birdin malaga high pass Cusco-Peru
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Tour Details
General Information
Place where the tour begins: Cusco
Place where the tour end: Cusco
Tour Date: April – December
Tour Duration: 03 days 02 nights
Expected Birds Species: 200 to 300
Expected Mammal Species: 02
Altitude: 3500 mt / 11482 ft (Cusco) – 4200mt / 13779 ft. (Abra Málaga) / 1400 mt. / 4593 ft. Ipal Ecólodge
Photographic Opportunity: Excellent
Local Guides: Birding Guide. Miguel Garcia
Other staff: For 3 or more guests catering staff will be provided for picnic breakfasts and lunches in prime birding locations.
Note Regarding single supplements.
Single occupancy can be arranged, based on room availability and at an extra cost of US $ … per night.
Trip Grade: Gentle Hikes
You should prepare for certain travel factors in Peru, A few of the most important are elevation.
Insurance
We strongly advise that your travel insurance policies include medical assistance and evacuation – we believe that it is ‘better to be safe than sorry!’ Should you decline to do so, we must state that we will in no way accept responsibility for expenses incurred should you require medical attention/evacuation while on holiday with us.
Accommodations
It is our policy to use the best available accommodation in each location. All hotels and lodges we use are government approved registered with the Tourism organism of Peru.
Clothing
This trip departs in Cusco which is generally a dry and cool time of the year but you may encounter light rain or damp condition. Evenings may be cool and you will certainly have many early mornings starts so will need some warm layers. The key to being comfortable is to adopt a system of several layers rather than one item of bulky warm clothing. Sun hats are an essential item, with a wide brim and something to protect your neck. Temperatures can drop very quickly in the evening and early morning and at altitude and you may again need to put on a number of layers.
Electricity
The standard voltage in Peru is 220-240 volts. Most American appliances (except hairdryers) now have built-in converters, so you only need to worry about bringing adapters. You will often find two pin sockets in bathrooms (type C). In most other rooms’ sockets are generally the round-three pin variety (type D). To be safe, take a universal travel adaptor, and if that still does not fit ask at hotel reception.
Equipment and Accessories
- Small day pack
- Sunglasses and retainers If you wear glasses,
- Headlamp or flashlight Bring spare batteries
- Anti-bacterial hand gel is very useful for washing hands when no water is available
Brief Itinerary
Day 01.- Cusco-Malaga high pass – Ipal Ecolodge
Day 02.- Ipal Ecolodge surround full day
Day 03.- Ipal Ecolodge-Cloud Forest Malaga High Passs-Cusco
Itinerary
To enjoy birdwatching and witness the majestic flight of the largest bird in South America, the Andean Condor, we invite you to join us on a trip close to the city of Cusco, Peru. The route takes us up a road that ascends to the village of Chonta, located in Limatambo district. From there, we hike for over an hour through the flank of the mountain to the viewpoint of Chonta, where we can observe the condors up close. This trip also offers sightings of other important high Andean birds that inhabit this area, including the Black-backed Grosbeak, Sierran Ealenia, Yellow-bellied Seedeater, Black and white Seedeater, Creamy-crested Spinetail (endemic), Chestnut-breasted Mountain-Finch (endemic), Black-tailed Trainbearer, Black-chested Buzzard-Eagle, Variable Hawk, Rusty-fronted Canastero, Rufous-naped Ground-Tyrant, Black-billed Shrike-Tyrant, and more.
Later in the evening, at our lodge, we will have the opportunity to search for some of the most representative owls in the area, such as the Buff-fronted Owl, which is geographically distributed in other areas towards central and northern Peru according to the Peruvian birds’ book, and the Koepcke's Screech-Owl, named in memory of the German ornithologist Maria Koepcke. This bird was endemic and is currently found in Ecuador.
Ipal ecolodge is a very attractive destination for bird watching, within its circuits you can observe birds that are habitants in cloud forest, it circuits offer us the possibility to see mixed flocks formed with the purpose of searching for food successfully and reducing the possibility of being preyed on we can find: Barred Becard, Black-and-white Becard, Streaked Xenops, Flame-faced Tanager, Blue-and-black Tanager, Saffron-crowned Tanager, Sclater's Tyrannulet, Saffron-crowned Tanager, Golden-collared Honeycreeper , Slaty-capped Tyrannulet, Chivi Vireo, Long-tailed Sylph, Speckled Hummingbird, Bronzy Inca, Rufous-booted Racket-tail, etc.
One of the birds that is quite coveted in this area is the fantastic hummingbird called Swallow-tailed Hummingbird, which in Peru has a small distribution range which makes it interesting to see it on this tour. And from the surroundings of the lodge, you can see more frequent birds such as the Blue Dacnis, Blue-tailed Emerald, For-tailed Woodnymph, Spectackled Chachalaca, Blue-necked Tanager, Palm Tanager, etc.
Today we will do some intense birding in this place looking for the ones most restricted to this area and attentive to any unusual surprises.
Today we have to return to Cusco city, we will have our breakfast early to be able to leave in direction to eastern flank of the Vilcanota mountain range where we can add new species to our list of birds seen.
This is also an area where mixed flocks of birds of different species are frequently found following one direction in search of food and without separating from the group due to survival strategy; We can possibly see the following species:
Mountain Wren, Inca Wren (endemic), Marcapata Spinetail (endemic), Unstreaked Tit-Tyrant, (endemic), Parodi’s Hemispingus (endemic) and Cuzco Brush-finch; we will also probably have a variety of birds such as: Andean tanagers, all of them are associated with mixes species flocks on the canopies of this humid montane, the most common are: Scarlet-bellied Mountain-Tanager, Blue-and-black Tanager, Rust-and-yellow Tanager, etc.
Other interesting group found mostly in low dense vegetation stream edge, bamboo thickets are the Antpittas, they are one of the most difficult birds for watching even when they are close to you for example: Red-and-white Antpitta (endemic), Urubamba Antpitta.
And one of most conspicuous is the Sword-billed Hummingbird for that impressive long beak and another species of hummingbird: Chestnut-breasted Coronet, Sapphire-vented Pufflet, Amethyst-throated Sunangel, Citrine Warbler, Black-throated Tody-Tyrant), White-rumped Hawk, Doublé-toothed Kite, White-Throated Hawk, (rare) Sharp Shinned Hawk, Variable Hawk, etc.
And in the afternoon late we arrive to Cusco
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