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 TOUCAN BIRDING TOURS was formed in 1996 in response to the increasing interest in Neotropical birds. Now established as one of the leading special interest tour operators for the region, Toucan Birding Tours has spread its coverage, from the initial Peru and Bolivian birding holidays, to a comprehensive annual program including the majority of Central and South American countries. The wealth of bird species known from the Neotropics means countries such as Peru, Ecuador, Brazil and Venezuela have become dream destinations for birders. However, to make the most of your trip an expert guide with an intimate knowledge of the sites, birds and natural history is essential. Toucan Tours leaders are Neotropical bird enthusiasts with many years of birding and guiding experience.
 SMALL GROUP PARTY TOURS
Many birders prefer the smaller group trips. The cost
of these tours are often surprisingly good value with the use of a small vehicle, etc. We have been operating private group tours since 1996 to destinations such as the Atlantic Forests, Pantanal and Amazon rainforest in Brazil, the Maranon Valley, Tumbes, Manu and most recently, the Central Highway birding circuit in Peru.
Our small group private tours will include a suitable vehicle, driver, cook and camp crew (if required).
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We recommend a Toucan Birding Tours birding guide to enhance your opportunities of finding those special birds as well.
ACCOMMODATION
 The Hotel Andino in Huaraz, Peru.
Many of our tours visit lodges in remote areas. Being "on site" is very important to us - we prefer to stay near our birding localities rather than travel hundreds of kilometres pre-dawn when possible. At times we prefer to use safari-style camps. Our staff prepare everything while we are out finding the birds you have come to the Neotropics to see!
Manu Wildlife Centre in Manu, Peru.
Our tours to the Amazon use some of the best lodges in the region. Many have en-suite facilities and hot water.
Most lodges are candlelit by evening but batteries for cameras and camcorders can be charged by the generators.
DAILY ACTIVITIES
A trip with Toucan Birding Tours usually involves early morning starts to experience the peak bird activity period. In the warmer regions such as the Amazon we take a midday break and resume birding later in the afternoon.
THE TOUCAN BIRDING TOURS TEAM
 Colin Bushell
Colin has been birding for more than 35 years now. He served his 'ornithological apprenticeship' on the lakes, gravel pits and reservoirs near north London and Hertfordshire before venturing further a field in search of new birds. After birding in most of the Western Palearctic, the Gambia, India, Nepal and Thailand, his attention turned to South America. This led to a period on the launch committee of the Neotropical Bird Club as well as founder membership. He served time on the NBC council in an official role before tour leading in Latin America made this an impossible task to fulfil. Over the last decade he has led tours to Mexico, Costa Rica, Cuba, Panama, Venezuela, Ecuador and the Galapagos, Chile, Bolivia, Argentina and Brazil. Since 1995 Colin has led more than 30 tours in Peru including Manu, the Maranon Valley, Central Andes and Bosque Unchog, Tumbes, Iquitos and along the coast. His favourite region in the Neotropics is the Atlantic Forests of Eastern Brazil where he has been a regular visitor since 1994.
Colin lives with his family in Lancashire in the UK and finds time for local birding when he's not working in the Toucan Birding Tours office!
 Frank Lambert
Frank started his international birding at the age of 16, and at 19 started birding regularly in Asia when he undertook an 8-month overland birding trip from London to Assam, in northeast India. He is one of the few people who have birded Afghanistan and, on another overland trip, the Sudan. In 1983 he began a study of fruit-eating eating birds in Malaysia, obtaining his PhD for the work from the University of Aberdeen in 1987. Frank first birded in the neotropics (in the Caribbean and Trinidad) in 1982 and has been returning regularly ever since. Whilst based in Southeast Asia, Frank managed to make a number of long trips to various parts of South America and has birded in Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador, Paraguay, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia and Peru. Frank was based in Asia from 1994 until 2002, but moved from his Indonesian base to South America in that year. During the last four years he has birded extensively in Peru, spending more than ten months in Manu National Park, partly as a volunteer at the famous Cocha Cashu Biological Station, and has undertaken survey work for threatened species in north Peru. He has been leading birding tours in South America since 2003, and as the resident guide at Cristalino Lodge (Brazil) during 2004. He has also undertaken voluntary survey work for BirdLife and for the Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest Trust in southeast Brazil and Bahia. He has written more than fifty papers on birds, as well as the Pica Press book "Pittas, Broadbills and Asities", and has found and described three new birds to science in Asia (two rails and an owl), and co-discovered a new tyrant in Peru.
 Rick & Elis Simpson
Rick and Elis Simpson have recently returned to southeast Brazil and are living in Ubatuba. Together they now organise our Brazilian tours and Rick acts as driver, interpreter and guide for some of our groups there. Being able to visit the forests on an almost daily basis he has an intimate knowledge of the local forests and its birds.
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