Sept 5-25 2001 (Tumbes Sept 1-6) (general tour)

May 15- June 4 2002 (Ornifolks Special)

Includes Tumbes Pre-trip Extension May 10-14

NORTHERN PERU : TUMBESIAN AND MARAÑON ENDEMICS.

DRY DECIDUOUS FOREST, COASTAL DESERT, CLOUD FOREST AND THE MARAÑON

HIGHLIGHTS: This trip is a neotropical birder's dream. The route targets some of the most endangered and localized birds to be found in South America. Although centered around certain special birds, we'll see many more widely distributed species on the way, with tremendous scenery and places little visited by foreigners. Because many areas are isolated and no adequate accommodations are available, we will necessarily have to camp some nights. See note at the end of the day by day description.

TOUR LEADER: Barry Walker, the director of Manu Expeditions, will lead this tour. A native of England, Barry started birding at the age of 13. After birding extensively in Europe, he transferred his attention to the neotropics and acquired extensive experience, having seen 1400 species in Peru alone. He has participated in several ornithological expeditions and contributed to many scientific and general publications about ornithology. He has lived in Cusco, Peru for 14 years, visited every corner of the country, and is writing a major field guide. He has led bird tours for both private groups and well-known tour companies for the last eleven years.

Details & Target Species:

Day 01 : Arrive in Lima and transfer to our hotel in Lima. If time permits an optional excursion to the nearby Villa marshes or agricultural areas south of Lima can be arranged. Night at Hotel in Lima.

Day 02 : Mid-morning flight from Lima to the coastal city of Chiclayo. After checking into our hotel and lunch and with time permitting, we'll head out on the road to Santa Rosa and Pimentel. Here we'll bird the farmlands
and marshes. The marshes should hold a variety of shorebirds and gulls.
Birds we may see include Peruvian Thicknee, Bay-winged Hawk, Rufous-collared Swallow, Saffron Finch, Yellowish Pipit. We may take a look at the sea for Cormorants, Shearwaters and Pelicans. Night Hotel in Chiclayo.

Day 03 : Early start for the desert south of Chiclayo. In an isolated patch of acacia at dawn, the rare and endangered Peruvian Plantcutter (endemic) perches up on the tops of the bushes. We'll hear its strange call on arrival and we'll hope to get scope views of this endemic. We should also see the endemic Rufous Flycatcher here. Other birds include : Superciliated Wren, Necklaced Spinetail, Amazillia Hummingbird, Cinereous Conebill and more. At about 10:00am as the desert sun becomes too hot, we'll head out for the dry deciduous forest north of Naupe, grabbing a leisurely seafood lunch in Chiclayo. We'll bird the scrub and some of the possibilities include : Tumbes Tyrant (endemic), Tumbes Sparrow, Sulphur-throated Finch, Scarlet-backed Woodpecker, Gray-breasted Flycatcher (endemic), Gray and Gold Warbler, Sooty-capped Flycatcher, Gray and White Tyrranulet etc. We'll head to Olmos in the late afternoon and the Hotel Remanso.

Day 04 : Pre-dawn start. We'll drive up pretty rough tracks for an hour or so to our Guan site at the junction of two canyons. Here we will meet our local guides who will have been scouting the side canyons for the last two days, and we should have some pretty precise information on the whereabouts of the bird we have come to see - the recently re-discovered White-Winged Guan. We'll get the up to date information as our cook team prepare coffee and breakfast, then off onto a maze of tracks into the canyons. We hope to see Guans of course and we will give them priority. Other species we are likely to see in the canyons are : White-winged and White-headed Brush-finch, Elegant Crescentchest, Tumbes Hummingbird (endemic) Red-masked Parakeet, Long-billed Starthroat, Golden-olive Woodpecker, Streak-headed Woodcreeper, Tumbes Tyrant (endemic), Baird's Flycatcher, Plumbeous-backed Thrush, Cinereous Finchn b(endemic), Short-tailed Woodstar and Henna-hooded Foliage-gleaner. Returning to the main hi-way in the afternoon we'll head for Olmos. Overnight Hotel Remanso.

