Birding at Posada Amazonas - 5d/4n

Itinerary

Tambopata offers a variety of habitats in walking distance from each lodge that is reflected in highly productive expeditions. If you are a birder with some or little experience this is the right program for you. A productive yet inexpensive birdwatching expedition visiting Posada Amazonas.

Day 1

Arrival & Reception by Birding Guide
Although all of our guides have basic bird identification skills, only a handful truly qualify as birding guides – able to identify hundreds of species by sound and sight. Our birdwatching expeditions not only have an especially designed program but also a trained birding guide.

Transfer Airport to Puerto Maldonado Headquarters
Upon arrival from Lima or Cusco, we will welcome you at the airport and drive you ten minutes to our Puerto Maldonado headquarters. While enjoying your first taste of the forest in our gardens we will ask you to pack only the necessary gear for your next few days and leave the rest at our safe deposit. This helps us keep the boats and cargo light.

Puerto Maldonado to Tambopata River Port
Upon arrival to Puerto Maldonado we will drive to the Tambopata River Port. This 45- minute drive will take twice as long as we stop along the road’s secondary forest to scan for Purus Jacamar, White-browed Blackbird, Pearl Kite, and Scaled Pigeon.

Transfer Private Boat – Tambopata River Port to Posada Amazo
A private boat with individual seats and a roof will drive us upriver to Posada Amazonas. As we eat lunch on the boat, we will stop the 1-hour long drive as many times as necessary to search for: Pied Lapwing, Collared Plover, King Vulture, Bat Falcon, Olive and Russet-backed Oropendolas and Ringed Kingfisher and Amazon Kingfisher.

Boxed Lunch

Orientation
Upon arrival, the lodge manager will welcome you and brief you with important navigation and security tips.

Dinner

Posada Amazonas – Overnight

Day 2

Breakfast

Posada Amazonas Canopy Tower
A 30-minute walk takes us to this 30-meter tall scaffolding tower, which will add a whole new dimension to our Amazon birding experience: the forest canopy. We will wait for a canopy mixed flock to appear. The mixed flock is mostly all about tanagers: Paradise Tanager, Green-and-gold Tanager, Flame-crested Tanager, Turquoise Tanager, Opal-rumped Tanager and others. The tower also offers a good opportunity for Cream-colored Woodpecker, Gilded Barbet, Plum-throated Cotinga and Striolated Puffbird. Macaws and toucans are seen flying against the horizon, including the Chestnut-eared, Lettered, Emerald, Curl-crested, and Brown-mandibled Aracaries. We will see lonely raptors riding the thermals. This is your best chance for hawk-eagles and even Harpy Eagles!

Parrot Clay Lick
This clay lick is only a 20-minute walk from Posada Amazonas. From a blind located about twenty meters away, you will see dozens of parrots and parakeets descend on most clear mornings to ingest the clay on a river bank. Species such as Mealy and Yellow-headed Amazon, Blue-headed Parrot and Dusky headed Parakeet descend at this clay lick. The clay lick is active at dawn, during the late mornings and mid-afternoons.

Lunch

Shahue Trail
Today we will bird the Shahue Trail, good for Fiery-capped Manakin, Round-tailed Manakin, Pale Rumped Trumpeteer and Pavonine Quetzal.

Dinner

Posada Amazonas – Overnight

Day 3

Breakfast

Bamboo Forest
We depart on a 15-minute drive to the bamboo patches around Tres Chimbadas Lake. We will leave lake birding aside and focus on the bamboo specialists. We will look for the endemic White-cheeked Tody-Tyrant, Peruvian Recurvebill, Red-billed Scythebill, Rufous-headed Woodpecker, Rufous-breasted Piculet, Brown-rumped Foliage-Gleaner, Large-headed Flatbill, Dusky-tailed Flatbill, Dusky-cheeked Foliage-gleaner, Flammulated Bamboo-tyrant, Dot-winged and Ornate Antwren, White-lined Antbird, Rufous-capped Nunlet, Pheasant Cuckoo and Striped Cuckoo.

Lunch

Shije’eje Trail
This trail offers opportunities to spot Variegated Tinamou, Blue-crowned and Rufous Motmot, Golden-crowned Spadebill, Curl-crested Aracari, and mixed species flock. A small clay lick attracts Dusky-headed and Black-capped parakeet, and Cobalt-winged Parrotlets in addition to Spix’s Guan.

Dinner

Posada Amazonas – Overnight

Day 4

Breakfast

Tres Chimbadas Lake System
A 30-minute boat ride and 30-minute hike from the lodge will take us to this oxbow lake, which has palm swamp and grassland vegetation as well. We will try to spot Pale-vented Pigeon, Azure Gallinule, Purple Gallinule, Slender-billed and Snail Kites, Rufescent Tiger-Herons, Sungrebe, Green Ibis,Gray-breasted Crake, Rufous-sided Crake and two of the “must see” Amazonian classics: Horned Screamers and Hoatzin.

