19-Day Bolivia Birding Photography Tour: Endemics and Macaw Country

The tour gathers in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia's lowland city on the edge of the Amazon basin, where humid air and palm-lined avenues mark the shift from the Andean highlands. An airport transfer brings you to the hotel, the evening's starting point, giving time to settle cameras and meet the group before the days ahead. Dinner is shared, a chance to talk through the photography to come in the eastern lowlands and beyond. No birds or wildlife are recorded for this arrival day.

Grassy savanna with sand dunes, bushy scrub, scattered trees and pools opens out near Santa Cruz de la Sierra, where the morning is spent searching weedy areas for the restricted-range White-bellied Nothura and the near-endemic Bolivian Slaty Antshrike. Red-winged Tinamou and Red-legged Seriema are among the other birds this cerrado-like habitat is known for. An afternoon flight carries the group north to Trinidad, in Beni province, the gateway to the Llanos de los Moxos.

Palm savanna and gallery woodland in central Beni hold the day's first focus: a search for the Critically Endangered Blue-throated Macaw, with Blue-and-yellow, Red-and-green, Golden-collared and Chestnut-fronted Macaws also possible in the same habitat. Later, marshes, oxbow lakes, open meadows and gallery woodland around Trinidad offer classic Llanos de los Moxos birding, where Orinoco Goose, Hudson's Black Tyrant, Plain Softtail and Fawn-breasted Wren are among the targets, and Capybaras may appear. The Trinidad wetlands lie in the seasonally flooded Moxos plains, a mosaic of water and grassland that supports this mix of macaws, waterbirds and open-country species.

Marshes, oxbow lakes, open meadows and gallery woodland around Trinidad hold the classic birdlife of the Llanos de los Moxos. The area is known for Orinoco Goose, Hudson's Black-Tyrant, Plain Softtail and Fawn-breasted Wren, and Capybaras and other conspicuous mammals are possible among the wetlands. Photography works the water edges and scattered trees through the morning. A return flight from Trinidad to Santa Cruz de la Sierra closes the Llanos leg of the route.

Forest trails below the Codo de los Andes, where the mountains curve and several ecoregions meet inside Amboró National Park. The morning is spent walking the lodge trails and entrance road, listening for the dawn chorus just outside the cabins and watching for Bolivian Recurvebill, Yungas Manakin and Military Macaw, with the park's steep wooded slopes holding well over 800 recorded bird species. A picnic breakfast is taken beside a rushing river on the lower slopes before the 4-wheel-drive transfer continues to the lodge, set in a clearing among sandstone pinnacles. Deeper trails pass a waterfall and offer chances of lizards, monkeys and tapir.

Trails at Refugio Los Volcanes wind through Amboro's steep, densely forested slopes, where dawn brings a chorus of Yungas Manakin and Dusky-green Oropendola near the cabins. The entrance road offers easier footing and mixed flocks of tanagers and spinetails, while deeper paths lead toward a waterfall and views over the park, home to Military Macaw and the endemic Bolivian Recurvebill. Lizards, monkeys and even tapirs may appear along the way. After dark, the surrounding forest is scouted for Rufescent Screech-Owl and the elusive Rufous Nightjar.

A morning climb into higher-elevation forest searches for the Short-tailed Antthrush, while a crater lake often holds Masked Duck family parties alongside Least and Pied-billed Grebes. The route then descends the rugged road by 4-wheel drive to an air-conditioned bus, crossing a farming valley of cultivated and fallow fields, scrub and deciduous woodland where rare Mitred Parakeets move through cornfield country. Ascending toward Samaipata, the landscape turns drier, giving way to cacti and acacias, with birding stops for Red-faced Guan, Rothschild's Swift and Black-and-chestnut Warbling Finch.

A remnant Podocarpus forest holds some of Bolivia's rarest birds, including the Tucuman Amazon and Red-faced Guan, found only here and in northwest Argentina. Masked Trogon and Golden-olive Woodpecker work the mossy trunks while Blue-capped Puffleg and Buff-banded Tyrannulet move through the understory. The drive from Samaipata to Saipina crosses open scrubby hills into the Rio Mizque floodplain, where Straw-backed Tanager and Blue-winged Mountain-Tanager appear among mixed flocks. The day ends in Saipina, a quiet base for the dry country around it.

A tranquil valley along the Rio Mizque shelters the rare Red-fronted Macaw, a Bolivian endemic, crossing between feeding and roosting areas, with the endemic Cliff Parakeet also present. Leaving the lodge early, the route passes roadside stops through the Cochabamba Valley's fertile farmland, the Inter-Andean Dry Valleys and the Serrano Chaco, where cacti dominate. At the Jardín de Cactáceas Reserve, an international Key Biodiversity Area, there is time to photograph birds and cacti; the area is known for White-tipped Plantcutter, Chaco Puffbird and Grey-crested Finch. Simple camp-style lodging positions the group for an early start.

