Peru’s Magnetic North: Spatuletails, Owlet Lodge & More

Marvelous Abra Patricia is located in one of the loveliest areas of Peru’s northern Andes. On our tour we are powerfully drawn to the beauty and excitement of an astonishing array of fabulous birds–surely the most marvelous of which (among the likely ones) is–well, the Marvelous Spatuletail, the most outlandishly ornamented of hummers!

The rolling beauty of these mountains, much of them unmolested as they fall away to the east, is captivating. The temperature is often perfect, and at this time of year we should experience the best the “dry” season has to offer in terms of pleasant birding and passable trails. Birds are plentiful here, an impressive variety of which are endemic, endangered, or threatened, a preponderance of which are scarce or lovely–or both. That of course makes the area thrilling.

Species we’ll target during our week-long immersion include such legendary ones as Royal Sunangel, Bar-winged Wood-Wren, Lulu’s Tody-Tyrant, Yellow-scarfed Tanager, Chestnut-crested Cotinga, White-faced Nunbird, Cinnamon Screech-Owl, and a bunch of fantastic antpittas.

We even have a reasonably good chance of encountering the bizarre Long-whiskered Owlet–we will be staying at the lodge by that name and will put effort into tracking down one of these mythical creatures.