At the Reserve’s entrance, in the transition zone between the desert and the oasis, one of the first birds to appear is the endemic Coastal Miner that runs very fast over the sand, digging small holes underground. Further along the road, where low vegetation starts to flourish is the best area to look out for the handsome Least Seedsnipe that often hangs around the road in small flocks. Also, keep an eye open for the Burrowing Owl that is extremely common here, but blends in very well with the landscape. If you come during the austral winter you have good chance of seeing the display flights of Yellowish Pipit one kilometer before the reserve control post. But be prepared for a brief sighting, this small bird is very hard to spot when it lands in the vegetation.

Coastal Miner | © Jean Paul Perret

Least Seedsnipe (male) | © Jean Paul Perret

Burrowing Owl | © Jean Paul Perret

Yellowish Pipit | © Jean Paul Perret

Vegetation begins to become more dense at the control post, with thick bushes and even some introduced Eucaliptus trees that are the favorite spot for the Black-chested Buzzard-Eagles and Variable Hawks. Be sure to pay attention to the differences in juvenile plumages in these raptors. From here the car road descends into a valley, ending in a parking area next to a cafeteria.

Black-chested Buzzard-Eagle | © Jean Paul Perret

There is a well maintained trail system that traverses most of the reserve, but many of the target birds can be seen in a small loop trail that takes just a couple of hours to follow. Starting at the cafeteria take the trail that goes to the right through a gentle slope. In this area Cinereous Conebill, Band-tailed Seedeater and Collared Warbling-Finch are very common. Before reaching the higher part of this small hill closely examine the trees at the bend of the trail, they are usually full of Mountain Parakeets. This area is also the best place to see hummingbirds. The Peruvian Sheartail, Purple-collared Woodstar and Oasis Hummingbird love the Nicotiana flowers that grow here.

Collared Warbling-Finch (male) | © Jean Paul Perret

The trail now splits in two. The path that goes to the right descends into a small valley with a water hole that is the only water source throughout the reserve. It is a nice respite to sit a few meters from the water hole. Just wait a few minutes, and then the action begins. Band-tailed Sierra-Finch, Bare-faced Ground-Dove, Hooded Siskin and many other bird species came here to drink. This is especially true during the dry season from December to May. The austral summer is also the best time to see the nomadic endemic Raimondi’s Yellowfinch who visits this water hole in flocks that can reach more than one hundred birds.

Raimondi’s Yellowfinch | © Jean Paul Perret

Continuing along the trail, I usually take the first detour to the left that goes back to the parking area. Along this stretch of the trail, among the big rock boulders is the territory of the endemic Thick-billed Miner.

Thick-billed Miner | © Jean Paul Perret

Perhaps one of the best birds in Lachay is the Cactus Canastero, here the lachayensis race lives in a small drier valley behind the reserve. However, getting there is another story since this area is closed to tourists and can only be accessed if you ask for a permit.

Cactus Canastero | © Jean Paul Perret

If you want to visit Lomas de Lachay on your next trip to Peru send us an email, we are happy to provide you with directions, birding guides, transportation or whatever you need!

Striated Earthcreeper

Rufous-breasted Chat-Tyrant

Plain-colored Seedeater

The Llanganuco lakes are part of the Huascaran National Park and are located at the foot of some of the highest mountains of Peru – Nevados Huascaran, Huandoy and Chopicalqui. This site is also known to have one of the most accessible Polylepis forests throughout the Andes.

Nevado Huascaran

Llanganuco lake

After a two hour drive from the town of Yungay we reach the lakes. The thin air reminds us that we are at 3800 meters above sea level, but we soon forget the altitude when we spot our first Rusty-crowned Tit-Spinetail exploring the branches of a Queñual tree. A few meters ahead a Rufous-eared Brush-finch watches us as a pair of Plain-tailed Warbling-finches passes over us. We see our first three endemics in less than 15 minutes.

