Lima Birding Tours: La Punta - Arenilla & Palomino Inlets

Our La Punta tour is a compact, easy half-day that packs an astonishing amount of Lima birding into the small Callao peninsula right beside the airport — a perfect first morning in Peru, a productive layover trip, or a relaxed add-on to a longer itinerary. In a few square kilometres you move through four completely different habitats: the rocky seawatch off the tip of La Punta, the leafy urban parks of the old port, the brackish shorebird lagoon of Poza de La Arenilla, and, by boat, the guano islands of San Lorenzo and Palomino. We give each its own free eBird checklist, so you leave with the full record of the day.

The morning starts on the water. From the malecón and beaches at the tip of La Punta we scan the Humboldt Current for Inca Tern, Peruvian Pelican, Peruvian Booby, Guanay and Red-legged Cormorants, Belcher's and Kelp Gulls, Blackish and American Oystercatchers and, on the wave-washed rocks, the endemic Surf Cinclodes — with Humboldt Penguin and passing shearwaters and storm-petrels offshore. A short walk inland, the shaded parks of the old port — Parque Gonzalo Fernández and its neighbours — are a complete change of pace, holding Vermilion Flycatcher (including Lima's striking dark morph), Amazilia Hummingbird, Croaking Ground Dove, West Peruvian Dove, Scrub Blackbird and a hunting Harris's Hawk or two.

A few minutes away lies Poza de La Arenilla, a brackish coastal lagoon that is one of the best shorebird sites anywhere near Lima. In the northern migration seasons it fills with thousands of waders — Hudsonian Godwit, Wilson's and Red-necked Phalaropes, Willet, Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, Semipalmated, Western and Least Sandpipers, Sanderling and plovers — alongside resident Andean Avocet, Black-necked Stilt, Peruvian Thick-knee and Black Skimmer, with gulls and terns loafing on the bar.

The finale is a one-hour boat trip out to the guano islands of San Lorenzo, Palomino, Cavinzas and El Frontón. The rocks are covered in Guanay, Red-legged and Neotropic Cormorants, Peruvian Boobies and Peruvian Pelicans, Inca Terns nest in the crevices, Humboldt Penguins bob in the swell, and a South American Sea-lion colony thousands strong hauls out on the ledges — superb, close photography in sheltered water. The whole tour runs from an early breakfast to around 1–2 PM, all within minutes of Jorge Chávez airport, so we can drop you back at your hotel or straight at the terminal for a departing flight.