Day 05 : Leaving the coastal strip behind we'll set off early heading for one of the lowest passes in the Andes - Abra Porculla. Making selected stops along the way, we will pay particular attention to a side trail where we have seen Piura Chat-tyrant, a very rare and local endemic. Other birds we' may see include : Black-cowled Saltator, Andean Tinamou, Elegant Crescentchest, Three-banded Warbler, Chapman’s Antshrike and Yellow-bellied Seedeater. Dropping over the east side of the pass for lunch, we'll drive straight through to our hotel. Arriving in the bustling town of Jaen on the lip of the Maranon canyon we'll transfer to our hotel. Night Hotel El Bosque in Jaen

Day 06 : Pre-dawn start and breakfast in the field at first light. we'll drive to a side road where we have had spectacular success with the endemic Maranon Crescentchest. Here we will see other Maranon endemics including - Chinchipe Spinetail , Marañon Slaty Antshrike, Marañon Spinetail, Marañon Thrush. The distinct Maranon race of Speckle-breasted wren is here too as well as Tataupa Tinamou. After lunch in the afternoon as it cools down , we'll bird the arid desert north of Jaen. Our target bird here is the Little Inca-finch (endemic), fairly common in the scrub. Here also are :   Crimson Finch , Dull colored Grassquit, Drab Seedeater, Spot-throated Hummingbird(endemic) , Purple-throated Euphonia, Brown-crested Flycatcher. In the evening the sky fills with Lesser Nighthawks. We’ll drive on to Bagua Chica in the late afternoon. Night Hotel Wilson in Bagua.

Day 07 - Pre-dawn start to our camp above Orazucar in the little known upper tropical forest of the lower Marañon. We’ll set up our safari camp on the nighest ridge inn the rolling hills between Orazucar and Bagua. Our target is the little known monotypic Orange-throated Tanager. We’ll stop along the way for general forest birding. Night in Camp

Day 08 – Full day to search for the Tanager. Other birds we have seen here on previous trips include – Vermiculated Screech-Owl, Black Bushbird, Dusky-chested Flycatcher, Golden-winged Manakin, Goilden-headed Manakin, Scarlet-breasted Fruiteater, Many-banded Aracari, Golden-faced Tyrannulet, Short-billed Antwren, Ecuadorian Cacique, Berlepshe’s Parakeet, Fiery-throated Fruiteater, White-bearded Manakin and a host of Flycatchers and other Tanagers. Night in Camp

Day 09 : Full mornings birding to pick up what we may have missed and then on to Bagua Chica and the Hotel Wilson. We’ll make selected stops along the way.

Day 10 : Breakfast in a particularly pretty patch of desert. If we have not seen Little Inca Finch yet we’ll for sure see it here. Then on to an area of rice fields to look for Spotted Rail and Paint-billed Crake. We'll drive during the heat of the day with a brief stop along the Marañon river where we can see some Amazonian species such as Yellow-billed Tern and Pied Lapwing. The riverine scrub should hold White-lined Tanager. We continue up the Utcubamba river, keeping an eye out for Fasciated Tiger-heron and Torrent Duck passing through Pedro Ruiz and onto Florida. Late afternoon birding. Here we will be looking for the rare and spectacular Marvellous Spatuletail, perhaps the classiest of all Hummingbirds - last trip here the first bird we saw on leaving the bus was an incredible male! Night at Hotel Puerto Pumas

Day 11 : All morning at Florida. We'll give priority to Marvelous Spatuletail, but will also explore the San Lorenzo trail. Patches of good cloud forest remain and some of the possibilities here that we have seen in the past include : Torrent Duck, Speckled Hummingbird, Mountain Velvetbreast, Collared Inca, Chestnut-breasted Coronet, Golden-headed Quetzal, Versicolored Barbet, Gray-breasted Mountain-Toucan, Strong-billed Woodcreeper, White-tailed and White-banded Tyranulets, Inca Flycatcher (endemic), Chestnut-crested Cotinga, White-capped Tanager, White-collared Jay, Andean Solitaire, Silver-backed and Straw-backed Tanagers plus lots more. We have seen an undescribed Poecilotriccus Flycatcher, closely related to Rufous-crowned Tody-tyrant here in the chusquea bamboo. In the afternoon we’ll drive to Abra Patricia to our campsite at Oso Perdido at 2000 meters. Night in camp.

