Ecuador Trip Report - the following is a summary of my 2008 - 2024 northern Ecuador trips.

Due to it's standing as tops in avian diversity, South America has often been called the 'bird continent'.  While Columbia, Peru, Brazil, and Ecuador top the list of most species per country, of these, Ecuador, by far the smallest, is probably number one in species per square kilometer.  With over 1600 species of birds in an area the size of my home state of Arizona, Ecuador has become known as one of the top spots in the world for seeing, enjoying, and learning about an impressive variety of beautiful and fascinating birds.  Such bird diversity is paralleled by general floral and faunal richness and a highly varied biogeography, making Ecuador a nature lovers paradise.  In the last sixteen years, I've had the good fortune to have led about two dozen trips in both the northern and southern parts of the country.   What follows is a summary of our experiences during northern Ecuador trips that include the eastern and western slopes of the Andes and the high paramo.  All species mentioned have been seen on previous trips.  While this report mentions many of the amazing bird species found in northern Ecuador, as with all of my trips, there will be much more than just birding as we'll learn about neotropical and cloud forest ecology, many of the plants of the regions, and the life histories (evolutionary relationships, distributions, behaviors, etc.) of the birds.

For birders and general nature enthusiasts, the interandean city of Quito is perfectly situated to access the wonders of Ecuador, many of which are easily reached by often very scenic drives.  Climbing out of the dryish valley and crossing the western slope, one begins a spectacular descent through a rich biological transect, passing through temperate, subtropical, foothill, and lowland forests.  Throughout the world, habitats and species are restricted by elevation, but in Ecuador and other Andean countries, where elevations may range from sea level to over 20,000 feet in a relatively short distance, this concept reaches a zenith, and short elevation changes take on inordinate significance in terms of species distributions and variety.

My trip begins in the northwest montane and cloud forests.  Our first stop is the Jocotoco Foundation’s Yanacocha Reserve.  This spectacular site, at about 11,500 feet, has both fruit and hummingbird feeders and a flat trail that passes through excellent cloud forest.  At the feeders, we always see a nice variety of species – golden-breasted and sapphire-vented pufflegs, great sapphirewing, sword-billed hummingbird, shining sunbeam, tyrian metaltail, scarlet-bellied mountain-tanager, and gray-browed brushfinch. A few hummers that don't come to the feeders but that we've seen in the forest, usually on small, low-reward flowers include purple-backed thornbill, green-tailed trainbearer, and rainbow-bearded thornbill.  The mixed flocks here include black-chested and hooded mountain-tanagers, superciliared hemispingus, black-crested warbler, white-throated tyrannulet, pearled treerunner, blue-backed conebill, and more.  Weather is highly variable at this spot, but when the sun is out or the cloud cover high, the views at Yanacocha are impressive.  They have a great on-site restaurant where we have lunch before making the drive down the old Nono – Mindo Road which passes through an extensive area of cloud forest.  We make several stops along the way, including at the Alambi Cloudforest Reserve where hummingbird feeders attract three violetears (brown, lesser, and sparkling), fawn-breasted brilliant, white-booted racket-tail, purple-throated woodstar, purple-bibbed whitetip, green-crowned brilliant, and more.  They also have banana feeders which attract rufous motmot, crimson-rumped tucanet, various tanagers, thick-billed euphonia, and others.  We continue to the Mindo area where we spend three nights at Septimo Paraiso, enjoying the grounds where red-billed parrot, yellow tyrannulet, Choco and yellow-throated toucans, red-faced and Azara's spinetails, spotted barbtail, 15 or more species of hummers, rufous motmot, Narino tapaculco, common potoo, Zeledon's antbird, blue-necked and beryl-spangled tanagers, and many more species are found.  Highlights during our stay in the Mindo area are visits to several private feeding stations nearby.  Of course, one of these spots is the Reserva Paz de Las Aves.  At this now famous spot, where antpittas were first habituated, we usually see yellow-breasted, moustached, giant, and ochre-breasted antpittas, rufous-breasted antthrush, dark-backed wood-quail, many tanagers (golden-naped, flame-faced, blue-winged and black-chinned mountain, black-capped), and lots more.  The hummingbird feeders and garden are noteworthy for empress brilliant, white-booted racket-tail, purple-throated woodstar, buff-tailed coronet, brown violetear, and white-throated daggerbill.

