Along the road to Sandia 28 of May.

28 of May I headed towards Sandia together with some friends, our goal was San Juan del Oro. I was the only birdwatcher, but we had some stops that I used to watch birds. Along the road from Juliaca to Sandia you have to climb up to 4600 m, it means that you can see some highland species on your way.
Ornate Tinamou
La Rinconada area

White-winged Diuca Finch

Looking for gold.

Crested Duck

Sandia area 28 of May.

While the others were eating lunch in Sandia I used the time looking for the Green-capped Tanager. I managed to see two in a garden at the right hand side shortly after a waterfall (to the left) about two kilometres below Sandia at approximately 2100 m. After lunch we continued our way to San Juan del Oro. However, we didn’t make it all the way to San Juan del Oro, while climbing to Abra Maruncuna (2200 m) the road got really bad and we decided to return to Sandia.

Blue-banded Toucanet
Andean Guan

Andean Cock-of-the-Rock

Green-capped vs. Burnished-buff Tanager

29 of May I returned to the garden where I observed the Green-capped Tanager the previous day. In the early morning I observed one individual. After an hour I had good enough light to take some photos at 800 ASA, and luckily a new bird entered the garden. After taking some photos I started to wonder if this really was a Green-capped Tanager. The crown looked more rufous than usual for this species, and I wondered if this could be a Burnished-buff Tanager. However, it seems to be too high for this species (2100 m). But as my experience with both species is quite limited I hope someone can give me some advice about this bird. It looks like the bird has some greenish in the rufous crown.
Is it a Green-capped or Burnished-buff Tanager.
Some greenish in the rufous crown.

The only picture from behind.

This individual was observed 28 of May at 1800 m.

The waterfal next to the garden were I observed the bird at the three first photos.

Returning from Sandia 29 of May.

Some photos along the road between Sandia and the highlands.

Andean Condor, juvenile

Sparkling Violetear, Capachica, Lake Titiaca 09.05.09

Santa Eulalia

We didn't have too much time on our way back to Lima from the highlands, but we managed a couple of short stops in the Santa Eulalia valley. I visited Santa Eulalia for the first time last year, and then I added 7 species to my lifelist (http://hogsas.blogspot.com/search?q=White-cheeked+Cotinga). Here are two endemics from the area below the San Pedro turn off (my camera still worked).
Thick-billed Miner

Thick-billed Miner

Great Inca-Finch

Lima highlands

Diademed Plover, I have seen this species earlier, but these are my first photos of this species. I could maybe have gone somewhat closer, but decided not to disturb the birds more than necessary.
Diademed Plover

White-bellied Cinclodes

Rufous-bellied Seedesnipe

Black-breasted Hillstar

All since I got "Birds of the High Andes" back in 1991, I have been interested in seeing many of the scarce Andean birds. I saw many of them back in 1997 visiting Abra Malaga. Just to mention Royal Cinclodes and Ash-breasted Tit-Tyrant. But still I hadn't seen several of the highland species from Lima, among them White-bellied Cinclodes, Dark-winged Miner & Olivaceous Thornbill (the Thornbill is not only a speciality for this area, but easily seen here), all of them target species on this trip (I saw them all!). Unfortunately I didn't manage to take to many good photos, mostly because the battery was almost flat, and I hadn't my second battery in the bag either :-(. I just took some photos without checking the result. However, some of them are good enough.