Rain, rain and more rain was not the only thing that characterized our birding trip, it was the beautiful Ecuadorian countryside, the experience of driving the scenic Andes and meeting wonderful locals and birders that made our trip memorable.
Ecuadorians were extremely helpful, smiling and always ready to help. Our host in the tiny hill town of Celica treated us to a heavenly Italian dinner in the backdrop of Andrea Bocelli singing Besame Mucho not worrying a bit that we were drenched in sweat and our clothes had weathered the storm all day long.
Carnival had picked up pace when we were in Saraguro and streets were full of revelers playing with colors and water cannons, but they were so well behaved that we only received smiles and waves.
In Quito, we hired Rolando on a few occasions to drop us from one birding site to another and he cared for us like his own family, full of happiness, life and warmth.
Ecuadorian authorities also did a splendid job in managing the Andes road network during the month long torrential rainfall, washed away bridges were repaired at record pace, landslides were cleared off overnight and we frankly don’t know what material they use to build roads, even massive 5 tonne boulders could not crack the road surface.
Planning: Hans Matheve & Maarten Schurmans South Ecuador birding report from 2018 still holds strong along with good inputs from Rob Gordijn & Helen Rijkes 2022 report and Rob Jansen & Romy Jansen 2022/2023 report.
For North-West Ecuador, we greatly relied on Sjoerd Radstaak report from 2019. Sjoerd also calmed our nerves via email over the latest security/safety situation in Ecuador.
Thanks to all!!!
Travel Dates: 11 February 2025 – 13 March 2025
Weather: South Ecuador was completely rain drenched and while we managed to stay ahead of the storm for the first week, it become our constant companion soon and did cause a few disruptions and itinerary changes. Mindo was slightly better and Choco region was textbook lowland with unbearable humidity, heat and rain.
Car Rental:
a) South Ecuador: We rented a car from Zaruma (+593 99 857 3587) situated just outside the Cuenca airport and drove close to 2482 kms in 20 days. Courteous, friendly and professional, they gave us a mechanically sound Renault Logan Crossover that tackled all the crazy offroading and weather conditions, even managing to reach Cerro de Arcos wading through deep slush and road craters. While we did it, we would not do it again as at times, the car was almost floating on the clay like road surface with a thin error margin between us and rolling over the cliff. If rains are predicted, we advice a heavier/more capable vehicle.
b) North-West Ecuador: It was cheaper for us to hire a taxi rather than pay car rental of 4 days just to park it at the Rio Canandé reserve. For Quito-Mindo, Mindo-Rio Canandé, Rio Canandé-Quito, we requested Rolando (+593 99 936 8289) to drop us. He came strongly recommended by Sjoerd and we even more so strongly recommend him. Punctual, excellent company and loves his job. For local Mindo day trips, the owner of La Casa de Cecilia, Savied Duran doubled up as a taxi driver, again a nice person, knows the birding spots and everything worked just fine.
Birding: We thoroughly enjoyed our birding with 489 birds seen, and while we did miss several important birds, the most painful was the Blue-throated Hillstar whose coordinates were spoon-fed to us by Josh and we still could not locate it even trying for two consecutive days.
The day by day itinerary mentions just the key birds, please contact us if you need any specific inputs on where we saw which bird.
Coordinates: Again, the day by day account mentions just a few coordinates, feel free to contact us and we shall be happy to share all our birding coordinates along with the kml files.
Guides: It was raining heavily around Yantzaza so we hired Cristian (+593 99 236 5282) for two days for birding Paquisha and El Zarza which turned out to be an excellent choice as Cristian knows the area very well and was able to connect us with several tricky birds even under thunderous downpours. Fully recommended!!
We also hired a few Jocotoco rangers and while they knew the flagship reserve species, they were ignorant about most of the other birds and for some reason they did not like to walk much so we asked them to stay back while we continued on the trails. In the end, we tipped all of them handsomely as someone told us that Jocotoco does not pay them well. The only exception was the ranger at Tapichalaca reserve, extremely motivated and worked very hard to connect us with the Jocotoco Antpitta. We can’t thank him enough!!!
Sergio & Doris were also excellent hosts at Reserva Amagusa and connected us with Dark-backed Wood Quail at their property.
