The Marvelous Spatuletail Lodge was built and donated to the village of Choctamal by Los Tambos Chachapoyanos to create a sustainable income as an incentive for them to preserve their resources. Choctamal is the gateway to Fortress Kuelap and Gran Vilaya, located in the high cloud forest. The cordillera’s Abra Yumal Pass is above this and just on the other side is “The Birthplace of the Amazon River”. This is where it leaves the world’s second highest mountains (after the Himalayans) to enter the world’s greatest rainforest. There are 1800 varieties of birds in Peru, making it the best place in the world to see birds. There are 328 varieties of hummingbirds and they only exist in the Americas.

Of these, 16 species venture into the USA, the rest are all “down south”. The Marvelous Spatuletail Lodge at Choctamal has this Marvelous Spatuletail Hummingbird visiting the lodge several times every day along with many other varieties. Some are smaller than a locust whilst others have a beak longer than their body to get nectar out of long trumpet like flowers.

Bird-life International estimates there are less than 1000 Marvelous Spatuletails in the entire world, which positions them on the Red List of endangered birds. They live only in this small area of Northern Peru on the Andes slopes that fall into the Amazon. These were first observed near Lake Pomacochas so this became the “Mecca” for groups searching for Marvelous Spatuletails. This zone was so remotely visited that no search or survey was made within this province for better viewing locations such as Choctamal.