Rusty-crowned Tit-spinetail

We decided to explore part of the María Josefa trail that goes into the Polylepis forest. A male Tit-like Dacnis let us see his beautiful blue plumage very close to a Black-throated Flowerpiercer that feeds stealing nectar from a flower.

Black-throated Flowerpiercer

Join us this Friday for the third and final part of our tour.

Peruvian Sierra-Finch | © Jean Paul Perret

Welcome back! I have been traveling in Peru during the past several months and have been unable to update the blog recently. Now that the rainy season makes it more difficult to travel around the country I will take some time to share with you more information about Neotropical Birding’s latest tours.

I decided to give this blog a new format. Instead of writing long articles I will have a weekly theme that will be developed with very short posts. The theme this week is "Birding in the Cordillera Blanca."

I was fortunate to travel to the Cordillera Blanca a couple of months ago with a client. This range is part of the Huascaran National Park located 400 km north of Lima. The altitudinal range within the park allows for a varied mosaic of vegetation types, from humid Polylepis forests to arid lands covered with cactus.

Glaciers cover most of the 180 Km mountain range | © Jean Paul Perret

The first day of our tour we visited a low area near the town of Pueblo Libre where an isolated un-described population of Creamy-breasted Canastero lives around columnar cacti.

Pueblo Libre | © Jean Paul Perret

Undescribed ssp. Creamy-breasted (Pale-tailed) Canastero | © Jean Paul Perret

Creamy-breasted (Pale-tailed) Canastero nest | © Jean Paul Perret

In this same area there are also other endemic species such as Spot-throated Hummingbird, Plain-tailed Warbling-finch and Raimondi’s Yellow-finch.

Spot-throated Hummingbird | © Jean Paul Perret

Check back later this week to learn more about our tour to the Cordillera Blanca.

To read the full story of click here.

– We have never sought the “lechusita” in this forest, but maybe it is here – said Noga Shanee, director of the NGO Neotropical Primate Conservation.

Although I know that the odds of finding it in this forest are low (we are only 15 minutes from one town), my senses are alert to any sound or movement around me. We sit in the woods, amid the darkness and Noga plays the recording of Long-whiskered Owlet … silence.

The Workshop

We got up very early and the house is full of movement. Noga and her husband Sam, are responsible for setting up everything for the workshop.

– It’s a mystery how many people will come to the workshop, we put a notice on local radio and we got answers from people coming from very remote communities.

Pepe and I look at the final details of the PowerPoint presentation in my laptop. We are in La Esperanza, a small community at 6500 feet above sea level and a few miles from the Abra Patricia reserve created by the American Birding Conservation to protect one of the rarest birds in the world, the Long-whiskered Owlet. In Abra Patricia ECOAN and ABC built the Owlet Lodge where hundreds of bird watchers travel every year in search of this mythical bird. While birding at Abra Patricia is absolutely incredible (one of the best places in Peru), the fact is that less than 5 people may have seen Long-whiskered Owlet in that area. Then a year ago it was discovered that this owl is a “common” species in the forests of La Esperanza. The community decided to protect their forests to conserve not only the owl, but also the endemic Yellow-tailed Woolly-Monkey.

Pepe Orihuela, Neotropical Birding Tours guide, during the recent birding workshop in La Esperanza

Gradually the participants began to arrive. We have 16 people and we think it is time to start the workshop. Pepe welcomed all participants to the first training workshop for bird guides. One by one the participants present themselves and we realize that we have a very diverse audience – community leaders, university students, scholars, all united by an interest in birding. Time flies between slides about the shapes of beaks, flight patterns, songs, bird families, birding ethics and more.

All the attendees participate and enrich the workshop experience. We note that we came not to teach anything, they know their forest and their birds much better than us. I explained a little about the importance of mnemonics to remember the songs of birds and the leader of the Rondas Noe Rojas tells us about the Quien quien, a local name for the Green Jay that describes his song in Spanish very well.