Language: The main language is Spanish with very few English speakers. We did not have much trouble as everyone was patient with us while communicating and by the end of the month, we were already speaking broken Spanish, not tough to learn if you put in the effort 🙂
Currency: USD, cash is king and not many establishments offered credit card payments, many asked for add-on 1%-2% charge on cc payments.
Flights: We flew KLM for the international leg and Avianca for the domestic Quito-Cuenca-Quito hop. All airports were well managed with supportive staff.
Other birders along the way: In South Ecuador, we kept bumping into Amelia and Mario with Gabo as their guide who were following a very similar itinerary as ours while Joshua & Laura had a more exploratory itinerary. In Maycu, we briefly met Mauricio with his group. We also enjoyed birding the Mashpi Amagusa reserve with Max from Singapore while we crossed roads with Jimmy several times in the Mindo area.
Accommodation:
We stayed at the Jocotoco properties for 12 nights (Umbrellabird Lodge, Buenaventura: 2 nights, Urraca Lodge, Jorupe: 3 nights, Casa Simpson, Tapichalaca: 2 nights, Copalinga Lodge: 1 night, Choco Lodge, Rio Canandé: 4 nights). All lodges were comfortable and services were standardized. While we could have stayed at some of the nearby towns and visited the reserves as a day trip, the entry fee, ranger fee, distances etc was a bit confusing so we took the easier route by staying at the reserve itself. All bookings were made by emailing the Jocotoco sales team.
Quito Airport Suites (+59 3988 899 774): Just a five minute drive from the Quito Airport, convenient and safe overnight stopover.
Hostería Jardin del Valle, Santa Isabel (+59 3987 213 346): Many properties around Santa Isabel to choose from, we stayed here as several trip reports mentioned this place. Owner is very helpful, good breakfast and decent sized rooms.
Casa dela Abuela, Celica (+593 99 473 7378): Stayed overnight at this small, secure and safe property, owners are extremely warm. Rooms are smallish but a convenient halt to get a headstart for birding the Tumbes region.
Hosteria Paraiso, Vilcabamba (+593 98 844 8057): Excellent property with courteous staff, the owner kept hugging us as we were lost family, full of warmth, the owner’s German Shephard’s are massive, well trained and lovable.
Hosteria Playa Verde, Yantzaza: Decent rooms with extensive gardens, more of a weekend retreat catering for domestic patrons, we just reached and asked for a room.
Yankuam Lodge, Maycu (+593 99 947 0740): Run by retired teachers, they run this lodge primarily for birders. Rooms are spacious, and we thought they gave us a good rate, only to realize at check-out that the rate was per person, so it doubled up 🙂 Nevertheless, food is good and owners know exactly what birders expect.
Achik Wasi, Saraguro (+593 99 349 8518): Several properties around the town, but this is preferred by birders, not expensive, cosy, well maintained rooms, run by the indigenous community.
La Casa de Cecilia, Mindo (+593 99 334 5393): Family run guest house, comfortable, spacious rooms, not expensive. Wife and kids manage the front desk while Savied Duran doubles up as a nature guide/driver.
Itinerary:
For us Indian’s, South America is on the other side of the blue planet, so we tried covering as much as possible within one trip. The first leg of the trip covered the Southern part of Ecuador, the second leg was the easier Mindo part and then a quick Choco extension to Rio Canandé. We could have covered the coast within this timeframe, but refrained due to security concerns.
Eastern Amazonia, the core choco region and the Galapgoes were left out for future endeavours.
The itinerary was developed keeping a couple of extra days in hand, in hindsight, we could have squeezed a bit more as some important birds were missed even on repeat attempts.
Day 1: 11 February 2025 (Delhi – Amsterdam – Quito)
Reached Quito at 1615 hours, smooth immigration, purchased an expensive 35 USD Claro SIM from the airport and then took a 5 USD taxi to the Airport Suites. Walked the lawns along with Alpacas, had a passable dinner at the in-house restaurant.
Day 2: 12 February 2025 (Quito – Cuenca – El Cajas – Santa Isabel)
We took the 0600 Hrs Avianca flight from Quito reaching Cuenca at 0700 Hrs, Zaruma guys were kind enough to open up early and handover the car to us and we straight away drove to the páramo habitat at El Cajas, parking at Hosteria Capillapamba, finding the Violet-throated Metaltail at -2.800082, -79.293136 along with other birds like the Mouse-colored Thistletail, Andean Gull and Andean Tit-Spinetail. We then slowly drove back birding along the way, stopping at -2.796899, -79.280605 with Giant Conebill and Yellow-breasted Brushfinch as a highlight. A quick stop at Rancho Hnos Prado -2.775881, -79.260911 produced both Chestnut-winged and Stout-billed Cinclodes while our final stop at Lago Toreadora -2.7841141, -79.2230122 produced a comical Tawny Antpitta and an Andean Tapeti. Key birds missed were the Ecuadorian Hillstar, Ecuadorian Rail, Ecuadorian Tapaculo and Tit-like Dacnis.
