Mountains are some of my favourite places to explore, and not just because of the incredible vistas created by topographic relief. From a birding perspective, mountains provide limitless opportunities to find a wide variety of species. As the elevation increases or decreases, the vegetation communities change, as do the resulting bird species.
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| Santa Eulalia Valley, Lima, Peru |
Laura and I had enjoyed our first taste of Peruvian birding along the coast south of Lima, but it was time to hit up the mountains. For the next few days, we planned on visiting the Santa Eulalia Valley, home to a wide variety of bird species along its altitudinal gradient. Some of the birds found in this valley are endemic to this region of Peru, while various epic Andean species can be found here as well, such as the Andean Condor and the world's largest hummingbird, the aptly named Giant Hummingbird.
July 16, 2022
Laura and I overnighted in a hospedaje in the town of Santa Eulalia, situated at around 1100 metres in elevation and surrounded by dry scrub. We spent the day birding various elevations between Santa Eulalia and the town of San Lorenzo de Huachupampa at 3000 m. Overall species diversity is not high in these dry environs, but many of them were new for us.
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| Santa Eulalia Valley, Lima, Peru |
Sunrise isn't until 6:30 AM at the moment, giving us the luxury of a sleep-in while still being able to bird during the most productive hours of the morning. As the first morning rays touched the highest peaks we found ourselves at a scrubby area just up the road, and we observed our first lifers of the day including Bare-faced Ground-Dove, Pied-crested Tit-Tyrant and this handsome Black-necked Woodpecker.
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| Black-necked Woodpecker - Santa Eulalia Valley, Lima, Peru |
Inca-finches are a Peruvian specialty as all five species are endemic to certain parts of the Peruvian Andes. The Great Inca-Finch resides at a certain elevation in the Santa Eulalia Valley and that was our main target as we arrived at a tunnel carved through the mountainside, at an elevation of 2200 m.
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| Santa Eulalia Valley, Lima, Peru |
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| Santa Eulalia Valley, Lima, Peru |
Laura came through by spotting our first Great Inca-Finch of the day. It was almost too easy! We ended up seeing several more at this stop and the next.
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| Great Inca-Finch - Santa Eulalia Valley, Lima, Peru |
The birding was excellent just beyond the tunnel and we reached double digits in bird lifers for the day rather quickly! Some of the new species for us were Greenish Yellow-Finch, Oasis Hummingbird, White-browed Chat-Tyrant, Peruvian Sheartail and Purple-collared Woodstar. Most of these species would prove to be reasonably common throughout the rest of the day.
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| Greenish Yellow-Finch - Santa Eulalia Valley, Lima, Peru |
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| Peruvian Sheartail - Santa Eulalia Valley, Lima, Peru |
My other big target in the lower sections of the Santa Eulalia Valley was the endangered Rufous-browed Warbling-Finch, a poorly known species that is only found in a few small regions of the western Peruvian Andes. Most sightings come from the Santa Eulalia Valley, but it is still rather scarce here and difficult to encounter. It was on my mind the rest of the day as we birded higher elevations beyond the Autisha bridge.
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| Santa Eulalia Valley, Lima, Peru |
While the warbling finch remained unaccounted for, we kept running into new and thrilling species. Our first Rusty-bellied Brushfinch (an endemic species to the western Peruvian Andes) was exciting; we would end up seeing many dozens of this common and conspicuous species at the right elevation band.
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| Rusty-bellied Brushfinch - Santa Eulalia Valley, Lima, Peru |
We remedied the poor views we had had of our lifer Pied-crested Tit-Tyrant from dawn. A curious individual came into our pishing, providing fantastic views of this adorable little flycatcher.
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| Pied-crested Tit-Tyrant - Santa Eulalia Valley, Lima, Peru |
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| Pied-crested Tit-Tyrant - Santa Eulalia Valley, Lima, Peru |
Here are a few other birds that allowed their likenesses to be imprinted on my memory card's digital memory.
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| Black-chested Buzzard-Eagle - Santa Eulalia Valley, Lima, Peru |
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| Rufous-chested Tanager - Santa Eulalia Valley, Lima, Peru |
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| Mourning Sierra-Finch - Santa Eulalia Valley, Lima, Peru |
A surprising number of flowering plants could be easily found in these dry environs, while a solid diversity of butterflies attended them.
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| Mutisia acuminata - Santa Eulalia Valley, Lima, Peru |
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| Yellow Trumpet Flower (Tecoma stans) - Santa Eulalia Valley, Lima, Peru |
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| Bush-violet (Browallia sp.) - Santa Eulalia Valley, Lima, Peru |
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| Ramon Blue (Hemiargus ramon) - Santa Eulalia Valley, Lima, Peru |
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| Unidentified skipper - Santa Eulalia Valley, Lima, Peru |
By early afternoon a nap was in order, and so we fell asleep at this site, with the incessant chipping of Sparkling Violetears providing white noise of sorts.
