Peru rivals every country on Earth for sheer number of bird species. Coast, Andes, and Amazon combine here to produce a checklist nearing two thousand species, a diversity matched almost nowhere else on the planet, and Birds of Peru is your invitation to get to know fifty of them properly, not as field marks on a plate, but as full lives unfolding across some of the most dramatic landscapes anywhere in the world.
This volume moves region by region, following the same geography that shapes the country itself: the Humboldt Current seabird colonies of the Central Coast, the vanishing dry forests of Tumbes, the recently discovered cloud forest specialists of Amazonas, the Inca heartland of the Sacred Valley, the high Andean lakes around Arequipa and Titicaca, the extraordinary elevational sweep of Manu, the macaw clay licks of Tambopata, and the blackwater floodplain surrounding Iquitos. Each bird gets six full sections, covering identification, habitat and range, behaviour and diet, call and song, breeding and nesting, and a closing detail that brings the species to life beyond anything a standard field guide has room for.
Inside, you'll meet:
The Andean Cock-of-the-Rock, Peru's flamboyant national bird, whose courtship display is one of the strangest and most theatrical in the Americas
The White-winged Guan, believed extinct for over a century before a small population turned up in a single dry forest valley
The Marvelous Spatuletail, a hummingbird with a tail unlike any other bird alive, and the unlikely face of an entire valley's conservation effort
The Andean Condor, riding thermals above Colca Canyon in one of the great wildlife spectacles of South America
The Hoatzin, whose chicks are born with functional claws on their wings, a living echo of the earliest feathered dinosaurs
Written in a narrative, natural history style rather than the clipped shorthand of a field guide, and organized region by region for anyone planning to explore the country in person, Birds of Peru turns a fleeting sighting into something worth remembering.
Perfect for:
- Travelers planning a trip who want real context before they go
- Birdwatchers and life listers preparing a Peru itinerary
- Armchair naturalists who enjoy narrative wildlife writing
- Ecotourism and conservation minded readers
- Gift buyers shopping for a birder, traveler, or nature lover
- Teachers, students, and homeschool families studying ecology and biodiversity
Birds of Peru is Volume 5 in the World Bird Regions series by naturalist and travel writer Owen Hartley.