We finished our birding at El Cajas with a fabulous lunch at San Juan Restaurante and proceeded to Santa Isabel reaching by evening and settling in at Hostería Jardin del Valle.
Contacted the Yunguilla reserve ranger via WA and he informed that birding is tricky due to heavy rainfall, anyway, we set up a meeting point for the next day.
Day 3: 13 February 2025 (Santa Isabel – Yunguilla Reserve – Buenaventura)
We picked up the ranger and drove to the Yunguilla reserve -3.23051, -79.27159 while it was still dark. Rain had just stopped and we swiftly hiked to the main birding area crossing a swollen river by using makeshift logs. The key highlight Pale-headed Brushfinch was not at the feeders, but was seen a few 100 meters from the usual spot. Other interesting birds were the Black-lored Yellowthroat, Gray-browed Brushfinch, Azara’s Spinetail, Pacific Pygmy Owl and Purple-collared Woodstar among others.
We then returned to the hotel, had a filling breakfast and moved on to Umbrellabird Lodge -3.6539415, -79.7681, the drive being uneventful except an embarrassing wakeup honk from a passing car and the longish drive on the approach road to the lodge. We still reached in good time, had lunch and spent the afternoon at the reserve hummers picking up Green Thorntail, Violet-bellied Hummingbird among others. We also walked up to the Long-wattled Umbrellabird lek at -3.654105, -79.763948 and managed to get some nice views.
Day 4: 14 February 2025 (Jardin de Colibries and lodge grounds)
Early morning we picked up the the park ranger and drove to the nearby Jardin de Colibries hoping to find the El Oro Parakeet easily, but it was not so, we had to work for the birds and eventually saw them crossing a forest patch and giving us good views once they landed. Other interesting birds were the Club-winged Manakin, Bronze-winged Parrot, White-tipped Sicklebill, Spectacled Owl and Brown Inca.
On our way back to the lodge, we picked up more birds like the Gray-backed Hawk, Ochraceous Attila and Gray-breasted Flycatcher on the approach road and a Northern Schiffornis on the trails.
Finished the day with a nice dinner, a lot of Babaco juice and watching a Nine-banded Armadillo from the dining hall.
Day 5: 15 February 2025 (Buenaventura – Celica)
A quick early morning birding got us the Crested Guan high up a tree in the lodge grounds and since we had seen most of the our target birds, we proceeded to Celica after breakfast. By now it had started to rain, but crossing the Andes high passes, the rolling hills and clouds, the gusty winds made the entire drive very scenic. We reached Celica by afternoon and decided to drive towards El Empalme for reconnaissance and managed to see quite a few good birds like the Fasciated Wren, Pacific Parrotlet and heard many more fixing our targets for the next day.
We then returned to Casa dela Abuela for a fabulous Italian dinner.
Day 6: 16 February 2025 (Celica – Jorupe)
We checked out early morning and birded the scrubby slopes towards El Empalme. The slopes were a bit dangerous with landslides at every bend that made us careful to only park in open roadside. Nevertheless we managed to see several good birds like the White-edged Oriole, Long-tailed Mockingbird, Saffron Siskin, Fulvous-faced Scrub-Tyrant, Ecuadorian Piculet, White-headed Brushfinch, Elegant Crescentchest, Superciliated Wren and finally a Tumbes Hummngbird. The birding strategy is just to drive slowely and keep an eye out for good habitat as the birds are all spread out.
We tried for the Tumbes Sparrow in several places but could not find it.
We then moved on to Jorupe and spent the afternoon birding the reserve forest and connected with Henna-hooded Foliage-gleaner, Black-capped Sparrow, Collared Antshrike and thankfully Gray-cheeked Parakeet.
Day 7: 17 February 2025 (lodge grounds and Via Achima)
We spent early morning at the lodge feeder for the Pale-browed Tinamou without luck and then moved to the trails picking up a Blackish-headed Spinetail, Red-masked Parakeet and Ecuadorian Trogon.