Cactus-covered hills and deep red and orange canyons define the Comarapa and Tambo country, where the endemic Bolivian Earthcreeper works the rocky slopes and Mountain Caracara and Andean Guan are part of the dryland character. Higher up, on the Amboro boundary, tall epiphyte-laden cloudforest holds Rufous-faced Antpitta, Trilling Tapaculo and Violet-throated Starfrontlet, with the Bolivian Brushfinch in the undergrowth. The evening search turns to Scissor-tailed Nightjar and Tropical Screech Owl. An early breakfast sets up the long canyon and ridge work, with lunch and dinner back at the hotel in Comarapa or Omereque.

An early crossing of the Siberia watershed leads into dry valleys, where Polylepis gullies hold the endemic Black-hooded Sunbeam, Wedge-tailed Hillstar and Rufous-bellied Mountain Tanager. Birding stops along the long drive toward Cochabamba take in scrub and open ground, with Giant Hummingbird and Citron-headed Yellow Finch among the species recorded. The route passes from high, cool watershed terrain into drier, warmer valleys, a shift that shapes what appears at each stop. The day is built around searching these pockets carefully, camera ready, before continuing to Cochabamba for the night.

Climbing the Quillacolla Road past Cerro Tunari toward a 4,000m pass, the day is spent among high-Andean boulder-field birds, with the endemic Cochabamba Mountain Finch, Giant Conebill and Wedge-tailed Hillstar among the targets of this rocky habitat. A late-afternoon lake below the pass holds waterfowl including White-tufted and Silvery Grebes, Puna and Cinnamon Teals and Andean Duck, while the reeds may hide the Wren-like Rushbird. The road gives access to open puna and quiet water in a single day.

Climbing out of the Cochabamba valley, the Chapare Road crosses open puna before dropping through elfin, temperate and subtropical forest toward Villa Tunari. This is the day's birding: a full descent through shifting habitat, with flocks moving through the mossy edges. The road is known for specialists such as Hooded Mountain Toucan, Upland Antshrike and Yungas Tody-Tyrant, and for mixed feeding parties that may also hold Scaled Metaltail, Blue-banded Toucanet and Bolivian Antpitta. An early start and a packed day on the road, with breakfast, lunch and dinner taken en route. The gradient and changing forest keep the photography varied from ridgeline to lowland edge.

The Chapare Road climbs out of the Cochabamba valley through open puna before descending through elfin, temperate and subtropical forest toward Villa Tunari, one of the richest altitudinal gradients in Bolivia. Birding along the roadside targets the upper-elevation specialists this habitat is known for, among them Hooded Mountain Toucan, Upland Antshrike and Yungas Tody-Tyrant, with the chance of mixed flocks moving through the mossy trees. Black-throated Thistletail and Scaled Metaltail favour the higher, scrubbier ground, while Blue-banded Toucanet and Band-tailed Fruiteater appear lower down. The day is spent largely on foot and in the vehicle, stopping wherever activity warrants.

Birding near Cochabamba targets the endemic Bolivian Blackbird and the range-restricted Brown-backed Mockingbird, species the area is known for. The route then climbs into puna habitat on the long drive to La Paz, the highest capital city on earth, with stops for Ornate Tinamou, White-winged Cinclodes and Puna Yellow Finch. The day is spent largely in the vehicle and at roadsides, scanning open grassland and rocky ground between stretches of driving, before arriving in La Paz or Copacabana for the night.

From the high puna at La Cumbre, the Coroico Road descends through cloudforest toward Coroico, birding the whole way. The pass holds high-Andean specialities such as Gray-breasted Seedsnipe, Ochre-naped Ground-Tyrant and Glacier Finch among the ground-tyrants. Lower down, middle-elevation Yungas forest is the place for the restricted-range Diademed Tapaculo and the uncommon near-endemic Scimitar-winged Piha, with Long-tailed Sylph, Andean Solitaire and Plushcap also present. The day ends at a hotel in Coroico, after breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Middle-elevation Yungas forest above Coroico, on steep cloud-forested slopes, is the setting for a day of birding with the camera. The restricted-range Diademed Tapaculo and the uncommon near-endemic Scimitar-winged Piha are the chief subjects, alongside Long-tailed Sylph, Andean Solitaire and Plushcap moving through the mossy understory and canopy. Coroico sits in Bolivia's Yungas, where humid forest drapes the Andean foothills. Attention stays on skulking tapaculos and mixed flocks, with patience and quiet positioning shaping the day's photographs before returning to the hotel in Coroico.

Birding follows the Coroico Road as it drops from high puna pass through cloudforest into subtropical forest, revisiting Yungas specialities along the gradient. The Yungas are known for Diademed Tapaculo and Scimitar-winged Piha, with hummingbirds such as Long-tailed Sylph and Great Sapphirewing among the flowers. After an early breakfast, the drive returns to La Paz and continues to Sorata at the base of the Illampa mountains, where the night is spent.

Dry valley country below the Illampa mountains gives the day its shape, with taller eucalyptus holding the large stick nests of the localised Berlepsch's Canastero, the search that defines this landscape. Lake Titicaca's reed edges then shift the focus to high-Andean waterbirds, among them Giant Coot, Silvery Grebe and the localised Titicaca Grebe, with Andean Goose and Crested Duck on the open water. After lunch the route climbs toward La Paz, ending with a transfer to the airport for a late afternoon departure.