting distance of the Peruvian border; to the south is the Central Peruvian Endemics tour, which explores the great Cordillera Blanca and Carpish ranges on either side of the upstream end of the Mara˜on River; and to the east, we offer the Peru's Magnetic North (Marvelous Spatuletail) tour which explores the rich humid forests of the Alto Nieva and Mayo river valleys. Yet we still have much to see in northern Peru that these tours simply don't encounter! The arid coast has a host of endemics that don't reach Ecuador, not to mention the northern end of the rich, but frigid, Humboldt Current, which itself is home to huge numbers of seabirds! The western portion of northern Peru's Andes is a complicated series of dry montane woodlands, humid cloudforests, and dry intermontane valleys, the most biogeographically important of which is the great Mara˜on valley, which not only prevents cloudforest birds from crossing its uninhabitable expanse, but also has its own array of endemics that are rather local. The "North Peruvian Low" is another feature important to the landscape here: it is the lowest pass in the Andes between the Pacific and Atlantic (Amazonian here) lowlands between Colombia and southern Patagonia! As such, it too is an important barrier to Andean humid forest and treeline species. We will have a chance to visit both sides of these important biogeographical barriers, and to see how the avifauna changes across them, as well as to visit the dry forests separated by the Andes themselves. To say we will have an opportunity to see a lot of birds is an understatement!
The north of Peru is also culturally rich: it is the home of Cajamarca, the northern capital city of the Incan Empire (and the site where one of the most important Spanish victories in the conquest of the Americas took place), as well as the preIncan Moche and Chavin civilizations of the Pacific coast, and the Chachapoyan culture of the mountains around the Utcubamba valley, and modern-day culture, which boasts some of Peru's most cherished cuisine. The tour will require some long drives and changing our hotels on many nights, and many picnic meals, but we have eliminated camping from the itinerary. Starting in 2022, we also changed the tour route to limit overlap with other tours, and we concentrate on the avifauna that sets this region apart.
The purpose of this tour is in fair part announced by the title: endemics galore. We will put substantial effort into seeing the birds that are special to this region. We will, of course, look at anything that presents itself to us, but there are several sites where we have limited time and a large potential list of species, so we will have to use "triage" to target the most important species and let the other chips (and chirps) fall where they may. Be prepared not to see a higher-than-usual percentage of the 650-plus species that are included on the checklist. The checklist reflects the collection of reasonable possibilities that have been heard or seen on our route over the years, some of them regularly, others just a few times. This trip does not require birding expertise, and some people see over 250 life birds while others see a fifth as many. Part of the purpose is simply to see wondrous Northern Peru in an enjoyable birding format. Finally, another purpose of this tour is to demonstrate the effect of the biogeographic barrier presented by the North Peruvian Low (largely comprised of the Mara˜on/Huancabamba river valleys) and the change of species in the humid forests on either side.
The rewards are substantial, but this is a harder-than-average tour. What is required to enjoy the trip is the combination of fairly good physical condition and a good measure of flexibility and patience: Everything will not go as planned, and we don’t even try to plan the weather (apart from avoiding the wet season). Meals in the field take some time (though staff does most of the work), and there may be some travel on bumpy roads in remote areas and long days on the road. Still, by spending so much time in the out-of doors, we get to do much birding!
Client comment
"An excellent experience! The tour was a bit intense (especially at the beginning) because of frequent hotel changes but made up for that with some great birds. The ground crew also did an excellent job providing field meals, snacks etc. I would absolutely travel with guide Dan Lane again. I had traveled with Dan in the past and have always found him reasonable, reliable, and awesome at finding and spotting birds! Your office service was outstanding, too." P.K., NORTHERN PERU: ENDEMICS GALORE tour participant
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