Ikam Expeditions birding Moyobamba Peru — Black-bellied Tanager, spotted at Calzada with Ikam Expeditions.

Moyobamba has some of northern Peru’s best birding.

The biodiversity in northern Peru’s rainforest and cloud forest is astounding. If you love seeing wildlife when you travel, and especially if you love birding, put Moyobamba on your bucket list!

Ikam Expeditions

My first birding experience was with Ikam Expeditions, a wildlife tour company based in Moyobamba. Ikam guides are highly experienced and lead expeditions all over the country, but I contacted them because in Moyobamba, they’re by far the best. I got to spend a morning with Erick Reategui, who told me that where we’d be birding, they had identified about 300 species, including several that are very difficult to see anywhere else, like the Rufous-sided Crake. Spoiler: I saw a pair of them and got dozens of photos.

I also got a great breakfast while sitting in a bird blind. Erick picked me up at 6:30 and took me to Ikam Expeditions’s Reserve at Morro de Calzada, where Ikam has built several bird blinds, each overlooking areas that attract different kinds of birds, plus Illiger’s Saddle-backed Tamarins (below). They’re very cute and endemic to Peru, but I’ve seen them before in several other areas of Peru’s rainforest, and I was mostly there for the birds.

Moyobamba is in Peru’s San Martín department, where you can see the San Martín Titi Monkey. If monkeys are your thing, tell Ikam what you want to see and they’ll take you to the places where your chances are best. Their reserve at Morro de Calzada is a great place to spot them, but they didn’t come by the day I was there. Of course, all wildlife is unpredictable, but Ikam’s guides know where certain species are most often sighted.

Rufous-sided Crake with Ikam Expeditions Moyobamba Peru — Rufous-sided Crake

I was happy to wait for the crake to appear because Luis (standing above) serves excellent coffee. Erick is sitting, above.

Ikam Expeditions breakfast Calzada Moyobamba Peru — Breakfast at Morro de Calzada

Basic, yet perfect. There was plenty to eat and as much coffee as I wanted.

Ikam Expeditions bird blind Morro de Calzada Moyobamba Peru — Many bird blinds

Ikam has built several bird blinds. This one was great for hummingbirds and monkeys.

Good coffee and several good bird blinds

That is my definition of a good morning. The coffee was excellent and locally grown, served freshly ground in a French press. Here is my bird list, from just one morning at Morro de Calzada and in the village of Calzada:

Rufous-crested Coquette hummingbird, Reddish Hermit hummingbird, Streaked Flycatcher, Gray-breasted Sabrewing hummingbird, Golden-tailed Sapphire hummingbird, White-necked Jacobin hummingbird, Black-throated Mango hummingbird,* Black-throated Hermit hummingbird,* Fork-tailed Woodnymph hummingbird,* Long-tailed Hermit hummingbird,* Lafresnaye’s Piculet,* Rufous-sided Crake,* Short-crested Flycatcher, Social Flycatcher, Squirrel Cuckoo, Forest Elaenia,* Black-bellied Tanager,* Palm Tanager, Blue-gray Tanager, Burnished-buff Tanager,* Purple-throated Euphonia, Orange-crowned Euphonia, Thick-billed Euphonia, Golden-bellied Euphonia,* White-lined Tanager,* Yellow-rumped Cacique, and several others we heard but I didn’t see.

Birds with a * are ones I’d never seen before – 11 new additions to my life list!

(That’s not counting common birds that I see every day, like the Rufous-collared Sparrows and Black Vultures).

Calzada Backyard Birding

The photos above look different because we left Morro de Calzada and went to Luis’s house in the town of Calzada. He’s created an amazing bird sanctuary in his backyard. Also, Erick lent me his 600 lens, more than twice as powerful as the little lens I was using earlier that morning. How lucky am I that we have the same camera and that he was generous enough to lend me his lens???