Birdwatching Tour

Arrival & Reception by Birding Guide: Although all of our guides have basic bird identification skills, only a handful truly qualify as birding guides – able to identify hundreds of species by sound and sight. Our birdwatching expeditions not only have an especially designed program but also a trained birding guide.

Transfer Airport to Puerto Maldonado Headquarters: Upon arrival from Lima or Cusco, we will welcome you at the airport and drive you ten minutes to our Puerto Maldonado headquarters. While enjoying your first taste of the forest in our gardens we will ask you to pack only the necessary gear for your next few days, and leave the rest at our safe deposit. This helps us keep the boats and cargo light.

Puerto Maldonado to Tambopata River Port Upon arrival to Puerto Maldonado we will drive to the Tambopata River Port. This forty five minute drive will take twice as long as we stop along the road’s secondary forest to scan for Purus Jacamar, White browed Blackbird, Pearl Kite, and Scaled Pigeon.

Transfer Private Boat – Tambopata River Port to Posada Amazo A private boat with individual seats and a roof will drive us upriver to Posada Amazonas. As we eat lunch on the boat, we will stop the hour long drive as many times as necessary to search for: Pied Lapwing, Collared Plover, King Vulture, Bat Falcon, Olive and Russet-backed Oropendolas and Ringed Kingfisher and Amazon Kingfisher. Boxed Lunch.

Orientation Upon arrival, the lodge manager will welcome you and brief you with important navigation and security tips. Dinner. Overnight at Posada Amazonas.

Posada Amazonas Canopy Tower: A thirty minute walk takes us to this 30 meter tall scaffolding tower, which will add a whole new dimension to our Amazon birding experience: the forest canopy. We will wait for a canopy mixed flock to appear. The mixed flock is mostly all about tanagers: Paradise Tanager, Green-and-gold Tanager, Flame-crested Tanager, Turqoise Tanager, Opal- rumped Tanager and others. The tower also offers good opportunity for Cream- colored Woodpecker, Gilded Barbet, Plum-throated Cotinga and Striolated Puffbird. Macaws and toucans are seen flying against the horizon, including the Chestnut-eared, Lettered, Emerald, Curl-crested, and Brown-mandibled Aracaries. We will see lonely raptors riding the thermals. This is your best chance for hawk-eagles and even harpy!

Parrot Clay Lick: This clay lick is only a twenty minute walk from Posada Amazonas. From a blind located about twenty meters away you will see dozens of parrots and parakeets descend on most clear mornings to ingest the clay on a river bank. Species such as Mealy and Yellow- headed Amazon, Blue-headed Parrot and Dusky headed Parakeet descend at this clay lick. The clay lick is active at dawn, during the late mornings and mid-afternoons. Lunch.

Shahue Trail: Today we will bird the Shahue Trail, good for Fiery-capped Manakin, Round-tailed Manakin, Pale Rumped Trumpeteer and Pavonine Quetzal. Dinner. Overnight at Posada Amazonas.

Bamboo Forest: We depart on a fifteen minute drive to the bamboo patches around Tres Chimbadas Lake. We will leave lake birding aside and focus on the bamboo specialists. We will look for the endemic White-cheeked Tody Tyrant, Peruvian Recurvebill, Red-billed Scythebill, Rufous-headed Woodpecker, Rufous-breasted Piculet, Brown-rumped Foliage Gleaner, Large- headed Flatbill, Dusky- tailed Flatbill, Dusky-cheeked Foliage-gleaner, Flammulated Bamboo-tyrant, Dot- winged and Ornate Antwren, White-lined Antbird, Rufous capped Nunlet, Pheasant Cuckoo and Striped Cuckoo. Lunch.

Shije’eje Trail: This trail offers opportunities to spot Variegated Tinamou, Blue-crowned and Rufous Motmot, Golden-crowned Spadebill, Curl-crested Aracari, and mixed species flock. A small clay lick attracts Dusky-headed and Black-capped parakeet, and Cobalt-winged Parrotlets in addition to Spix’s Guan. Dinner. Overnight at Posada Amazonas.

Tres Chimbadas Lake System: A thirty minute boat ride and thirty minute hike from the lodge will take us to this oxbow lake, which has palm swamp and grassland vegetation as well. We will try to spot Pale-vented Pigeon, Azure Gallinule, Purple Gallinule, Slender-billed and Snail Kites, Rufescent Tiger-Herons, Sungrebe, Green Ibis, Gray breasted Crake, Rufous-sided Crake and two of the «must see» Amazonian classics: Horned Screamers and Hoatzin. Lunch.

Secondary Forest: Secondary forest can be created in a number of ways, from degraded forest recovering from selective logging, to areas cleared by slash-and-burn agriculture that have been reclaimed by forest. Generally, secondary forest is characterized by a less developed canopy structure and smaller trees. This means we will focus on: Barred Antshrike, Short-tailed Pygmy Tyrant, Streaked Flycatcher, Boat-billed Flycatcher, Solitary Black Cacique, Gray-fronted Dove, Ruddy Ground Dove and others. Dinner.

Night Birding: After dinner, we will venture out near the lodge to spot-light Pauraque, Tawny-bellied Screech-Owl, Great Potoo, Long tailed Potoo, Ocellated Poorwill and if we are lucky a Mottled Owl or Crested Owl. There is also the possibility of taking macro shoots of American Bullfrogs, Horned Frog, tree frogs and other creatures of the night. Overnight at Posada Amazonas.

Transfer Private Boat-Posada Amazonas – Tambopata River Port

Transfer Puerto Maldonado to Laberinto Birding Trip: In a private vehicle we will head west on the road to Cuzco. A short portion of the road is paved, the rest is just ripple. After about 40 kms will leave the road to Cuzco and head north to Laberinto on the Madre de Dios River. We stop periodically to look for savannah species occurring on the deforested cattle ranches along the road. We hope to see: Southern Crested Caracara, White-tailed Kite, Black-faced Tanager, Red-breasted Blackbird, White-browed Blackbird, Scaled Pigeon, Point-tailed Palm-creeper, Sulphury Flycatcher Gray-lined Hawk White-tailed Hawk and the rare South-American Snipe. After three to four hours birding we return to Puerto Maldonado.

Transfer Puerto Maldonado Headquarters to Airport: We retrace our river and road journey back to Puerto Maldonado, our office and the airport. Depending on airline schedules, this may require dawn departures.