Malaga Full Day

This bird watching trip aims to have a record of quite restricted and endemic birds that would only be possible to achieve in this hot spot, for that we will leave from Cusco early in our private bus and we will begin our birding looking for the endemic birds that live at the base of the high pass such as: Creamy-crested Spinetail, Chestnut-breasted Mountain-finch, White-tuffted Sumbean, Great saphirewing, Tawny-rumped tyrannulet, Tuffted Tit-tyrant, Rust-and-yellow Tanager, Tyrian Metaltail, etc.

As we go up the route, we will find birds restricted to steppe landscapes such as: Junin Canastero, Puna Pipit, Streak-backed Canastero, Streak-throated Canastero, Creamy-winged cinclodes, etc.

From the high pass there is a trail that leads to Polylepis relic forest where you can observe the Ones most restricted to this specialized habitat like: White-browed Tit-Spinetail, Ash-breasted Tit-Tyrant, Tawny Tit-Spinetail, Red- rumped Bush-Tyrant, Giant Conebill, Puna Tapaculo, etc. To reach these birds it will be a tough walk of approximately four hours in total, due to the altitude at which you walk and the unevenness of the route.

Then we will continue our birding towards the cloud forest area, there we will find quite colorful birds. It is also in this area possible to see mixed flocks that are made up of different species in order to be more successful in the search for their food, we could see: Scarlet- bellied Mountain-Tanager, Three-striped Hemispingus, Parodi’s Hemispingus, Drab Hemispingus, Unstreaked Tit-Tyrant; the Flowerpiercers (Diglosas) are especially frugivorous that feed nectar of flowers too, we can see there; Rusty-Flowerpiercer Flowerpiercer, Mustached-Flowerpiercer, Black-throated-Flowerpiercer and also will have chance to see also endemic ones in this Cloud Forest like: Cusco Brushfinch, Parodi’s Hemispingus, Inca Flycatcher, Inca Wren, etc.

So, we can also see many other species that inhabit more in the cloud forest such as: hummingbirds and one of the most conspicuous is the Sword-Billed Hummingbird, Amethyst-throated Sunangel, Saphire-vented Puffleg, Rufous-capped Thornbill, Purple-backed Thornbill, etc.

Later we return to Cusco to arrive at over eight to our hotel.