APOLO AREA & MACHARIAPO VALLEY
BOLIVIA
LOCALE
| # Species: | 221 |
| # Excl Vagrants: | 221 |
| # Endemics: | 2 |
| # Near Endemics: | 12 |
| Habitat: Scrub, pasture, Andean cerrado, dry forest | |
ABOUT THE BIRDING
Apolo is an out-of-the-way small town on a high Andean plateau north of La Paz. It's the starting point for three important birding areas, the Machariapo Valley to the north, the Aten cerrado to the south, and the Apolo Yungas to the southwest. The Machariapo Valley is home to the Ashy Antwren and the stunningly yellow Inti Tanager, a species overlooked and new to science only in 2021. The valley is also the best place in the world to see the super secretive Rufous-vented Ground-Cuckoo, which is actually poossible to see there. The Scimitar-winged Piha is a very rare bird in Bolivia by has sometimes been seen in the gulch below the rockslide near the beginning of the valley after entering the Manejo National Park.
The Bolivian Andean cerradois only found on the flat plains of Aten and is home to the endangered Palkacupa Cotinga, a bird unknown for almost a century until it was rediscovered by an expedition sponsored by the American Bird Conservancy. It is a split from Swallow-tailed Cotinga by many authorities though not as of 2022 by Clements. Also present in the same area is the rare Green-capped Tanager and a variety of other more widely distributed cerrado species. The Apolo Yungas (cloud forest) is another site for Ashy Antwren. It features many typical cloud forest species and birding is excellent with mixed species flocks commonplace.
LOCATION OF SITE
The town of Apolo is located 413km (some 10 hours) north of La Paz. The Maschariapo Valley is reached by a dirt road the slowly descends along the river north of Apolo. The town of Aten is located 33km south of Apolo. Good forest begins 6km south of the town. The Apolo Yungas is included in the Cotapata National Park and is traversed by the road connecting La Paz to Apolo between Apolo and Charazani.