In the afternoon, we drove to Via Achima (-4.38131, -79.895481), but the secondary road was in bad shape and we parked at the base and hiked up picking up a Slaty Becard pair, Black-and-white Tanager and a few more birds before rain made us get back to our lodge. An evening excursion in the lodge grounds got us a West-Peruvian Screech-Owl.
Day 8: 18 February 2025 (Utuana Reserve and Via Achima)
Early morning wait still did not yield the Pale-browed Tinamou, so we drove to Utuana Reserve and connected with the Black-cowled Saltator just outside the reserve and Piura Hemispingus in good bamboo at -4.368514, -79.726958 while the Gray-headed Antbird proved extremely difficult to photograph. The hummer feeders were busy with Purple-throated Sunangel, Rainbow Starfrontlet and Speckled Hummingbird while the approach road to the reserve produced a Red-crested Cotinga.
On our way back to the lodge, we made a stop at the Sabiango village Church for a quick look at the Chestnut-collared Swallow colony.
In the afternoon, we we back at Via Achima and after a hour long hike, managed to connect with Watkins’s Antpitta at -4.37538, -79.88986 and Rufous-necked Foliage-gleaner. Our hopes of finding the Scrub Nightjar could not materialize as heavens opened up and we rushed back to the lodge.
Day 9: 19 February 2025 (Jorupe – Vilcabamba)
Patience paid off as on our last day a Pale-browed Tinamou graced the feeder and gave prolonged views.
A brief stop at the Tambo Negro forest did not produce any new bird except a flypast of a Comb Duck, more muddy boots and a dirty car to start the day. We then proceeded to Sozoranga scrub land (-4.320444, -79.798371) and managed to see some more interesting birds like the Three-banded Warbler, Silver-backed Tanager and Bay-crowned Brushfinch.
We made several more stops on our way to Vilcabamba and managed to pick up a White-winged Brushfinch and a Line-cheeked Spinetail as a highlight. We also tried our luck with the Cordilleran Parakeet at Catamayo Valley and a flying flock was not easily identifiable, so we left it at it.
It was pouring by the time we reached Hosteria Paraiso, had a quick dinner at the in-house restaurant and agreed with the helpful manager that he would arrange a 4X4 for us to drive to Cerro Toledo if rain does not stop.
Day 10: 20 February 2025 (Cerro Toledo – Tapichalaca)
Early morning it was just a drizzle, so we decided to drive with our 2WD, purchased some bread from a nearby bakery and set towards Cerro Toledo. Before the actual climb, we stumbled upon a Grey-breasted Mountain Toucan basking in the open, only to take cover the moment we stopped our car. Anyway, we proceeded further up with the rain getting heavier and several streams popping up and devouring the mountainous road as we climbed. Our persistence made us reach the summit, but it was of little use as the rain did not stop till 1000 Hrs and eventually we turned around and made our way towards Tapichalaca. During our way down, we encountered several landslides and locals sifting through them, maybe looking for precious metals or just killing time.
We reached Tapichalaca with rain continuing and we spent the time birding from the balcony and a bit of the trails getting Bearded Guan, Amethyst-throated Sunangel and Chestnut-breasted Coronet.
Day 11: 21 February 2025 (Tapichalaca reserve and Valladolid)
Jocotoco Antpitta had not been seen for the past two months and we had very low hopes of finding any good birds today especially with the accompanying rains.
The ranger was even more worried, but also determined so we started early in the morning birding the usual trail system and obviously returned with no Jocotoco Antpitta sighting, however we did see other good birds like the Orange-banded Flycatcher, Golden-plumed Parakeet, White-throated Quail-Dove, Barred Fruiteater and Flame-throated Sunangel.
The ranger informed us of another Jocotoco Antpitta territory outside the reserve and we decided to give it a try. It was raining all through while we climbed down a slope and waited for any movement when suddenly the classic barking calls of an individual filled up the forest floor and soon enough one popped up right in front of us (we actually got confused for a sec if this was the antpitta or a chicken). We were all drenched but also very happy to have connected with this bird.
After lunch, we drove further down towards Valladolid and birded the gardens of a ranger and then around the fields picking up birds like the Marañon Thrush, Little Woodstar, Rufous-fronted Thornbird, Mottle-backed Elaenia and several tanager species.
