Lima Birding Tours: Lomas de Lachay

Our Lomas de Lachay birding tour is the finest fog-oasis birding day trip from Lima, leading into one of the last and best-preserved lomas ecosystems in Peru. Just 105 km north of the capital — an easy two- to two-and-a-half-hour drive up the Panamericana Norte into Huaura Province — the Reserva Nacional de Lomas de Lachay rises from the coastal desert as a true fog oasis, watered not by rain but by the Pacific garúa that drifts inland off the sea. For anyone searching for Lomas de Lachay bird watching or a birdwatching tour near Lima, Peru, this is the day we recommend first.

The day unfolds as a journey through habitats. We begin outside the reserve, birding the irrigated farmland and fields along the approach — good ground for open-country species like the Peruvian Thick-knee — before we enter the Reserva Nacional de Lomas de Lachay itself. Inside, we work slowly up through the reserve's succession of transition zones and ecosystems, from bare lower desert into the fog-fed lomas and its cactus scrub. And while Lachay is best known for its green season — roughly June to November, when the Pacific garúa rolls in and the hills bloom with wildflowers — it is a rewarding birding day trip from Lima year-round: every season has its own light, mood and specialities, and the drier months are every bit as fascinating in their own right.

The birds are why we return. Lachay is among the finest places for Peruvian endemics near Lima: four occur here — Coastal Miner, Thick-billed Miner, Cactus Canastero and Raimondi's Yellow-Finch — and these endemic desert birds of Peru are the heart of the day. Alongside them we look for specialities including Least Seedsnipe, Tawny-throated Dotterel, Peruvian Thick-knee, Burrowing Owl, Peruvian Sheartail, Oasis Hummingbird, Amazilia Hummingbird, Andean Tinamou, Mountain Parakeet, Variable Hawk, Black-chested Buzzard-Eagle, Aplomado Falcon, Peruvian Meadowlark and Long-tailed Mockingbird. Across six eBird hotspots, 134 species have been recorded — the total our free downloadable checklist compiles. Sharp-eyed travellers may also glimpse a Sechuran Fox, an Andean Fox or the cryptic Pampas Cat, reptiles such as the Coastal Fer-de-Lance and the Lomas Gecko, and ancient pre-Columbian rock and cave paintings tucked into the hills.

It is a birding tour at heart, but one especially well suited to photography — the soft garúa light and confiding endemics make for memorable images. Wild Andes co-founder Alfredo Fernández, a biologist and National Geographic Explorer, spent most of 2017 at Lomas de Lachay as a photojournalist for the National Geographic Society, documenting the reserve for 'Lomas: Endangered Coastal Treasures.' We run it as a full-day, small-group tour (one to five or more travellers) with an early start, reaching the reserve by 4x4 and birding on gentle trail walks through hills and valleys toward the desert and the Pacific. A favourite among our Lima day tours for birdwatching, it can be extended with night visits or fully tailor-made targets on request.