Update from The World Birding Rally 2014

Wiki Image Courtesy of http://bit.ly/1JcQDX9

Wiki Image Courtesy of http://bit.ly/1JcQDX9

The World Birding Rally is in full swing! From the Pacific Ocean, across the northern Andes and into the foothills above the Amazon basin, the teams will likely see nearly 900 species of birds during the Rally as they drive from sandy desert scrub up to cloud forest and down into rainforest. The Rally celebrates Peru’s bird diversity (at some 1,800 species, second highest in the world, after Colombia)—as well as its uniqueness, as evidenced by the country’s roughly 100 endemic species.

The World Birding Rally kicked off on Wednesday with great expectations from all the teams. The highlight of the day was definitely the White-winged Guan, a Peruvian endemic restricted to very few areas in the Northwest dry forest of the country, thought to be extinct for 100 years! In the lead on day 1 was the Sunbird wings (UK/US) team spotting over 130 species.

An intense second day at the World Birding Rally followed, as teams left Chiclayo in coastal Lambayeque and headed to Cajamarca region in the Andean highlands, at 2600 meters above sea level.  The Sunbird Wings (UK/US) were still in the lead at the end of day 2 with 181 species.

The World Birding Rally kept moving and the teams were overwhelmed on Day 3 by the large number of endemic birds observed in the surroundings of Cajamarca. Final total at the end of day 3 was 293 species spotted, with Sunbird wings (UK/US) currently in 1st place, followed by the field guides (US – 222 species spotted), Surbound (US – 204 species spotted) and Birding Ecotours coming in 4th place (South Africa – 198 species spotted).

Stay tuned on our channels and on the World Birding Rally Facebook page for updates from the ground in Peru.

16.5.14

World Birding Rally 2014

Birding Rally Challenge

It’s that time again! From May 12th to 20th, the fourth edition of the World Birding Rally will take place in Peru. Four teams of renowned birdwatchers from United States, South Africa and United Kingdom will be part of a unique competition due to its non-stop modality. They will travel the Nor Amazon route in search of the bird species that habit this search area.

Route 2014

On this occasion, the World Birding Rally will cover a 1503-km itinerary through twelve life zones and four regions of Peru that will showcase the Pacific coastline, the Andes and the Amazon rainforest: Lambayeque, Cajamarca, Amazonas and San Martín. It is the second time that the World Birding Rally follows this enthralling route, which allowed last year’s teams register a total of 864 bird species (10% of the world’s total species), with 34 endemics among them.

Organized by our team at the NGO Inkaterra Asociación and the Peruvian Tourism Board (PromPerú), the World Birding Rally is part of a strategy to promote Peru as a top destination for bird watching. It is worth mentioning that it is the third country with the largest number of bird species throughout the world (1816 species, 120 of which are endemics). The competition also aims to raise awareness on the environment, and contributes on creating added value in rural areas trough sustainable tourism. Keep up-to-date with the upcoming challenge on Twitter and Facebook with hashtag #BirdingRallyChallenge

 9.5.14

SAHIC 2014: Your chance to meet our Founder José Koechlin!

SAHIC, the South American Hotel & Tourism Investment Conference, is the annual event of international level aimed at promoting the Hotel and Tourism business and related Real-Estate industry projects in the region, which has become a classic that continues to re-invent itself year after year. We’re very excited to be returning to SAHIC this year. If you’re attending, this is your chance to meet our founder and CEO, José Koechlin!

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Are you attending? Tweet us to let us know with hashtag #SAHIC2014 and @InkaterraHotels 

2.5.14