Photograph of Andean Cock-of-the-Rock

Andean Cock-of-the-Rock in Southern Peru by Ray Wilson.

SOUTHERN PERU

Best Wildlife in Southern Peru

Mammals
Giant Otter, Saddleback Tamarin, and Red Howler, (Common) Woolly, (Black-headed) Night, Common Squirrel, Black (Peruvian) Spider, Dusky Titi, Brown Capuchin and White-fronted Capuchin Monkeys. Also a chance of Brazilian Tapir, Emperor Tamarin and Tayra, and an outside chance of Spectacled Bear (this great rarity is now seen with some regularity in the Chaparri Ecological Reserve near Chiclayo in Northern Peru).

Birds
Scarlet, Red-and-green and Blue-and-yellow Macaws, Andean Condor, Channel-billed and Red-billed (White-throated) Toucans, Grey-breasted Mountain Toucan, Andean Cock-of-the-Rock, Sunbittern, Pale-winged Trumpeter, Sword-billed Hummingbird, Crested, Golden-headed and Pavonine Quetzals, Many-coloured Rush Tyrant, Musician Wren, some of the 100 or so endemics including Bearded Mountaineer, several spinetails and Red-and-white Antpitta, as well as tinamous, Horned Screamer, Orinoco Goose, Muscovy and Torrent Ducks, Blue-throated Piping Guan, Anhinga, Rufescent and Fasciated Tiger Herons, Agami and Capped Herons, Jabiru, King Vulture, American Swallow-tailed Kite, forest falcons, Grey-necked Wood Rail, Sungrebe, Limpkin, Pied Plover, Andean Lapwing, Black-necked Stilt, Wattled Jacana, Andean Gull, Yellow-billed and Large-billed Terns, Black Skimmer, pigeons and doves, parrots, Hoatzin, Sand-coloured Nighthawk, hummingbirds including Black-eared Fairy, Wire-crested Thorntail, Rufous-crested Coquette, Long-tailed Sylph, Black-tailed and Green-tailed Trainbearers, Gould's Inca, Booted Racket-tail, Gould's Jewelfront and Giant Hummingbird, trogons, Blue-crowned (including 'Highland') and Broad-billed Motmots, all five South American kingfishers, puffbirds, jacamars, barbets, Black-throated, Blue-banded and Golden-collared Toucanets, Chestnut-eared, Curl-crested and Ivory-billed Aracaris, woodpeckers, foliage gleaners, Pearled Treerunner, Streaked Tuftedcheek, woodcreepers including Long-billed, antshrikes including Great, antbirds such as Black-spotted Bare-eye, antpittas, Slaty Gnateater, tyrannulets, Short-tailed Pygmy Tyrant (the world's smallest passerine along with Black-capped Pygmy Tyrant), tody tyrants, tody flycatchers, flycatchers including Vermilion and Amazonian Royal, ground tyrants, chat tyrants, Screaming Piha, Black-faced, Plum-throated, Purple-throated and Spangled Cotingas, Bare-necked and Purple-throated Fruitcrows, Band-tailed, Fiery-capped and Round-tailed Manakins, tityras, jays, White-capped Dipper, Black-capped Donacobius, White-eared Solitaire, Tropical Parula, Giant Conebill, many tanagers including Grass-green, Yellow-throated, Golden-collared and Orange-eared, Black-faced, Yellow-bellied and Tit-like Dacnises, honeycreepers, Plushcap, sierra finches, flowerpiercers including Masked and Moustached, oropendolas and Orange-backed Troupial. Also a chance of Razor-billed Curassow, Military Macaw, Crested and Spectacled Owls, Lyre-tailed Nightjar, Long-tailed Potoo, Amazonian Umbrellabird, Band-tailed, Masked and Scarlet-breasted Fruiteaters, and White-browed Purpletuft.

Reptiles, Amphibians and Fish
Spectacled Caiman.

Invertebrates
Numerous spectacular butterflies.

Best Sites for Wildlife in Southern Peru

Best Times for Wildlife in Southern Peru

The dry season usually lasts from May to October and this is the best time to visit, especially August-September when activity usually peaks at the Andean Cock-of-the-Rock lek and the clay licks, which large flocks of parrots and macaws visit daily, are busy. These clay licks are usually used mostly during the dry season. During the wet season the most rain usually falls from January to March.

Recommended Books etc. for Southern 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 Southern Peru

Many trip reports, some for Southern 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 Southern Peru. These tour companies and others also post their own reports on their websites, which are listed under 'Some Organized Tours to Southern Peru' below.

Local Guides and Tours in Southern 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 Southern Peru


Some Organized Tours to Southern 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 run organized tours or can arrange custom tours to Southern Peru include the following.