PERU

Peru's iconic Incan ruins at Machu Picchu.

 My first birding tour leading job was in Peru. It was the mid-nineties and I threw myself in the 'deep end' in Manu - a region with around a thousand species. Over the next fifteen years or so I led more than thirty tours to Peru, mostly to Manu but managed to branch out to the Maranon Valley in the north, Iquitos in the Amazon, the Central Highway and the southern Puna zones.

I have to admit to being a little shocked when I noticed that my last trip to Peru was in 2009, after being a more than frequent visitor there.

Most tours started with a day or two on the Pacific Coast near Lima or an excursion into the Andes. Manu tours would start in Cusco, maybe with a day at Machu Picchu before heading down the Manu Road into the cloud forests and then by boat to the lowland rainforests.

Torrent Duck (female) Merganetta armata.

The 'Cock-of-the-Rock blind' on the Manu Road near San Pedro.

Andean Cock-of-the-Rock (male) Rupicola peruviana.

Fasciated Tiger-Heron Tigrisoma fasciatum, a retiring species of fast-flowing mountain stream and foothill rivers.

Birding on oxbow lakes in the lowlands.

Hoatzin Opsithocomus hoazin.

Horned Screamers Anhima cornuta.

Long-tailed Potoo Nyctibius aethereus.

Tawny-bellied Screech-Owl Megascops watsonii.

Board walk to the macaw-lick hide on the Madre de Dios.

Blue-headed Pionus menstruus, MealyAmazona farinosa and Orange-cheeked Pionopsitta barrabandi Parrots 

Mealy Parrots.

Red-and-Green Macaws Ara chloropterus at the lick. 

Blue-and-Yellow Macaw Ara ararauna.

Blue-throated Piping-Guan Pipile cumanensis.

Collared Puffbird Bucco capensis.

Peruvian Pelicans Pelecanus thagus on the coast near Lima.

Peruvian Thick-Knee Burhinus superciliaris.

Inca Tern Larosterna inca.

Diademed Sandpiper-Plover Phegornis mitchellii on Andean bogs along the Central Highway above Lima.