Future birding guides testing their binoculars

In the afternoon we descend once again into the woods along the river… it is to put into practice all we learned in the workshop. All participants have binoculars we’ve managed to gather and some copies of the guide to Birds of Peru donated by the NGO CORBIDI. Some birds quickly began to appear.  A pair of the endemic Speckle-chested Piculet explores the branches of an old cedar at close range while another endemic, the Peruvian Tyrannulet, announces his presence singing from a close tree. Below, a mixed flock consisting of Montane Woodcreper, Silvery Tanager, Streaked Xenops, Gray-mantled Wren, Rufous-crested Tanager and Barred Becard surround our group. We closed the day with a beautiful pair of Metallic-green Tanagers.

The next day we went again to the forest, this time Ronald Mego joined us.  He is a young teenage guide who can claim to be the person in the world who has seen the Long-whiskered Owlet the most times in the world. Also with us is Deyner Fernandez from the community of Primavera, who had traveled seven hours to attend the workshop.  He is one of the best birders here.  This young teen has a unique ability to find the more secretive birds in the forest.

Searching birds inside the forest

Again we find a mixed species flock at a short distance from the community. The Tanagers as Flame-faced, Metallic-green, Blue-and-black, Beryl-spangled, Saffron-crowned and Silvery are the favorites of everyone for their rich colors. A few yards down by the river, an elusive Bar-winged Wood-wren allows us to hear his song as he explores the dense river vegetation.

Metallic-green Tanager | © Jean Paul Perret

Soon after arriving Ronald has to leave us; there is a group of bird watchers and he has to lead them on a 3 hour hike into the forest where the owlet lives. Later we learned that he managed to find an owlet in addition to four groups of Yellow-tailed Wooly-Monkeys, a group of the endemic Andean Night-Monkey and even an Ocellot.

We left La Esperanza (“The Hope” in English) very excited about what we have seen in recent days with the promise to return soon.

Cactus Canastero | © Jean Paul Perret

Cactus Canastero nest | © Jean Paul Perret

Cactus Canastero habitat | © Jean Paul Perret

Landscape at La Esperanza | © Noga Shanee/NPC

Our company has begun offering tours to the forests of La Esperanza (visit our website for details). Part of the proceeds of these tours will be donated to the Neotropical Primate Conservation NGO to support a range of programs including the formation of a conservation area in the community forests, an environmental education program, reforestation, etc.

The endemic and endangered Andean Night-monkey is also present at La Esperanza | © Noga Shanee/NPC

Despite being in the middle of one of the most interesting routes for the observation of birds of Peru, the current conditions for visitors of the forests of La Esperanza are fairly basic. There is still no accommodation for the birders who visit the area, although there is a hut where you can camp. The trail to reach the area where you can see owls is long and hard. And local community members do not yet have the skills to guide foreign tourists through its forests. But the prospect for the future of this community is quite promising and we believe that conditions to visit and stay at the forest will change soon.

We are excited to support this community as they conserve their forests and dedicate them to ecotourism. The first step of this project will be training a group of community residents as birding guides. The workshop will be held from August 23^rd to the 25^th and José (Pepe) Orhiuela, Neotropical Birding Tours’ guide, will be a keynote speaker. Pepe is an expert on birds of northern Peru and has taught similar workshops in the neighboring communities of San Martin Region. The first part of a day’s workshop will include lectures and the second part will involve a two-day visit to the forests of the community to implement the knowledge acquired. We are very excited about this project and we are putting our best effort and experience to train the future birding guides of La Esperanza.

Jose (Pepe) Orihuela

Do you want to be involved?

• Do you have an old pair of binoculars? Local birding guides will need binoculars and bird books. After your visit to Peru, please consider donating your old binoculars and bird guides to this project, the people of La Esperanza will be very grateful.

• If you are an adventurous birder, consider a visit to La Esperanza. The community needs the international support and practice to continue to fund the conservation of its forests. Check our program to visit this area.

• If you want to make a donation to the project please contact directly to our friends in Neotropical Primate Conservation.