Another feeding station we visit is the Amagusa Reserve which is at a slightly lower elevation and where we usually see some great Choco endemics – moss-backed and glistening-green tanagers, orange-breasted fruiteater, golden-collared honeycreeper, rose-faced parrot, indigo flowerpiercer, and golden-bellied (Choco) warbler.  Our hosts, Sergio y Doris have created a fantastic set-up that includes up-close-and-personal hummingbird viewing as we each get to hold a sprig of flowers while hummers - velvet-purple coronet, green thorntail, empress and green-crowned brilliants, Andean emerald - come to nectar, often perching on our hands, heads, and shoulders.

Amazingly, even though we've already seen a mind-boggling diversity of species, we're just getting warmed up.  Tandayapa Lodge, where we spend two nights at a higher elevation that at Septimo Paraiso, is our next stop.  Now one of the more popular birding spots in the Americas, the Tandayapa area is well known for it's hummingbirds and cloud forest species.  On a good day, the lodge feeders alone can host up to 16 hummingbird species including white-booted racket-tail, fawn-breasted brilliant, western emerald, gorgeted sunangel, violet-tailed sylph, purple-throated woodstar, Andean emerald, and sparkling violetear.  The damp, epiphyte laden forest, rich with the sounds of exotic birds, has a mystical quality.  This is the home of tooting toucan barbets, the far-carrying calls of plate-billed mountain-toucans, the sweet musical song of russet-crowned warbler, the descending whistle of ocellated tapaculo, the frequent calls of chestnut-crowned antpitta, and the chatter of fast moving mixed flocks of tanagers, furnarids, and warblers.  Among the hundreds of species possible, we usually see montane and strong-billed woodcreepers, streak-capped treehunter, rufous motmot, Spillman's tapaculo, crimson-mantled woodpecker, golden-headed quetzal, Azara's spinetail, plain-tailed and mountain wrens, streaked tuftedcheek, pearled treerunner, green-and-black fruiteater, white-tailed tyrannulet, white-throated quail-dove, red-billed parrot, dusky chlorospingus, spectacled whitestart, and many tanager species (blue-capped, blue-winged mountain, beryl-spangled, golden-naped, blue-and-black, and grass-green).  Though uncommon, raptors possible in the area include black-and-chestnut eagle and barred hawk.  

After a final morning at Tandayapa we return to the Quito area where we spend the night at the wonderful Puembo Birding Garden before heading the following day to the impressive Antisana Reserve.  The Puembo area has many edge and open country species such as croaking ground dove, eared dove, tropical mockingbird, saffron finch, scrub tanager, vermilion flycatcher, and black-tailed trainbearer.  On one visit we had a fly-over Andean condor!  Antisana is a high elevation area with expansive grassy paramo, odd cushion plants, bogs, and a large lake.  While the lower portions are good for giant hummingbird, red-crested cotinga, streak-throated bush-tyrant, shining sunbeam, green-tailed and black-tailed trainbearers, and others, the higher grasslands offer an entirely different suite of species.  Endless fields of grass are bounded by rocky ridges against which plumbeous sierra-finch, chestnut-winged and stout-billed cinclodes, plain-crowned ground-tyrant, paramo pipit, many-striped canastero, Ecuadorian hillstar, Andean condor, black-chested buzzard-eagle, variable hawk, and Aplomado falcon are often seen.  Cinereous harriers glide over the grasslands which can be dotted with many carunculated caracaras and small flocks of black-winged ground-doves.  We've occasionally had great luck in finding the rare and local (as well as beautiful) Andean ibis, and once had perhaps two rarer species for that location - upland sandpiper and red knot.  With the striking peak of Antisana itself as a sometimes visible backdrop, the high lakes are home to a number of high Andean specialists, including Andean teal, lapwing, coot, gull, and duck, as well as yellow-billed pintail, silvery grebe, and wintering Baird's sandpipers and greater yellowlegs.  Herds of white-tailed deer (yes, the same white-tailed deer we see in the US but a very different subspecies) and Andean fox are often seen here as well.  While the wildlife and scenery are memorable, what's most striking to me about the Antisana Reserve is its vastness and wildness.  It remains one of the few unspoiled places on planet Earth.  

