PERUVIAN RAINFORESTS
Three-site tour to the most species-rich rainforest on Earth. Largest known macaw lick, canopy walkway and towers, oxbow lakes, bamboo specialists, eagles, and monkeys.
|
| 2008 July 14-27 with Rose Ann Rowlett & Dan Lane |
2009 September 27-October 10 with Rose Ann Rowlett & Dan Lane |
$4175 (2008 fee; $200 discount when combined with Mountains of Manu). 14 days
From Lima. Limit: 14
Three good rainforest lodges, two internal flights, and river transport by covered, motorized boats: lots of trails (some possibly muddy) through easy terrain; warm climate with occasional southern cold fronts; may be combined with MOUNTAINS OF MANU.
Southeastern Peru is generally acknowledged as the most species-rich birding region on Earth. This newly redesigned tour combines two classic reserves on the Rio Tambopata—Tambopata Research Center (TRC) and Posada Amazonas—with a visit to the new Reserva Amazonica on the Rio Madre de Dios. These complementary sites include a whole range of lowland rainforest habitats, from meandering rivers and Hoatzin-lined cochas complete with Giant Otters to varzea, transition, and terra firme forest. Together with our experienced guides, they will produce an astonishing variety of lowland Neotropical birds and mammals.
Based at Reserva Amazonica, we’ll sample the avifauna of some young river islands and ply the dark waters of an old oxbow lake rich in cocha specialties, from Sunbittern and Agami Heron to Point-tailed Palmcreeper. A superb canopy walkway among sturdy, 120-foot platforms offers the opportunity for eye-to-eye views of such treetop dwellers as Curl-crested Aracari and the rare Black-faced Cotinga.
Up the Rio Tambopata, about two hours by motorized dugout, is Posada Amazonas, the product of a long relationship between TRC and the native community of Infierno. Here we’ll bird trails where trumpeters tread and climb once again to the canopy, this time atop a tower from which we’ve seen both Crested and Harpy eagles. Experienced Ese’eja Indian guides keep track of the raptors that nest in their reserve and have in the past taken us to active nests without disturbing the birds.
It’s another six hours upriver to TRC, well within the 3.7 million-acre Tambopata National Reserve. The wilderness aspect of this remote place is attested by the relative abundance of big birds and mammals, including Razor-billed Curassow, six species of monkeys, White-lipped Peccary, Short-eared Dog, Tapir, Tayra, and even Jaguar (which we’ve seen on tours here twice). Within the wonderful network of trails we could see virtually all of the giant bamboo specialists, from White-cheeked Tody-Tyrant to Rufous-headed Woodpecker. But it is the Ccollpa de Guacamayos, the world’s largest known clay lick, that has become a marquee draw for birders. Here, almost daily, scores of macaws and hundreds of other colorful parrots gather to a vertical, 130 foot riverbank carved out of the hilly terra firme to ingest a beakful or two of the mineral-rich clay, a vital but mysterious part of their diet. This gathering of brilliant psittacids in the early sunlight, their raucous calls filling the air, is a spectacle to behold.
|
|
|
Contact our office by e-mail in Austin, Texas at fieldguides@fieldguides.com.
- 1+ 800-728-4953
- 1+ 512-263-7295
- 1+ 512-263-0117 (fax)
Field Guides Incorporated, 9433 Bee Cave Road, Building 1, Suite 150, Austin, TX 78733
Copyright © 2007 Field Guides Incorporated
Field Guides is a registered trademark of Field Guides Incorporated.
cat07