Day 12-14 :
Three days at Abra Patricia . This famous collecting site is home of some of the least known Peruvian birds. We'll camp at about 2000 meters at Oso Perdido ( Lost Bear Camp) for 3 more nights and commute to various
elevations from here. We may bump into mixed flocks with Straw-backed, Metallic-green and other Tanagers. Exploring side trails we may see the new Poecilotriccus here, Tyrranine Woodcreeper, Spotted and Rusty-winged Barbtails. During the three full days we have here, we'll bird varous altitudinal zones between 1000 and 2200 meters. Target birds - some very rare -we hope to see include ; Cinnamon-breasted Tody-tyrant, Bar-winged Wood-wren (endemic), Royal Sunangel (endemic) , Equatorial Graytail, White-capped and Scaly-naped Parrots, Straw-backed, Metallic-green and Blue-browed Tanagers, White-capped Tanager, Wedge-billed Hummingbird, Crimson- mantled Woodpecker, Montane Woodcreeper. We may hear or see if we are lucky Ochre-fronted (endemic) or Rusty-tinged Antpittas (endemic).  Long-tailed Antbird, Large-footed Tapaculo, Golden-faced Tyranulet, Sulphur-bellied Tyrannulet, Ecuadorian Tyrannulet, Fiery-throated and Scaled Fruiteaters, Cock of the Rock, Lanceolated Monklet., Fine-barred Piculet (endemic), Barred Becard , Sharpe’s Wren, Black-crested Warbler and more.
Night birding should be good here with Rufous-banded Owl, Lyre-tailed Nightjar, Rufous-bellied Nighthawk to name a few. This is also the type locality for Long-whiskerd Owlet and we will certainly be on the alert for any strange vocalizations at night. All nights in camp.

NOTE : If the thought of camping puts you off –there is the option of commuting to the birding localities from the hotel Puerto Pumas.

Day 15 : Early morning birding at Abra Patricia as our camp crew break camp. We'll then retrace our route to Florida and on to Pedro Ruiz and Leymeybamba for the night. We'll make a couple of planned stops along the way, in especial for the endemic Buff-bellied Tanager. we plan to be in Chachapoyas before dusk. Night at hotel Hospedaje Laguna de Los Condores in Leymeybamba.

Day 16 : Early start for Abra Barro Negro. We'll slowly bird the remnant patches of cloud forest and farmlands here and make some planned stops for certain species, such as Coppery Metaltail (endemic) and Russset- mantled Softail (endemic). Other birds here include White-chinned Thistletail, Gray-breasted Mountain Toucan, Shining Sunbeam, Collared Inca. Around midday we'll drive over Barro Negro Pass and drop into the spectacular Marañon canyon. We should see the pretty Buff-bridled Inca-finch (endemic) in the open Bombax forest and we'll camp near a mango grove that holds a healthy population of Maranon Thrushes (endemic). Other birds to look out for on this day include - Puna Hawk, Andean Lapwing, Andean Flicker, Violet-throated Startfrontlet, Great Sapphirewing and Rufous-capped Antshrike. Peruvian Pigeons (endemic) assemble in large groups in the evening. Night in camp.

Day 17 : We'll spend the whole day birding the west side of the Marañon canyon. Initially birding the riverine and agricultural vegetation, we should see Peruvian Pigeon (endemic). In the Bombax woodland there should be Buff-bridled Inca-finch (endemic) and the endangered Yellow-faced Parrotlet (endemic). We'll slowly bird up the valley side to Limon, where Chestnut-backed Thornbird (endemic)and Gray-winged Inca-finch (endemic) are our targets. Buff-bellied Tanager (endemic) is here too. The afternoon we'll devote to searching for Jelski’s Chat-tyrant (endemic) and commoner Andean species. In the afternoon we’ll continue to Celendin for the night. Night in Hotel at Celendin.

Day 18 : Early morning birding in remnant humid forest and Polylepis scrub. On this road we'll make planned stops for some Andean species we may not have seen - Peruvian Sierra-finch, Shining Sunbeam etc and also stop on the high puna grasslands for Cinclodes, Canasteros, Pipits, Ground-tyrants and Sierra-finches, Rainbow Startfronlet, Black-crested Warbler, Maranon Tit-tyrant, Many-striped Canastero. We,ll make a special efforet for the Cajamarca race of the Rufous Antpitta ( a for sure split) . In the Polylepis we’ll search for Black Metaltail, Jelski's Chat-tyrant, Southern Line-cheeked Spinetail and Rusty-crowned Tit-Spinetail This stretch of road is also one of the best places to see the very rare White-tailed Shrike-tyrant. We plan to be at our very comfortable hotel early to-day in good time for dinner. Night at the Laguna Seca Hotel.

Day 19 : All day excursion out of Cajamarca for the endemic Great Spinetail. We’ll search for Gray-bellied Comet which has eluded us so far and easier to see species such as Buff-bridled Inca-Finch (endemic) and Fasciated Wren. Night at Hotel Laguna Seca in Cajamarca.

Day 20 : Morning flight from Cajamarca to Lima. A spectacular flight thru the Callejon de Huaylas, we fly past magnificent Andean peaks and glaciers including Huascaran - the highest Peruvian peak. Below we see the Polylepis woodlands of the Cordillera Blanca - another trip! On arrival in Lima our bus will be awaiting us, to take us north to the small Lomas de Lachay reserve where our target species are Canyon Canastero (endemic) in an arid canyon and Thick-billed Miner`(endemic). Other possibilities include:  Grayish Miner (endemic), Collared Warbling-finch (endemic), Least Seedsnipe, Raimondi's Yellow-finch (endemic), Mourning Sierra-finch, Black-chested Buzzard-eagle, Red-backed Hawk, Coastal Miner (endemic). We'll return to Lima for the night and celebrations! Night at our hotel in Lima.

