Peru Birding Tours

The Manu Road: from the Andes to the Amazon in one trip

The Manu Road is the reason many birders come to southeastern Peru. In a few days it drops from the dry Andes and the treeline at Wayqecha, at about 2,700 m, through the cloud forest around Cock-of-the-Rock Lodge, to the bamboo forest of Villa Carmen at about 500 m and the lowland rainforest at Amazonia Lodge. Each altitude has its own birds, so the list keeps growing every day: Bearded Mountaineer and Chestnut-breasted Mountain-Finch in the dry valleys, Red-and-white Antpitta at the treeline, mixed flocks of tanagers and the Andean Cock-of-the-rock in the cloud forest, bamboo specialists near Villa Carmen and macaws and parrots at the clay licks of the lowlands.

Our Manu Road tours last 8 or 10 days. The 15-day Manu Biosphere tour continues into the Manu Reserved Zone and ends in Tambopata, and the 7-day Tambopata tour reaches the lowlands by the Interoceanic Highway instead.

Birding near Cusco

If you only have a day or two, Huacarpay Lake and Piuray Lake are easy trips from Cusco and fit well before or after Machu Picchu. Huacarpay is a high Andean wetland with Andean waterbirds and endemics such as Bearded Mountaineer and Rusty-fronted Canastero; the Piuray tour adds the puna lakes above the Lamay valley, where Giant Coot lives.

Northern and central Peru

For birders who already know the south, our northern Peru tours visit Abra Patricia and the dry forests of the north, home to the Marvelous Spatuletail, and include a 15-day trip focused on photographing hummingbirds. The 16-day Central Peru tour runs from Lima through Lomas de Lachay, Santa Eulalia, Junín Lake and the forests of Carpish and Oxapampa.

How our birding tours work

• Built around your list. The Manu Road tours and the day trips from Cusco run as private tours with private transportation, so we adapt the pace and the stops to your target species.
• Specialist guides. On the Manu Road tours our bird guide carries a spotting scope, sound recording and playback equipment, a laser pointer and a spotlight for night birds, and each traveler gets a bird checklist.
• Confirmed on request. Send us your dates and target list; we check lodges and guides and you secure the booking with a 30% deposit.
• Season. For Manu, SERNANP recommends the drier months from April to November.