The Ultimate 4-Day Tour for Birdwatchers

Daily Tour 4 days
Peru Machu Picchu, Cusco and Sacred Valley

Descriptions

The best 4-Day Tour Birdwatching Cusco Machu Picchu that you cannot miss! There are many good reasons to visit the most amazing of all known Inca ruins and birding definitely adds to the long list.

Peru is one of the greatest countries on earth for birders. The bird population in Peru is, incredibly, about 10% of the world’s total. With nearly 2,000 species of resident and migrant birds identified throughout Peru, great bird-watching sites abound. While many of the best birding destinations are in Amazonian, the Cusco area, especially around Machu Picchu, offers a nice range of cloud forest birds in an incredible setting.

IMPORTANT TIP

If you want to see the citadel of Machu Picchu and its beautiful landscape, then book your trip in advance. Since, the Peruvian government has imposed a daily limit of visits and tickets tend to sell out quickly. Make sure to buy your tickets in time!

Why to choose Culturandes Travel & Adventure for this Birdwatching Cusco Machu Picchu?

Are you looking for unforgettable memories for this adventure? Culturandes Travel & Adventure want you to have a hassle-free planning and an unforgettable travel experience without any stress and unexpected situations by the hand of its experts travel advisors and knowledgeable local guides providing you:

  • Reliable and high level services
  • Certified Peruvian tour operator
  • Safe transport according to the highest standards
  • Adequate equipment for the activity
  • Detailed and personalized information prior to the trip
  • 24 hour support during your trip
  • Excellent official local guides who will be the star of your trip

We are experts in private and customized tours all around Peru, ask our expert travel advisors to upgrade your experience with additional activities and extensions.

Group services versus Private services?

This is a question we all need to ask ourselves when planning a trip. The answer depends largely on the age, the particular interests of each person and, above all, the economy of each passenger. Below, we list the differences between conducting a group service versus a private service. It should be noted that, in either of the two modalities, you will receive top quality care from the entire team of professionals who will make your trip unforgettable

Group Services

  • The driver follows the stops designated by the tour
  • Groups can have between 15 and 20 people
  • Guidance is simultaneous in English and Spanish for the entire group
  • The itinerary has to be strict to fulfill the daily plan
  • Guidance is available at the same time for the entire group
  • The main advantage of group services is the affordable price

Private Services

  • The driver will make the necessary stops where you indicate
  • Of 5 or more people, the private service has a similar price to the group service.
  • You own the time you want to have at each stop
  • Guidance is in only 1 language and at the passenger’s choice (prior consultation for rare languages)
  • The guide will be available only for you and attentive to your requirements
  • The travel experience becomes much more personal and deep in knowledge

We urge you to get in touch with us so we can design your trip to Peru together, probably combining some excursions in private and some in group services. Our team of experienced voyagers knows what it means to plan a trip of a lifetime as well as the investment that implies, therefore, we want everything to go perfect.

Highlights

THE 4-DAY BIRDWATCHING TOUR TO CUSCO AND MACHU PICCHU

  • Take your binoculars and experience 4 days marveling the variety of the birds that we can find around Cusco, and Machu Picchu.
  • Enjoy a leisurely train ride to Machu Picchu and visit “The Lost City of the Incas”.
  • Remain astonished by a place where the legend of the past is so vividly present while you discovered the Incas civilization best-kept secret.

Gallery

Itinerary

Lunch

Your 4-Day adventure will begin early in the morning with a transfer to the South Valley of Cusco until arriving to the Huacarpay lakes that are surrounded by xeric ravines (quebradas in Peruvian Spanish) and rocky hills covered with shrubs, various cacti, tree tobacco, and small trees. The area deserves at least several hours of attentive birding and always seems to be a popular place to start our tour, since the viewing conditions are easy. The marshy shores and waters of the lakes support Andean waterbirds and waders, including White-tufted Grebe, Puna Ibis, Puna Teal, Yellow-billed Pintail, Ruddy Duck, Plumbeous Rail, and Andean Lapwing. In addition, there are usually a few boreal shorebird non-breeders or migrants (quite a few later in the season). The extensive rush beds shelter Cinereous Harriers, Yellow-winged Blackbirds, Wren-like Rushbirds, and the beautiful Many-colored Rush- Tyrant, and the scrubby slopes are home to a number of land birds, including Bare-faced Ground-Dove, Giant Hummingbird (at nine inches, the largest-bodied of the hummers), Streak-fronted Thornbird, large flocks of Greenish Yellow-Finches (usually), Ash-breasted Sierra-Finches, Band-tailed Seedeaters, and the endemic Rusty-fronted Canastero. Another Peruvian endemic, the spectacular Bearded Mountaineer, feeds at the tubular yellow flowers of the wild Tree Tobacco that grows in the outwash plains near the lakes. Hanging above the slopes on occasion are Black chested Buzzard-Eagles, and down them hurtle Aplomado Falcons in pursuit of some unsuspecting dove. You will also have some time to explore some wonderful pre-Inca and Inca archaeological complexes as Tipon and Andahuaylillas. In the midafternoon we drive towards the Sacred Valley and you will spend the night in the beautiful Inca Town of Ollantaytambo.