From Antisana we make the crossing of the Andes to the eastern slope and Guango Lodge.  Along the way, if skies are clear, we sometimes have views of the big three nearby volcanoes - Antisana, Cotopaxi, and Cayambe.  Our late afternoon arrival at Guango Lodge is usually met by a flurry of hummingbird activity.  Of the many species found here (tourmaline sunangel, speckled hummingbird, tyrian metaltail, glowing puffleg, chestnut-breasted coronet, buff-winged starfrontlet, and white-bellied woodstar), perhaps the star of the show is the amazing sword-billed hummingbird.  This seemingly improbable bird eventually makes sense as one travels through the area and sees the many long, trumpet-shaped Brugmansia and Passiflora flowers on which these hummers specialize.  The Rio Papallacta passes through the Guango property and is a very reliable spot for torrent tyrannulet, white-capped dipper, and the beautiful torrent duck whose ease at moving through a raging river is impressive.  The lodge grounds are great for mountain wren, gray-breasted wood-wren, turqouise jay, northern mountain-cacique, chestnut-crowned antpitta, and occasionally gray-breasted mountain-toucan.  At times, the trails can seem quiet.....until one encounters a mixed flock in which case it may become every birder for her or himself.  Flocking species in the canopy can include four species of mountain tanager (scarlet-bellied, blue-winged, buff-breasted, and lacrimose), capped and blue-backed conebills, gray-hooded bush-tanager, white-banded tyrannulet, and cinnamon flycatcher.  Understory flocks are equally exciting with four species of brushfinches (pale-naped, gray-browed, chestnut-capped, and slaty), plushcap, cinereous conebill, black-crested warbler, and black-capped and black-eared hemispingus.  Tyrannine and olive-backed woodcreepers, masked trogon, bar-bellied woodpecker, dusky Piha, rufous-breasted and slaty-backed chat tyrants, and equatorial (rufous) antpitta are other Guango favorites.

From Guango, we make an afternoon visit to nearby Papallacta Pass.  The shrubs, paramo, cushion plants, windswept slopes, wetlands, and small lakes offer a variety of habitats with surprisingly diverse birds.  Here we've seen Ecuadorian hillstar, chestnut (bar)-winged and stout-billed cinclodes, brown-backed chat-tyrant, black-billed shrike-tyrant, plain-crowned (paramo) ground-tyrant, tawny antpitta, Andean tit-spinetail, many-striped canastero, white-chinned thistletail, red-rumped bush-tyrant, the rare blue-mantled thornbill, variable hawk, black-chested buzzard eagle, Andean teal and lapwing, and plumbeous sierra-finch.  At the highest (and often windiest) point, we search the bunchgrasses, cushion plants, and bare ground for the well camouflaged rufous-bellied seedsnipe, a large and intricately patterned bird that defies the elements in this harsh (at least for humans) environment.  Another rare treat in this area (and in a few other spots along our route) is the spectacled bear.  We've only seen it once, but it's nice to know that it's always a possibility.

From Guango we drop lower to the subtropical forests.  On our way to San Isidro Lodge, we make a stop at La Brisa, another of the great hummingbird feeding stations in Ecuador.  La Brisa is THE place to see gorgeted woodstar and green-backed hillstar....as well as bronzy inca, sparkling violetear, violet-fronted brilliant, Peruvian racket-tail, and the rare Geoffrey's daggerbill.  At San Isidro, we're spoiled by comfortable rooms, first class service, and superb food, not to mention great birds right on the lodge grounds.  Hummer feeders are visited by bronzy inca, lesser and sparkling violetears, and gorgeted woodstar, an unusual high-elevation race of Black-banded owl is regular on the grounds, and, like many of Ecuador's bird lodges, San Isidro has a habituated antpitta, the white-bellied.  In 2011, a rare Peruvian antpitta was also coming to a worm feeder.  Fruiting trees by the lodge entrance can be magnets for morning flocks, and we've often had a hard time getting to breakfast or out on the trails while watching Andean solitaire, barred becard, ashy-headed tyrannulet, white-crested elaenia, black-billed peppershrike, brown-capped vireo, green (Inca) jays, pale-edged flycatcher, subtropical cacique, and many others.

The forest at San Isidro can be particularly rich with challenging canopy flocks which may include variegated and marble-faced bristle-tyrants, yellow-vented woodpecker, chestnut-breasted chlorophonia, and rufous-crested as well as many other tanagers.  Other species we've enjoyed at San Isidro include flavescent flycatcher, bluish flowerpiercer, black-capped tanager, golden-collared honeycreeper, Andean motmot, rufous-banded owl, crested quetzal, southern emerald toucanet, sulphur-bellied tyrannulet, long-tailed antbird, rufous-crowned tody-flycatcher, fulvous-breasted flatbill, handsome flycatcher, tyrannine woodcreeper, and pale-eyed thrush.  Rufous-bellied nighthawk is an occasional evening visitor that can be seen well from the lodge rooftop, and in some years, there is a stake out for Andean potoo on the entrance road.

After a final morning at San Isidro, we return to Quito to conclude the trip.  This itinerary has been designed to provide optimum exposure to most of the habitats found in northern Ecuador while minimizing our travel distances.  With much of our birding done right at the lodges, the pace is easy and the action is rich.  I look forward to sharing this amazing place with many of you in the future.

Last updated: September 19, 2024.