These sites are well off the beaten track in Peru in the upper Maranon drainage. The sites are basically en route to Montanita or Abiseo NP. You can fly from Trujillo to Chagual and continue from here or drive from Trujillo on a bad road or drive south from Cajamarca also on a very bad and slow road. The star bird near El Molino is the rare and extremely range-restricted Purple-backed Sunbeam which is still fairly common in the alder groves around the village. Unicolored Tapaculo (the nominate form which now is considered a good species) and Black-crest Tit-tyrant are here too. As you descend towards the river Maranon it gets drier and around Aricapampa the Great Spinetail is not too uncommon. Chestnut-backed and Buff-bridled Inca-Finch are here too. Around Chagual key birds include Yellow-faced Parrotlet and Peruvian Pigeon.
Pataz is the gateway to Abiseo National Park. The park is not yet open to the public, but when a better road has been built and the conservation of the Chachapoyas ruins of Gran Pajaten can be secured it may well be that the park will open to public. The carpish endemics like Golden-backed Mountain-Tanager, Bay-vented Cotinga, Pardusco and Rufous-browed Hemispingus awaits here, though none is easy. The main attraction for birders when Abiseo opens up however will be Yellow-browed Toucanet.
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