Lima Birding Tours: Ventanilla Marshes

Our Ventanilla Marshes birding tour is the fastest, most rewarding wetland birding day trip near Lima — a compact reed-and-lagoon reserve barely twenty minutes north of the airport. Officially the Área de Conservación Regional Humedales de Ventanilla, it packs coastal marsh, open lagoons, a beach-backed albufera and dry grassland into a small, easily walked area where the birds are dense, tame and wonderfully photogenic. For anyone searching for Ventanilla Wetlands bird watching, a Lima layover birding stop, or a half-day birdwatching tour near Lima, this is the site we send you to first.

Ventanilla is the northern link in Lima's chain of coastal wetlands — Pantanos de Villa lies to the south — and that concentration of habitat is what makes it so productive. Reed-lined channels and freshwater lagoons hold rails, gallinules, coots and marsh specialists; the albufera and adjacent shoreline draw flamingos, shorebirds, gulls and terns; and the surrounding scrub and grassland add open-country birds. It is flat, sheltered and quick to bird, so a couple of focused hours here can turn up a remarkable variety.

The reedbeds are the place for the coastal Black Rail — a Peruvian endemic form — alongside Plumbeous Rail, Common and Purple Gallinules, the exquisite Many-colored Rush Tyrant, Wren-like Rushbird and Least Bittern. Open water adds Puna Teal, White-cheeked Pintail, Andean Duck and elegant Chilean Flamingos, while the coast brings migratory shorebirds such as Hudsonian Godwit, Wilson's Phalarope and a range of sandpipers, plus Gray-hooded and Belcher's Gulls and Black Skimmer. Two more Peruvian endemics — Coastal Miner and Surf Cinclodes — work the beach and rocks. In all, 165 species have been recorded here on eBird, the total our free downloadable checklist compiles.

Because it is so close to Jorge Chávez airport, Ventanilla is the classic Lima layover birding tour — a productive way to fill a few hours before or after a flight — but it also makes a relaxed, photography-friendly morning for anyone based in the city. We run it as a flat, easy, small-group tour (one to five or more travellers), and can extend it to the nearby La Punta and Callao seafront for Inca Tern, Peruvian Pelican, Peruvian Booby and, with luck, a Humboldt Penguin. Send us your flight times and we'll tell you honestly what your window allows.