Northern Peru : An Endemics paradise

Arrive in Lima and transfer to our hotel in Lima.

Overnight at selected Lima Hotel 

Transfer to the airport to take the domestic flight to Jaen.

Meet upon arrival and transfer to your hotel.  

Dinner at hotel

Pre-dawn start and breakfast in the field at first light. We'll take a 30 minute drive to the Yanahuanca Forest  following the asphalt road Jaen - San Ignacio , heading north, until it reaches the Huancas Cabrera Family house, where the vehicle is left and a pedestrian path begins.

The Yanahuanca Forest is a Private Reserve, which preserves the endemic species of flora and fauna of the seasonally dry tropical forests of the Marañón-Chinchipe.  The land is owned by the Huancas Cabrera family.

The observation of nature and birds includes walking a very easy main trail and checking the bushy areas and trees that surround the roads.

Among the most important species you can find: Marañon Crescentchest, Ecuadorian Ground-Dove, Marañon Thrush, Red-crested Finch, Rufous-fronted Thornbird, Peruvian Pigeon, Blue-naped Chlorophonia, Northern Slaty-Antshrike, Pearl Kite, Spot-throated Hummingbird , Green Jay, among others.

In the highest and driest areas, around the antenna, you can find the Little Inca-finch.

Then continue your trip to the cloud forest of  Gocta.

After breakfast we begin our lovely walk through forest and farmland to the foot of the world’s third highest waterfall. The existence of these falls was not known to the world until they were spotted by a German explorer in 2006. Our walk takes approximately three hours each way, and along the route we have a good chance of spotting the Andean Cock-of-the Rock, Peru’s national bird. We arrive to the falls, 771m/2,528ft above us. We can spend some time here enjoying the refreshing mist of the falls and enjoying the surrounding forest, viewing hummingbirds.
We hike back to Cocachimba to continue our trip to the Utcubamba valley in time for dinner in the Gocta Lodge hotel.

Today we will visit the amazing and mysterious site of Kuelap. This ancient site was an important political, religious, administrative, and military center for the pre-Incan Chachapoya culture. The fortress is surrounded by an immense and impressive wall almost 2000 feet in length. The gates, or main entrances, are uniquely constructed resembling narrow walled passageways that continue to narrow as they reach upwards and into the fortress. This brilliant design served to funnel and narrow any column of attackers down to just 2 men wide, so they could easily be killed as they tried to enter, effectively making Kuelap insurmountable to its enemies.

Early morning depart to Florida. We'll give priority to Marvelous Spatulatail, 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, Colared 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. 

Full Day at Abra Patricia. This famous collecting site is home of some of the least known Peruvian birds. We may bump into mixed flocks with Blue-browed, Metallic-green and other Tanagers. Exploring side trails we may see the new Lulu’s Tody-tyrant, Tyrranine Woodcreeper, Spotted and Rusty-winged Barbtails. 

On this Day we will repeat the itinerary from yesterday with the difference that we will on the afternoon we will keep descending to around 1000 m. In the afternoon we will visit the Aguas Verdes bridge. One of our targets will be the endemic Black-bellied Tanager (also known as Huallaga Tanager). On some trails we will enter shortly we might see Zimmer’s Antbird, Equatorial Gaytail, Plain-backed Antpitta, Burnich-buff Tanager, Dusky Spinetail and many others. At dusk we will go to Moyobamba

Early in the morning we will visit Morro de Calzada, this isolated peak easily visible to the west of Moyobamba. A locally managed reserve here contains an interesting set of birds. At dusk and predawn, Spot-tailed, Blackish, and Rufous nightjars are common here. In the daytime it can be very quiet, but dawn chorus will provide Lesses Elaenia, Mishana Tyrannulet, The Amazonian form (olivaceum) of Southern Beardless – Tyrannulet, Pearly-vented Tody-Tyrant, Stripe-necked Tody-Tyrant, White-browned Purpletuff, and Pale-breasted Thrush.

Dry forests south of Tarapoto. Here we can look for Northern Slaty-Antshrike and do some general birding, looking for Mishana Tyrannulet, and Chesnut-throated Spinetail. Back on the main road, we keep going for about 3 km. The habitat here is deciduous forest with plenty of open areas and more humid forest. 

After an early breakfast transfer to the airport for flight back to Lima.