Western Amazonia is known to be one of the richest areas in bird species in the entire vast Amazonian basin. During this 12-days birding tour, we will explore the different habitats of the Upper Amazon River around the city of Iquitos in northeastern Peru, including river islands and the ‘White Sand Forest’. There are over 600 species of birds recorded in this area. We will search for interesting Amazonian bird species that are specialists of these restricted and unique habitats, like Nocturnal and Wattled Curassow, Chestnut-belted Gnateater, Pavonine Quetzal, Black-necked Red Cotinga, Undulated Antshrike, Reddish-winged Bare-eye, and Band-tailed Cacique. The rich variety of river island specialists include Zimmer’s Woodcreeper, Pale-billed Hornero, White-bellied Spinetail, Black-and-white Antbird, Olive-spotted Hummingbird, and Parker’s Spinetail, to name just a few.

We will start our tour in the city of Iquitos located in the Amazon Basin and surrounded by the Amazon, Nanay, and Itaya rivers. Iquitos, founded during the rubber and timber boom of the 19th century, is the largest city in the world that is only accessible by river and air, since there are no roads to the outside world. Not far from Iquitos, two major rivers of Peru, the Marañon and Ucayali, meet and together form the majestic Amazon River, creating a variety of different habitats, including river islands. Each habitat is home to different specialized bird species. The river forms a natural limit, as the northern Amazon River side has different bird species in comparison to the southern side. The different islands in the river have their own kind of vegetation and specialized bird species.

The forests with white sand soils close to Iquitos are another unique and fragile environment where we can find special bird species, several of them only recently discovered and described by science like Ancient Antwren, Allpahuayo Antbird, Mishana Tyrannulet and Iquitos Gnatcatcher.

All these different habitats with interesting bird species can be found around Iquitos and offer a unique birding experience during our Amazon River Birding Tour.