Day 12: 22 February 2025 (Tapichalaca – Podocarpus NP)
We decided to bird the trails again early morning which proved great as we connected not only with Loja and Chusquea Tapaculo’s but a Chestnut-naped Antpitta casually jumped on the trail and started feeding a juvenile, we were excited but not ready for two Jocotoco Antpitta to appear and cross the trail in quick succession. We also managed to see several more interesting birds like the Rufous-capped Thornbill, Rufous Spinetail, Rufous Wren among others.
We returned to the lodge and informed the ranger of our sighting of the Antpitta and he was happy that the birds were still around, but then the caretaker also informed us that rains had washed away a key bridge on the way to Copalinga Lodge and we should be careful.
We were not sure which bridge she was referring to until we were stopped by the police and asked to take a detour. This detour not only costed us our planned second attempt at the Tumbles Sparrow but also several extra hours to reach Copalinga.
Nevertheless, we reached Copalinga, had a late lunch, enjoyed watching a Spangled Coquette, Wire-crested Thorntail, Violet-fronted Brilliant, Fork-tailed Woodnymph, Golden-tailed Sapphire and many more hummers on the garden flowers while Grey Tinamou was seen just before 1630 Hrs at the feeder and Black Agouti late evening.
At dusk, we made an attempt at the Blackish Nightjar and managed some flying views.
Day 13: 23 February 2025 (Rio Bombuscaro – Yantzaza)
Our hike to the visitor centre was in constant rain and we waited under a shelter for all the morning for the rain to stop, it stopped briefly and we and the birds took advantage as they came out to feed in waves after wave. While we did see several interesting birds like the Foothill Elaenia, Russet Antshrike, Spot-winged Antbird, Ash-browed Spinetail and several tanager species, the Coppery-chested Jacamar and the White-necked Parakeet eluded us.
We then hiked back, returned to the lodge and drove to Yantzaza calling Cristian on the way who suggested we stay overnight at Hosteria Playa Verde.
Day 14: 24 February 2025 (El Zarza)
Cristian took a lift and came early morning at Playa Verde and we drove to El Zarza. It was raining, but Cristian knew the reserve well and connected us with many interesting birds like the Equatorial Graytail, Spectacled Prickletail, Bar-winged Wood-Wren, Roraiman Flycatcher, White-crowned Tapaculo and several more.
We had lunch at one of Cristian’s friend restaurant, made a brief stop at Mi Paradise and then returned to the hotel by late afternoon.
Day 15: 25 February 2025 (Paquisha – Maycu reserve)
The rain continued while we birded Paquisha. However, we still managed to see quite a few birds including a very close flypast of White-breasted Parakeet flock, Lined Antshrike, Blackish Antbird, Montane Woodcreeper, Montane Foliage-gleaner, Dark-breasted Spinetail and several tanager species.
After lunch, we dropped Cristian at Zumbi and then proceeded to Maycu reserve only to realize at Paquisha that we were low on fuel and got a tankful from a makeshift fuel storage shop.
Road construction slowed us quite a bit and we reached Yankuam lodge only by evening without much birding on the way.
Day 16: 26 February 2025 (Maycu reserve)
We parked at -4.269597, -78.643540 and continued birding on foot along the road and were overwhelmed by the sheer number of species calling early morning, a wonderful birding strip. White-shouldered Antshrike, Peruvian Warbling Antbird, Speckled Spinetail were some of the birds we were following when we heard Orange-throated Tanager call and soon located them feeding in a mixed flock in the canopy.
Since we managed to see the Orange-throated Tanager, we decided to return to the lodge and requested the owner if she could help us with a hike to the Tepui trail. She happily asked her gardener to accompany us and we commenced our hike at around 1000 hrs without realizing how brutal it is going to be. All our notions about our fitness went downhill while the camera went into the backpack to free our hands to climb the near vertical and slippery mountain slope in the shadow of the rain. Just before reaching the summit, we were happy to connect with three Royal Sunangels even when our camera was in the bag.
We did see a few more birds like the Fasciated Antshrike, Grey Antbird and Chestnut-tailed Antbird before making our way back to the lodge in good time for lunch.
In the afternoon, we drove further south hoping to get to Shaime, but got confused as the GPS showed that we were in Peru and also a few border patrol vehicles were seen. With the rain in the backdrop, we decided to get back to our lodge and avoid getting lost in the evening.
