Birding in Lima: El Olivar Park

Long-tailed Mockingbird

While in Lima, you don’t need to book an expensive excursion or to spend several days in a special birdwatching tour. Of course you can do it, if you want: but if you don’t have much time or are a bit tight on budget, the geographic location,the different micro climates and the mild weather conditions make Lima a city plenty of bird species during all the year.

Lima has several basic habitats for birds: parks, swamps, valleys, beaches and high seas, each one with its particular fauna. A full list of the bird species found in Lima can be downloaded here.

If you are really, seriously interested in birding, you will find agencies that offer you these tours in Lima and nearby places: two recommendable ones are Mundo Azul and Kolibri Expeditions, which even offer pelagic tours to watch sea birds.

Lovely Blue-gray tanager eating some fruits.

Blue-gray tanager (Thraupis episcopus)

But if you don’t have much time and just want to spend one morning or one afternoon birding, or maybe to offer your family an enjoyable experience, any park in Lima will provide a convenient, easy to reach scenario for some birdwatching.

We strongly suggest you try El Olivar Park. Not only is it quite easy to get there since it is located in a centric district, but its ancient 1,519 olive trees (some of them are believed to be more than 300 years old) are the home of the largest variety of bird species in Lima.

And once you get tired, you will find a nice cafeterias, bistro or restaurant nearby, like the T’anta, Segundo Muelle or Gourmet Deli, among many others.

We all know that the early bird gets the worm, so, despite the fact that you can find birds here all the time, the best time is undoubtedly early in the morning.

American Kestrel (Falco sparverius)

Take your list, and get ready for fun. Take a taxi and ask the driver to take you to El Olivar de San Isidro: every taxi driver in Lima knows it. Ask the driver to drop you in front of the Sonesta Hotel.

Depending on where you are, they can charge you between five and 15 soles (some US $2-5).

You can buy little bags of maize to attract the doves. And to make the experience even more enjoyable, the Municipality of San Isidro has placed along the sidewalks signs

with illustrations and descriptions of birds found in this park; doves, parrots, hummingbirds, hawks, sparrows, kestrels, and many other colorful birds.

There are several species of pigeons, and we can also find the beautiful red-breast vermilion flycatcher, the yellow saffron finch, and the lovely blue-gray tanager.

Vermilion flycatcher (Pyrocefalus rubinus)

Other species that live in El Olivar park are the southern beardless tyrannulet, the Rufus collared sparrow, the house sparrow, the sugar bird with its yellow belly and black mask, the house wren, the blue black grassquit, the shiny cowbird, the Amazilia hummingbird, the bay winged hawk, and many others.

A short list of birds found in Lima parks can be downloaded from here.

Most migratory birds can be found between October and March, while native species remain all the year.

Here’s a short video from MundoAzul1 to help you have an idea from now on what you can find in this wonderful green spot in the middle of the city.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTevdjwsLSM]

(Text and photos: Isabel Guerra)