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| Santa Eulalia Valley, Lima, Peru |
Feeling refreshed, we birded hard for another couple of hours. We had a magical moment with a very birdy corner of the road that I had heard was good for the Rufous-breasted Warbling-Finch. While the finch again remained out of sight, we found our first Canyon Canasteros, Streaked Tit-Spinetails, a whole bunch of sierra finches and more.
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| Streaked Tit-Tyrant - Santa Eulalia Valley, Lima, Peru |
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| Streaked Tit-Tyrant - Santa Eulalia Valley, Lima, Peru |
A little further down the road, I stopped when I noticed a flock of small, bright green birds with long tails. Mountain Parakeets!
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| Mountain Parakeets - Santa Eulalia Valley, Lima, Peru |
We enjoyed excellent views of the beautiful little parakeets, while our first Giant Hummingbirds of the trip appeared overhead. The Giant Hummingbirds were Laura's first (I had seen them previously in Chile) and we marvelled at their enormous size. They were as big as martens, and flew with slow flaps alternating with glides - not a typical flight style for a hummingbird!
That evening, we successfully found a hotel room in the nearby town of San Pedro de Casta for the equivalent of $20 Canadian dollars. We enjoyed dinner at the edge of the town square while the townsfolk celebrated a religious festival, complete with traditional clothing, lots of dancing and a marching band. The after party moved to the plaza behind our hotel room. Luckily, we were so tired that we fell asleep despite the band going strong, complete with crashing cymbals, until the middle of the night!
July 17, 2022
We had a dilemma for how to approach this day. On one hand, I wasn't about to give up on the Rufous-breasted Warbling Finch, and they were likely more active in the early morning. On the other hand, a site about 1.5 - 2 hours up the valley is one of the few known locations for the rare White-cheeked Cotinga, and they are usually only active until 8 or 9 in the morning. We could either try for the warbling finch, or the cotinga at the right hour of the morning, but not both.
We eventually decided that we would try again for the warbling finch, and cross our fingers that we would be able to turn up a cotinga during a late morning visit.
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| Chiguanco Thrush - Santa Eulalia Valley, Lima, Peru |
Luckily, the first part of the plan paid off. Laura and I had been birding for around an hour in the early morning when we decided to head up the slope in search of an Andean Tinamou that we had briefly observed. As I was walking on the slope, a small rufous and gray finch with a black mask popped up on a shrub. Holy crap, there was the warbling finch!
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| Rufous-breasted Warbling Finch - Santa Eulalia Valley, Lima, Peru |
I fired off around ten frames in a few seconds, most of which were blurry, and then the warbling finch vanished. Luckily, several of the shots were in focus. I called Laura over and after a tense few minutes she was able to lock onto the bird for reasonable views. It then flew deeper into some shrubs and we did not pursue it further. Success!
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| Rufous-breasted Warbling Finch - Santa Eulalia Valley, Lima, Peru |
It was only 8 AM and we were feeling lucky and so we sped off towards the patch of Polylepis forest where the White-cheeked Cotingas hang out. We continued on the south road, heading east along the side of the valley, which would eventually connect with the main road.
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| Santa Eulalia Valley, Lima, Peru |
Well, you know what they say about well-made plans. The road was extremely sketchy and though it was navigable by car, the gravel track was cut into the side of the mountain with sheer drop-offs immediately beside it. There were several areas of landslides that had been partially cleared from the roadway. A few of them required a burst of speed and some fish-tailing to traverse, all the while hoping the car didn't slip off the cliff!
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| Santa Eulalia Valley, Lima, Peru |
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| Santa Eulalia Valley, Lima, Peru |
We were making good progress and were less than 10 km from where the two roads converged and we would be able to join the "better" road. We rounded a bend and came face to face with this.
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| Santa Eulalia Valley, Lima, Peru |
Well then. There was no getting around this landslide which had knocked out a section of the road. Feeling defeated, and a little stupid for not inquiring with a local about the state of this road beforehand, we very carefully turned the car around and retraced our path, adding an hour and a half of driving to our morning.
There were some benefits of this untimely detour. First, we stopped to watch an adult and immature Andean Condor riding the thermals below us. They whooshed by at close range, seemingly playing in the strong winds. It was a pretty incredible experience and I took a number of photos that I was very happy with.
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| Andean Condor - Santa Eulalia Valley, Lima, Peru |
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| Andean Condor - Santa Eulalia Valley, Lima, Peru |
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| Andean Condor - Santa Eulalia Valley, Lima, Peru |
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| Andean Condor - Santa Eulalia Valley, Lima, Peru |
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| Andean Condor - Santa Eulalia Valley, Lima, Peru |
The other major highlight was a large flycatcher that appeared on the road up ahead - a shrike-tyrant. It remained on the road, allowing me to take a number of photos, and I quickly realized that this was a White-tailed Shrike-Tyrant.