Day 17: 27 February 2025 (Maycu – Vilcabamba)
An early morning Maycu roadside birding yielded a Bamboo Foliage-gleaner and White-bellied Pygmy Tyrant and then we decided to head back to Vilcabamba in the hope the weather improves and we get another chance at Cerro Toledo.
On the way, we stopped at -3.937692, -78.673930 and connected with a Black-billed Seed Finch and a Black-billed Thrush. We also spent considerable time on the way trying for the Coppery-chested Jacamar in the Hydroelectica vicinity without any luck.
Day 18: 28 February 2025 (Cerro Toledo – Saraguro)
It was still raining when we stopped at the bakery to get bread and the rain followed all the way to Cerro Toledo only to stop when we reached the summit. We did not miss this opportunity and luckily found 4 Neblina Metaltails along with Rainbow-bearded Thornbill, Glowing Puffleg, Pale-naped Brushfinch and many more.
We then proceeded to Saraguro and used the same bridge that was washed away only a few days ago. Before reaching Saraguro, we also stopped at Huashapamba hoping for a lucky break, but no Red-faced Parrots for us.
Saraguro was all decked up for the carnival and several streets were lined up with makeshift tents. Anyway, we reached our hotel, had an early dinner and informed the kind staff to let the gate be open for us to leave early the next day.
Day 19: 01 March 2025 (Cerro de Arcos)
We left early morning and braved reaching Cerro de Arcos by 0800 Hrs in our 2WD sedan and again bumped into Amelia and Mario, however, the Blue-throated Hillstars had stopped visiting their favorite flower patch and we all teamed up, unfortunately, the rain was heavy and even waiting for hours we could not locate the hillstars. For shelter, we went to the guesthouse where we met Josh who had seen the bird and he spoon fed us the location, only to return to his spot and get drenched again with no hillstars.
The guesthouse was fully booked by a film crew and as it was getting dark, we decided to return to Saraguru. Gabo told us that the road to Cerro Acanama was in a bad shape and weighing all our options we decided to return to Cerro de Arcos the next day to search for the Hillstar.
Day 20: 02 March 2025 (Cerro de Arcos)
Josh mentioned that he sighted the hillstar at around 0800 hrs, so we left Saraguru at 0500 hrs and reached Cerro de Arcos in time, there was no rain, but no Hillstars as well. We tried till 1000 hrs at the same spot, panicked and tried several more flower patches and then we thought we saw a female hillstar when it started to rain again. The female hillstar turned out to be a Tyrian/Viridian and we never connected with the Hillstar. Nevertheless, we did connect with some good birds like the Curve-billed Tinamou, Black-tailed Trainbearer, Carunculated and Mountain Caracara among others.
Day 21: 03 March 2025 (Saraguru – Cuenca – Quito)
A lazy breakfast, drive to Cuenca and an evening flight to Quito, overnight at the airport suites.
Day 22: 04 March 2025 (Quito – Yanacocha – Mindo)
Rolando picked us at 0500 Hrs and drove us to Yanacocha, but had to wait till 0800 Hrs for the ranger to open the reserve gate. We only birded the paved trail as it was drizzling, still we connected with several good birds like the Sapphire-vented Puffleg, Golden-breasted Puffleg, Buff-winged Starfrontlet, Sword-billed Hummingbird, Ash-colored Tapaculo and many more tanagers.
Lunch was at a local restaurant and then Rolando dropped us at the La Casa de Cecilia Mindo where we aligned with Savied to drive us to Paz de las Aves the next day.
Day 23: 05 March 2025 (Paz de las Aves)
As Savied had prior commitments, he arranged his relative to drive us who got us to Paz de las Aves on time in a brand new Chinese MPV. The Paz family members as clockwork took us from one birding spot to another with the customary empanada breakfast in between. We did miss the typical adrenaline rush during this kind of birding, but did connect with several interesting birds that could not have been possible in a short duration. Some of the key birds seen included the Giant Antpitta, Yellow-breasted Antpitta, Ochre-breasted Antpitta, Rufous-breasted Antthrush and Olivaceous Piha while hummers were the Buff-tailed and Velvet-purple Coronet, Purple-bibbed Whitetip and Purple-throated Woodstar, several barbets, toucanets and tanagers.