Day 21 : Transfer to the airport for international flights.

IMPORANT NOTES ;
This trip , by it's very nature and the remoteness of some birding localities visited, necessitates some camping along the way. Hotels in Lima, Tumbes, and Cajamarca are very comfortable. In Jaen, Celendin Leymeybamba and Olmos they are the best available and adequate. For those who may be put off by camping, please note we go to great lengths to make it as comfortable as possible. Personal tents on a double basis are top of the line Eureka Timberline Outfitters made in the U.S.A ( singles by request).
We bring along a screened dining tent with folding tables and stools where we eat and do the nightly bird list. We also take a cook tent where our team of cooks prepare all our food in camp and take care of pitching and striking camp. There is a latrine tent set up at all camps and hot water in bowls and lukewarm portable showers are available every day.

THE TUMBES NATIONAL FOREST EXTENSION

5 Days

This trip can be conveniently added to any other trip starting or finishing in Lima but is particularly suited as an extention to the above Marañon endemics tour. The Tumbes National Forest is the only protected forest in
the area that hosts all the threatened Tumbesian endemics. Most of this habitat has been cleared and destroyed in Ecuador but here the forest stretches for miles and Jaguars, Ocelots, and Mantled Howler Monkeys live
unmolested as do the threatened bird species

Day 01 : Arrive in Lima and transfer to our hotel in Lima. If time permits an optional excursion to the nearby Villa marshes or agricultural areas south of Lima can be arranged. Night at Hotel in Lima.

Day 02 : Morning flight to Tumbes. On arrival in Tumbes ( just south of the Ecuadorian border) we'll transfer to our hotel and after an early lunch head out into the mangrove thickets near Puerto Pizarro. From a local fishing boat we'll enter narrow channels in search of Masked Water Tyrant, Rufous-necked Wood-rail, Clapper Rail, White Ibis and Mangrove Warbler. We'll see many shorebirds and inshore seabirds here as well. In the late afternoon we'll bird in the desert scrub along the road. Species we expect here include : Pacific Parrotlet, Scarlet-backed Woodpecker, Necklaced Spinetail, Supercilliaried Wren, Collared Antshrike, Baird's Flycatcher, Tumbes Sparrow and Cinereous Finch. We can also do a litle nightbirding at dusk for Scrub Nightjar and Peruvian Pygmy-owl. Night at Hotel Costa del Sol.

Day 03 & 04 : We'll get a very early start to-day so as to be in prime habitat at dawn. We drive east down rutted, dusty roads in four wheel drive army trucks to Quebrada El Faical. Over the next two days we'll bird the
Faical area, but also the slopes of Cerro San Miguel at Los Naranjos - the highest, wettest and greenest part of Tumbes. Here in the Tumbes National Forest, mile upon mile of prime dry deciduous forest stretches as far as the eye can see. The Ecuadorian border is a stones throw away, but unfortunately on that side of the border there is little or no forest left. Here on the Peruvian side, Jaguars, Ocellots and Mantled Howler Monkeys survive unmolested, as does the very interesting Tumbesian avifauna.
Birds we hope to see over the next two days, and that we have seen here in the past include : Pale-browed Tinamou, Gray-backed Hawk, Black-hawk Eagle, Rufous-headed Chachalaca. Ecuadorian Ground-Dove, Ochre-bellied Dove, Gray-cheeked Parakeet, Bronze-winged Parrot, West Peruvian Screech-owl, Green-breasted Mango, Ecuadorian Piculet, Red-rumped Woodpecker, Guayaquil Woodpecker, Blackish-headed Spinetail, Slaty Spinetail, Henna-hooded and Rufous-necked Foliage-gleaner, Chapman's Antshrike, Gray-headed Antbird,
Scrub Antpitta, Peruvian Elaenia, Rufous-winged Tyrranulet, Ochraceous Attila, Pacific Royal Flycatcher, Black-tailed Fycatcher, One-colored Becard, Ecuadorian Thrush, Lesser Greenlet, Yellow-tailed and White-edged Orioles and Saffron Siskin. Nights in camp.

Day 05 : We'll bird the morning hours at Los Naranjos and after lunch bird our way back to Tumbes thru drier deciduous forest , looking especially for Saffron Siskin, planning to arrive in Tumbes at dusk. Night at Hotel Costa
del Sol.

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