Santa
Eulalia Valley
Ascending into the Andes from Lima, one moves from bleak desert through cactus land, dry grassy slopes and finally to scrubby hillsides with a good variety of birds. The Santa Eulalia Valley provides an excellent sampling of Pacific slope birds. The main target here is usually the rare and local Rufous-breasted Warbling-Finch, while Great Inca-Finch is very readily found at some sites. Spot-winged Pigeon can be found near its northern limit here, while other large birds include many raptors including Aplomado Falcon and Black-chested Buzzard-Eagle and even Andean Condor occasionally. Black-necked Woodpecker and Peruvian Pygmy-Owl of the pacific race can be found locally. There is a good variety of hummingbirds to be found, the most interesting of which is the local Bronze-tailed Comet which is joined by Peruvian Sheartail, Oasis Hummingbird, Giant Hummingbird and Black Metaltails are frequent in the upper part of the valley. In the lower parts, Streaked Tit-Spinetail can be found, while in the higher parts it is replaced by Rusty-crowned Tit-Spinetail. River birds include Torrent Duck, White-capped Dipper and White-winged Cinclodes.
Connecting
Sites
This site is visited either as a day trip from Lima, where an early
start is required for best birding, or as a first day of a Central Peru
trip. It is a convenient entrance route to the Milloc-Marcopomacocha area.
The birding areas begin about 3 hours from Lima.