We returned to our guesthouse by 1400 Hrs, had lunch in the town centre and then hired a 2 USD taxi to take us to -0.068629, -78.761835 where we connected with a Coopmans’s Elaenia and Ecuadorian Seedeater along the walkway of Casa Divina Lodge -0.064946, -78.768836.
It started to rain heavily but then a contractor at Casa Divina gave us a lift to the town.
Day 24: 06 March 2025 (Reserva Amagusa, Reserva Natural Sacha Guatusa and Las Cotingas)
Today Savied was available and drove us to Reserva Amagusa where we witnessed a massacre at the moth traps, nearly all the forest birds were feasting on the poor moths, get there before sunrise and see for yourself 🙂
Sergio, the owner of Reserva Amagusa, Max from Singapore and we all spent almost half a day birding the area picking up birds like the Dark-backed Wood Quail, Rose-faced Parrot, Esmeraldas Antbird, Scaly-throated and Lineated Foliage-gleaners, Golden-winged Manakin, Orange-breasted Fruiteater, Sepia-brown Wren, Choco Brushfinch, Choco Warbler, Ochre-breasted Tanager, Moss-backed Tanager, Glistening-green Tanager, Rufous-throated Tanager, Golden-naped Tanager, Flame-faced Tanager, Indigo Flowerpiercer and Slate-colored Grosbeak.
In the afternoon, we paid a visit to Sacha Guatusa for the Grey-and-gold Tanager and connected with a Orange-fronted Barbet pair, White-lined Tanager and some refreshing juice as well.
It was already 1500 Hrs and we had gone without breakfast and lunch, so we stopped at Savied’s preferred restaurant for some lunch on the way back to Mindo. Savied turned out to be a very nice person, no fuss and drove us where ever we asked him. He knew we were still missing the Plate-billed Mountain Toucan so he took us to Las Cotingas to show us the bird.
Day 25: 07 March 2025 (Bellavista Cloud Forest Lodge and Alambi Reserve)
Savied drove us to Bellavista reaching by 0530 Hrs finding a Chestnut-crowned Antpitta feeding on the restaurant floor while Strong-billed Woodcreeper, Striped Treehunter, Pearled Treerunner and several more tanager species where busy feeding on the moth traps and Sickle-winged Guan and Plate-billed Mountain Toucan were also hanging around.
A Gorgeted Sunangel came into the lodge feeders maybe for a few minutes and a Spillmann’s Tapaculo was observed near the compost dump. Jimmy mentioned the possibility to spot the White-throated Daggerbill at Alambi reserve, so we made a quick visit and thankfully after a long wait managed to see the bird.
Day 26: 08 March 2025 (Sendero Frutti Tour and Reserva Rio Canande)
Rolando picked us up at 0500 Hrs and we drove deeper into the choco region with a brief halt at Sendero Frutti Tour producing good birds like the Ecuadorian Ground Dove, White-whiskered Hermit, Black-throated Mango, Long-billed Starthroat, Purple-chested Hummingbird, Violet-bellied Hummingbird, Great Antshrike, Pacific Antwren and Dusky-faced Tanager.
We then continued our drive to Rio Canande crossing the Chachi settlement and spending the afternoon birding on the research station watchtower.
Day 27-29: 09-11 March 2025 (Rio Canande)
These three days we birded the trails of Rio Canande and our and rain’s routine was: trails in the morning with unbearable humidity and the sweat bees, watchtower in the afternoon while it rained. All trails had something good to offer and we collected a massive bird list with major highlight as Baudo Guan, Tawny-faced Quail, Dusky Pigeon, Band-tailed Barbthroat, Choco Black-throated Trogon, Barred and White-whiskered Puffbird, Orange-fronted Barbet, Sapayoa, Spot-crowned Antvireo, Checker-throated Stipplethroat, Velvety Manakin, Red-capped Manakin, Pacific Flatbill, Choco Tyrannulet, Song Wren, Scarlet-browed Tanager, Blue-whiskered Tanager, Black-faced Dacnis and Scarlet-breasted Dacnis while Berlepsch’s Tinamou and Banded Ground Cuckoo remained as heard only.
Another exciting sighting was to witness the acrobatics of a large group of Brown-headed Spider-monkeys.
Day 30: 12 March 2025 (Rio Canande – Quito)
Rolando picked us up in the morning and just before we crossed the Rio Canande river, he spotted a Spectacled Caiman. A great end to our birding trip.