Photograph of White-browed Purpletuft

A rare photograph of the amazing White-browed Purpletuft by Ian Davies.

NORTHEASTERN PERU

Best Wildlife in Northeastern Peru

Mammals
Pygmy Marmoset and Black-mantled Tamarin. Also a chance of Grey River and Pink River Dolphins, and Common Squirrel, Dusky Titi and Night Monkeys.

Birds
Blue-and-yellow Macaw, Sunbittern, Hoatzin, Pavonine Quetzal, Nocturnal Curassow, Channel-billed and White-throated Toucans, Blue-crowned and Rufous Motmots, jacamars including Great, Paradise, White-eared and Yellow-billed, White-plumed Antbird, Black-necked Red Cotinga, Pompadour Cotinga, Wire-tailed Manakin, Musician Wren, (American) Swallow-tailed Kite, Iquitos Gnatcatcher, trogons and tanagers such as Green-and-gold and Paradise, as well as Blue-throated (Common) Piping Guan, hawks, Red-throated Caracara, Sungrebe, Pied Plover, Wattled Jacana, Large-billed and Yellow-billed Terns, parrots including Short-tailed, hummingbirds including Gould's Jewelfront, Amazon and Ringed Kingfishers, puffbirds including Brown-banded and Spotted, nunbirds, Swallow-wing, barbets, aracaris, Golden-collared Toucanet, woodpeckers, spinetails, Chestnut-winged Hookbill, foliage-gleaners, woodcreepers, antshrikes, antwrens, many antbirds including Banded, Black-tailed and Dot-backed, and Black-spotted and Reddish-winged Bare-eyes, Chestnut-belted Gnateater, tyrannulets, pygmy tyrants including Short-tailed Pygmy Tyrant (the world’s smallest passerine along with Black-capped Pygmy Tyrant), tody tyrants, tody flycatchers, flycatchers including Orange-eyed, Screaming Piha, Plum-throated, Purple-throated and Spangled Cotingas, Bare-necked and Purple-throated Fruitcrows, White-browed Purpletuft, manakins including Golden-headed, Orange-crested and White-bearded, tityras, becards, Collared and Long-billed Gnatwrens, Black-capped Donacobius, Pearly-breasted Conebill, Black-faced and Yellow-bellied Dacnises, Fulvous Shrike, Masked Crimson and other tanagers, honeycreepers, Oriole Blackbird, oropendolas including Band-tailed, and euphonias. Also a chance of Wattled Curassow, Grey-necked Wood Rail, Black-banded, Grey-breasted and Rufous-sided Crakes, Black-faced Hawk, Black Skimmer, Festive Parrot, owls such as Crested and Spectacled, potoos such as Rufous and Long-tailed, Lanceolated Monklet, Amazonian Umbrellabird, Purple-breasted Cotinga (white sand forest) and Orange-backed Troupial.

Best Sites for Wildlife in Northeastern Peru

Best Times for Wildlife in Northeastern Peru

Water levels are usually low in October, allowing easier access to some forest types.

Recommended Books etc. for Northeastern Peru

Bradt Wildlife Guide: Peruvian Wildlife by G Cheshire, H Lloyd and B Walker. Bradt Travel Guides, 2007.

Traveller's Wildlife Guide: Peru by D Pearson and L Beletsky. Arris Books, 2005.

Mammals of South America by R D Lord. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007.

Birds of Peru by T S Schulenberg et al. Helm, 2010 (Second Edition).

Birds of South America: Non-Passerines by J R Roderiguez Mata et al. Harper Collins, 2006.

The Birds of South America: Passerines by R S Ridgely and G Tudor. University of Texas Press, 1989 and 1994 (Two volumes).

Trip Reports for Northeastern Peru

Many trip reports, some for Northeastern Peru, are posted on the websites listed here. On some of these websites some reports are independent and some are posted by tour companies who organize tours to Northeastern Peru. These tour companies and others also post their own reports on their websites, which are listed under 'Some Organized Tours to Northeastern Peru' below.

Local Guides and Tours in Northeastern Peru

The costs of organized tours partly reflect the quality of the tour leaders. Some leaders are certainly better than others and many companies claim their leaders are the best but even the best rely at least to some extent on the exceptional skills of the local guides they employ. If you are travelling independently, employing such local guides will greatly increase your chances of seeing the wildlife you wish to see.

Accommodation in Northeastern Peru


Some Organized Tours to Northeastern Peru

There are many tour companies who organize tours to see mammals, birds, other wildlife and other natural wonders. The cost of these tours vary considerably according to such variables as the airlines used, the number of days the tours last, the number of sites visited, the number of people in the group (an important consideration if you wish to see such wildlife as rainforest mammals and birds), the number of tour leaders, the standard of accommodation and transport, and the percentage profit the company hopes to make. Generally, where the number of days tours last and the number of sites visited are similar, the cheapest tours are those that use the cheapest airlines, accommodation and local transport, that have the largest groups with the least number of leaders, and that make the least amount of profit. The most expensive tours tend to be those which are exceptionally long, use the most expensive accommodation (ridiculously lavish in some cases, even for single nights) and which make the most profit. Some tour costs partly reflect the quality of the tour leaders. Some leaders are certainly better than others and many companies claim their leaders are the best but even the best rely at least to some extent on the exceptional skills of the local guides they employ.

While tour companies organize tours with set itineraries many also organize custom tours for individuals and private groups who instead of taking a tour with a set itinerary want to follow their own itinerary to suit their own personal tastes, whether it be mammals, birds, other wildlife, other natural wonders or even man-made attractions, or a mixture of them all. Many organized tours with set itineraries are also fast-paced and target as many species as possible, whether they are mammals, birds or other wildlife or everything, which usually leaves little time to enjoy the best sites and individual species, but on a custom tour those taking part can specify the pace and the sites and species they wish to concentrate on. Custom tours also suit people who like to travel with people they already know, rather than with a group of strangers, and people with partners with different interests. Individuals and small groups will almost certainly have to pay more than the price of an organized tour with a set itinerary but a large group of friends may be able to travel for less than the price quoted for a set tour.

Tour companies who are running organized tours to Northeastern Peru in the next couple of years include the following. Many of these also offer custom tours.