Lunch

Secondary Forest
Secondary forest can be created in a number of ways, from degraded forest recovering from selective logging, to areas cleared by slash-and-burn agriculture that have been reclaimed by forest. Generally, secondary forest is characterized by a less developed canopy structure and smaller trees. This means we will focus on: Barred Antshrike, Short-tailed Pygmy Tyrant, Streaked Flycatcher, Boat-billed Flycatcher, Solitary Black Cacique, Gray-fronted Dove, Ruddy Ground Dove and others

Dinner

Night Birding
After dinner, we will venture out near the lodge to spot-light Pauraque, Tawny-bellied Screech-Owl, Great Potoo, Long tailed Potoo, Ocellated Poorwill and if we are lucky a Mottled Owl or Crested Owl. There is also the possibility of taking macro shoots of American Bullfrogs, Horned Frog, tree frogs and other creatures of the night.

Posada Amazonas – Overnight

Day 5

Breakfast

Transfer Private Boat-Posada Amazonas – Tambopata River Port

Transfer Puerto Maldonado to Laberinto Birding Trip
In a private vehicle, we will head west on the road to Cuzco. A short portion of the road is paved, the rest is just ripple. After about 40 km will leave the road to Cuzco and head north to Laberinto on the Madre de Dios River. We stop periodically to look for savannah species occurring on the deforested cattle ranches along the road. We hope to see: Southern Crested Caracara, White-tailed Kite, Black-faced Tanager, Red-breasted Blackbird, White-browed Blackbird, Scaled Pigeon, Point-tailed Palm-creeper, Sulphury Flycatcher Gray-lined Hawk White-tailed Hawk and the rare South-American Snipe. After three to four hours birding we return to Puerto Maldonado.

Transfer Puerto Maldonado Headquarters to Airport
We retrace our river and road journey back to Puerto Maldonado, our office, and the airport. Depending on airline schedules, this may require dawn departures.

Rates in 2018

Based on double occupancy. For single or triple rates, please inquire.

Flights from Lima to Puerto Maldonado depart from Jorge Chavez airport’s domestic terminal and take about 3 hours. Most flights stop in Cuzco before continuing to Puerto Maldonado. Flights from Cusco depart from the domestic terminal of Velasco Astete airport and take around 45 minutes.
  • Transfer-in (From Puerto Maldonado to Lodge):  daily at 13:00 and 14:00
  • Transfer-out (Lodge to Puerto Maldonado): daily at 07:00 and 08:00
Transfer time takes about 2 hours. Thus, it is important to schedule flights accordingly – the arrival flight should reach Puerto Maldonado before 2 pm and the departure flight should not be scheduled before midday. We do not take responsibility for any delays.
  • Lodge accommodations based on double occupancy
  • All scheduled land and river transportation
  • All transfers
  • All scheduled excursions with English-speaking specialist bird guide services
  • Meals as specified in the itinerary, B=Breakfast; L=Lunch; D=Dinner.
  • US$13 reserve entrance fee
  • International or domestic airfares,
  • Airport departure taxes or visa fees
  • Excess baggage charges,
  • Additional nights during the trip due to flight cancellations
  • Alcoholic beverages, bottled water, or snacks,
  • Insurance of any kind,
  • Extras such as:
    Laundry,
    Phone calls,
    Radio calls or messages,
    Reconfirmation of flights
    and items of personal nature.

When is the dry season?: Although it can rain at any time of the year, the Tambopata region tends to be drier from May until October. The rains start up in earnest in November and continue until April with the wettest months usually being November and December. During the dry season, trails aren’t as muddy, so chances are activities won’t be affected by rain and more macaws and parrots can be seen on the clay licks. On the other hand, during the dry season, it is much hotter and steamier, there is less bird activity on sunny days, it is more difficult to find amphibians, and more river transports take longer due to low water levels.

Tambopata during the wet season: Expect a lot of rain, and fewer fellow ecotourists. Usually, it rains in the afternoon, while mornings are a little cooler and cloudy. There may be higher bird activity due to the cloudy weather. The ponds and temporary wetlands that form at this time of the year in the rainforest are excellent sites for nature observation, especially for finding reptiles and amphibians.

Wildlife observation: No month is better than any other for spotting wildlife. Different conditions are favourable for different animals. While parrots and macaws tend to visit the clay lick more during the dry season, other animals come and go no matter what time of the year it is. A much bigger factor for seeing Amazonian wildlife is the guide’s level of experience and training.

Spotting monkeys: If you visit lodges such as the Tambopata Research Center, Refugio Amazonas, or Posada Amazonas, you have a very good chance of seeing several monkey species at any time of the year. The rollicking calls of Dusky Titis echo from vine tangles, Red Howler Monkeys call from the canopy, and troops of Squirrel Monkeys roam through secondary growth forest near oxbow lakes. Black Spider Monkeys may be a bit easier to find during the wet season because it’s usually easier to locate the fruiting trees they feed on, but a good guide will increase your chances of seeing them no matter what time of year it is.

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