Birding and Nature at Peru’s Lomas de Lachay

Peruvian Meadowlark in a Netle Flower garden at Lomas de Lachay. Photo: Javier Colmenares. 

Birding and Nature at Peru’s Lomas de Lachay
Lomas the Lachay (Lachay Hills) National Reserve is an oasis in the lifeless Atacama Desert.  For birding enthusiasts, naturalists, or anyone who wishes to spend a day at a unique nature site in Peru, Lomas Lachay is a must-visit. Lomas de Lachay undergoes dramatic changes ranging from barren plains that look like the surrounding Atacama Desert to the lush greenery enshrouded by the ascending mist from the Pacific Ocean just below it.

Lomas de Lachay during the peak of the wet season. Photo: David Moran 

Lomas de Lachay seems to be in permanent succession or transitory states.  During the wet season, this tiny dot in the desert grows into solid green layer, as dormant seeds from the previous season germinate in response the humidity brought by the persistent ascending mist beginning in the month of June.   Soon the short, green lining turns into shrubs that give way to a spectacular garden, where the yellow of the Netle flowers (Loasa urens) predominates.

This is what Lomas de Lachay look like at the beginning of the wet season. Photo: David Moran 

Lomas de Lachay results from a combination of a peculiar geography, and coastal climate factors. Lomas de Lachay is the point where the ascending clouds from the Pacific Ocean collide with the suddenly spurring western Andes resulting in condensed water on the surface.
There are two distinct seasons in Lachay: the humid season, from approximately June to November, and the dry season, from December to May. Birding and Nature viewing is equally rewarding during the two seasons. The wet season may seem the most important due to its ability to bring life. The wet season attracts a number of birds that flock to Lachay to take advantage of the burst of abundant food.
The onset of the dry season is thought of as the slow and dull season. As temperatures warm up along the Peruvian coast, the mist becomes scarce and the drying process begins. The yellow blooms are the first to blink out and the predominantly green landscape begins to acquire a brown hue to a point where most leaves and stems collapse to the ground to re-integrate to the soil that started the cycle of life a few months earlier.

Lomas de Lachay during the dry season. Photo: Alfredo Begazo 

Throughout the dry and ephemeral wet seasons, plants and animals appear and become common, before disappearing again. However, there are many species that are permanent residents, including Rufous-collared Sparrow, Eared Dove, Vermillion Flycatcher, Burrowing Owl, Black-chested Eagle, and Variable hawks. The wet season attracts more individuals of these species, and a flurry of hummingbirds such as Sparkling Violetears, Purple-collared Woodstar, Peruvian Sheartail, Oasis, and Amazilia Hummingbirds. Peruvian Meadow Larks, Hooded Siskin, Mountain Parakeets, Yellowish Pipits, and Chiguanco Thrushes are there, albeit mostly during the wettest part of the season.

Male Peruvian Sheartail photographed by Javier Colmenares. 

Birding groups visiting Lachay during the dry season will not be disappointed as dry conditions attract a different set of birds which are readily seen due to the general lack of vegetation.  This is the time when most shrubs produce seeds and food for seed-eating birds is abundant. Least Seedsnipes, a species endemic to the foothills of the western Andes become fairly common at Lachay. Other seed-eating birds become common when most other birds have already left; these include Band-tailed Sierra-Finch, Grassland and Raimondi’s Yellow-Finches, and Andean Tinamou.

Least Seedsnipe can be readily seen at the end of the wet season. Photo: Alejandro Tello. 

Tinamous are easier to see in times of little vegetative coverage at Lachay. Abundance of seed at the end of the dry season also result in increased population of Mountain Mice, which attracts greater numbers of predators such as Variable and Harris’ Hawks, American Kestrel, and the photogenic Black-chested Eagle. Suchuran Foxes are also attracted by the mice at the end of the green season.

Some Sechuran Foxes at Lomas de Lachay have become habiturated to people. Photo Jose Alarco. 

In terms of birding value, Lomas de Lachay is the best spot to reliably find a set of Peruvian endemic birds including Thick-billed miner, Coastal Miner, Raimondi’s Yellow-Finch, and Cactus Canastero. I never get tired of visiting Lomas de Lachay. Conditions are so variable. On one visit it is so misty it gives an ethereal feeling with little visibility. On other times it can be bright and sunny and the place looks so different from just days past.  All my birding trips to Lachay are sure to deliver a rewarding birding and nature experience. If little is happening in the way of birds, the Variable Hawks and confident Black-chested Eagles perched in the back drop of Western Andes are enough for a good memory of a visit to Lomas the Lachay

The magnificent Black-chested Eagle are common at Lomas de Lachay and can be readily photographed. Photo: Javier Colmenares. 

Lomas de Lachay was established in 1977 as a national reserve in the desert foothills of Huaura Province in Lima region of Peru. The reserve is located 105 kilometres (65 mi) north of the capital city of Lima. It expands across an area of 5,070 hectares (12,500 acres).


View Lomas de Lachay National Reserve in a larger map
Even after being legally protected, the reserve was heavily grazed by goats and many of the Tara trees cut for fencing and firewood. The goats have been excluded and saplings of Tara trees are being planted to return Lachay to the splendor of years past.

Written by: Alfredo Begazo
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