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| White-tailed Shrike-Tyrant - Santa Eulalia Valley, Lima, Peru |
This is a poorly-known species that is far outnumbered by the related Black-billed Shrike-Tyrant. In fact, White-tailed Shrike-Tyrants had only been recorded in this province a few times before, and as fas as I can tell, never from the lower Santa Eulalia Valley. Our only previous experience with this species was a distant individual in Ecuador, so this was a bird to savour!
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| White-tailed Shrike-Tyrant - Santa Eulalia Valley, Lima, Peru |
Some of the field marks that identify this as the White-tailed Shrike-Tyrant (as opposed to the more common Black-billed Shrike-Tyrant) include the stout, hooked bill with pale mandible, white throat with distinct streaking, and darker eye.
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| White-tailed Shrike-Tyrant - Santa Eulalia Valley, Lima, Peru |
We got back onto the main highway, which was also a gravel track cut into the side of a mountain. We slowly climbed in elevation as we headed eastwards towards the Polylepis forest patch. We stopped on a few occasions, including once for this crisp pair of Torrent Ducks that Laura spotted.
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| Torrent Duck (female) - Upper Santa Eulalia Valley, Lima, Peru |
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| Torrent Duck (male) - Upper Santa Eulalia Valley, Lima, Peru |
A quick break to stretch our legs at 3700 m turned into a 20 minute birding blitz, as we found some more lifers for one or both of us - Black Siskin, Peruvian Sierra-Finch, Black Metaltail, Spot-billed Ground-Tyrant and Buff-breasted Earthcreeper.
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| Spot-billed Ground-Tyrant - Upper Santa Eulalia Valley, Lima, Peru |
Finally, we arrived at the Polylepis forest. It was now noon and the wind had picked up, but we gave it a shot, anyways.
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| Laura scanning the Polylepis forest - Upper Santa Eulalia Valley, Lima, Peru |
Unfortunately, the cotingas remained out of sight even though Laura and I hiked up the slope to the better quality forest and gave it a proper search. Giant Conebill also remained unaccounted for, but we still had a blast with more lifers added to our lists (Andean Flicker, Mountain Caracara, D'Orbigny's Chat-Tyrant, Striated Earthcreeper, etc).
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| Peruvian Sierra-Finch - Upper Santa Eulalia Valley, Lima, Peru |
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| D'Orbigny's Chat-Tyrant - Upper Santa Eulalia Valley, Lima, Peru |
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| Black Metaltail - Upper Santa Eulalia Valley, Lima, Peru |
Eventually, we had to pull ourselves away since we still had a long drive ahead of us. This would not be our only chance at the White-cheeked Cotinga during our trip, as we would be visiting Parque Nacional Huascarán later on.
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| Upper Santa Eulalia Valley, Lima, Peru |
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| Matucana haynii - Upper Santa Eulalia Valley, Lima, Peru |
The scenery was simply amazing as we moved past 4000 m into the high Andes. We mainly focused on covering lots of ground as we planned to bird the high elevations during the next day. That being said, we stopped far too frequently to photograph and marvel at the mountain vistas.
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| Upper Santa Eulalia Valley, Lima, Peru |
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| Upper Santa Eulalia Valley, Lima, Peru |
Laura's first Andean Geese appeared at the roadside along with a pair of Puna Ibis and Andean Lapwings so we had a little photoshoot.
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| Andean Geese and Puna Ibises - Upper Santa Eulalia Valley, Lima, Peru |
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| Andean Geese - Upper Santa Eulalia Valley, Lima, Peru |
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| Andean Geese - Upper Santa Eulalia Valley, Lima, Peru |
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| Puna Ibis - Upper Santa Eulalia Valley, Lima, Peru |
We drove past Laguna Milloc and I stared longingly at the extensive boggy environs that were certainly home to Diademed Sandpiper-Plovers and White-bellied Cinclodes. Those species would have to wait until the next day, unfortunately. We just did not have the time.
Eventually, we reached a pass over 4800 m and so we had to stop and take a selfie. Previously, our highest elevation was around 4100 m at the Papallacta pass in Ecuador. 4864 m is now our personal best.
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| Paso Marcopomacocha area, Lima, Peru |
We stopped one more time to photograph this extremely cute Mountain Viscacha, a rodent in the chinchilla family that superficially resembles a hare. Amazing that they can eke out an existance at this elevation.
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| Mountain Viscacha - Paso Marcopomacocha, Lima, Peru |
We rolled into the town of San Mateo just before sunset after a long day on the road. We had thorougly enjoyed the Santa Eulalia Valley. The scenery was out of this world, we explored some unique habitats, and found every single one of our target birds except for the White-cheeked Cotinga. And we were not quite done just yet - the next day would see us thoroughly explore the high-elevation bog habitats for a few additional species. Stay tuned.
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| Paso Marcopomacocha, Lima, Peru |
2 comments:
Tentatively heading here on our January Peru trip. This post made me even more excited! Beautiful documentation of what looks like an extremely interesting ecoregion.
Thanks, Tim. It sure is a wonderful region, I hope you enjoy!
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