NORTHERN PERU
Endemics Galore

Dry-season tour to one of the least-known and most endemic-rich areas of South America, with many recently described species from the Andes and the Marañon basin. Targets geographic specialties as it surveys the rich and diverse habitats of northern Peru, including some remote and beautiful wild areas.

2008
November 1-21
Russet-bellied Spinetail Extension to Nov 22
with Rose Ann Rowlett & Richard Webster

2009
October 31-November 20
with Rose Ann Rowlett & Richard Webster

$5475 (Extension $350; 2008 fees). 21 days
From Lima. Limit: 14
Includes 2 nights of provisioned camping; some long drives, easy to moderate terrain, cool to warm climate, moderate elevation (with 2 passes at over 11,000 feet). Our staff travel agents can book your air travel for this tour. Contact us at (800) 728-4953 for more information.

See our triplist for 2007or 2007 extension or 2006 or 2005

Little Inca-Finch
by guide John Rowlett

If you’ve been hankering to see the Marvelous Spatuletail—an undeniable candidate for the fanciest of all hummers—ever since you read Ted Parker’s insert in Birding in May 1976; if you’ve been wanting to search for the rare White-winged Guan ever since its rediscovery (after 100 years) was reported by John O’Neill in the June 1979 issue; if you’ve watched with awe over the years as one new species after another has been described from northern Peru (from Royal Sunangel and Bar-winged Wood-Wren to the mysterious Long-whiskered Owlet—trapped in a mistnet in stunted ridgetop forest—and a whole series of elusive antpittas); or if you’ve simply pored over the plates in South American field guides, honing in on those intriguing inca-finches (three of which are endemic to northern Peru), or maybe the rare Great Spinetail, the pretty Tumbes Tyrant, the critically endangered Peruvian Plantcutter, or all those Marañon specialties—the thrush, the crescent-chest, the pigeon—now is the time to mark your calendar.

We have operated six Northern Peru tours, starting in 1997, and recorded more than two dozen endemics during each tour, and each year we see more. Recent discoveries of new sites for Yellow-faced Parrotlet, Gray-bellied Comet, Marañon and Great spinetails, Russet-mantled Softtail, Ash-throated Antwren, and Ochre-fronted Antpitta, as well as a scientist’s tape (the first) of Long-whiskered Owlet, continue to enrich the long list of possible endemics. We also see a considerable list of Tumbesian specialties (from Ecuadorian Piculet to West-Peruvian Screech-Owl) and many Andean rarities of a broader east-slope distribution (e.g., Yellow-scarfed and White-capped tanagers, Chestnut-crested Cotinga).

To our delight, there is still considerable wilderness accessible from roads, including some vast stretches of uncut subtropical and foothill forest. Unfortunately, most of it is not protected and continues to give way to ax and plow, the pace only accelerating with each new paved road. And, of course, the greater the quality of the habitat, the less likely it is to be served by a decent hotel. There are fine hotels at three stops and simple but acceptable accommodations in some smaller towns, but to bird the more remote areas requires some camping. Camping is necessary for one night near Balsas on the Marañon, and we have opted to camp for a night in the White-winged Guan area rather than depart at 2:30 or 3:00 a.m. from a mediocre hotel in distant Olmos. But we have reduced camping to two nights of the tour. The birding rewards are terrific.

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Field Guides Incorporated, 9433 Bee Cave Road, Building 1, Suite 150, Austin, TX 78733

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NORTHERN PERU Endemics Galore

NORTHERN PERU
Endemics Galore