Lunch

We leave Ollantaytambo early in the morning on the way to Malaga Pass (13780ft/4200m) in the high Andes area, with beautiful puna grasses, rugged landscapes, spectacular mountains, as the snow-capped peak Veronica quietly dominating the cordillera in this area, that goes from the upper temperate forest to the tree line down to about 9000 feet. Much of the area below 9000 feet on the east slope has been badly disturbed, so our birding will be above this point and hence restricted to the upper temperate forest and puna zones.

The lush mixture of bamboo, some Polylepis, and moss-festooned trees of the wet slope (on the north side of the pass) is still extremely rich with birds, as is the scrubby canyon of the dry slope (on the south side of the pass). This, of course, is not always apparent since often people can walk the road for fifteen minutes, even under highly favorable weather conditions, and see very little. The main reason for this is that birds in this cloud forest travel in mixed-species flocks, so the situation is often feast or famine for the birder. Yet few phenomena in the tropics hold the excitement off easting one’s eyes on these flocks when they do materialize out of the clouds or out of a shady enclave untouched as yet by the sun. We know how to work this area for flocks and are sure to find lots of species. “Wet-side” endemics include: Marcapata Spinetail, Puna Thistletail, Unstreaked Tit-Tyrant, Inca Wren, Parodiʼs Hemispingus, and Cusco Brush-Finch. Also, possible see Saphire-vented Puffleg, Line-fronted Canastero, and Diademed Tapaculo. Should rain (or sun!) set in, we will head back across the pass to the “dry side,” watching for Andean Ibis, Gray-breasted Seedsnipe, White-tufted Sunbeam, Creamy-crested Spinetail, Stripe-headed Antpitta, and the handsome Chestnut-breasted Mountain-Finch. There will be an opportunity for the hardy to climb into an area of extensive Polylepis where we will have a chance for Andean Hillstar, White-browed and Tawny tit-spinetails, Junin Canastero, Puna Tapaculo, Ash-breasted Tit-Tyrant, and Giant Conebill. And at any time on the “dry side,” a huge Andean Condor could circle right overhead. Returning to Ollantaytambo we will stop briefly at “Las Peñas” for more species, after having all this spectacular birding experience, you will return to Ollantaytambo train station and hop on board of one of the prettiest train rides in South America with final destination Machu Picchu, which rises enigmatic among the clouds of the majestic Andes. This natural environment located on the eastern slopes of the Andes encompasses the upper Amazon basin, with its rich diversity of flora and fauna.

The citadel was probably the most impressive urban creation of the Inca Empire in its heyday. Its giant walls, terraces and ramps look as if they had been carved naturally in the escarpments of the rock.

When, in 1911, the American archaeologist and historian Hiram Bingham discovered “The Lost City of the Inca Empire”, he could not imagine that he had reached the most enigmatic Inca ruins, one of the most spectacular and overwhelming places on earth that still conserves its mystery, charm and mystical appeal, despite its enormous popularity, even more so after having been designated one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World. Exploring the place continues to be an exciting experience, especially at dawn, when the scenic rays of light extend over the Andean peaks.

At night, visit the bars along the railroad tracks to share stories with some of the hikers who successfully completed the Inca Trail, or end your fantastic day relaxing the muscles in the hot springs.

Lunch

Early after our breakfast we will walk following the banks of the Urubamba river for about two hours, this is an ideal stretch for bird watching, it is a forest full of flocks of Tanager, Parakeets, siskins, hummingbirds, flycatchers, thrushes, and solitaires, and even occasional White-rumped Hawks and Black-and-chestnut Eagles. Later we will take a bus up to the great Inca citadel of Machupicchu where we will have a guided tour for approximately two hours. The area around Machu Picchu has been cleared of forest and so scrub and bamboo thickets are now the predominant habitat, inhabited by the noisy endemic Inca Wren, although some forest patches can be found along the river valley. Other species we may find in the area include Mitred Parakeet, White-tipped Swift, the endemic Green-and-white Hummingbird, Collared Inca, Ocellated Piculet, Streaked Xenops, Variable Antshrike, Mottle-cheeked Tyrannulet, Rusty Flowerpiercer, Oleaginous Hemispingus, Yellow-bellied Seedeater and Hooded Siskin.

We will have a full morning to bird the subtropical cloudforest around the town, before the train leaves. This area is good for species like Green-and-white Hummingbird, Masked Fruiteater, Variable Antshrike, and Silver-backed Tanager. Optionally, some people may wish to return to the ruins for a final visit. In the late afternoon we will return by train to Ollantaytambo and then by bus to Cusco city.

MAKE IT DIFFERENT!
Ask our experts travel advisors to complete your trip with an extension to the impressive citadel of Machu Picchu, the challenging Inca Trail, the impressive Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world, the majestic Colca Canyon, the mysterious Nazca lines, the enigmatic jungle or the Kingdom of the Chachapoyas.

Location

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