Photos with this report (click to enlarge) | |||
 Waved Albatross |
 Common Potoo |
 Booted Rackettail |
|
 White-throated Toucan |
|||
Birdwatching & backpacking Ecuador
Sep 11th – Oct 17th, 2008
Participants: Michiel van Ettinger, Femkje Sierdsma
Author: Michiel van Ettinger (mvanettingerATgmail.com)
Photographs by Femkje Sierdsma
Outline
This trip report describes our voyage to the birding gem called Ecuador. This would be our first birding experience in Latin-America, so lots of new species could be added. To set things straight, our purpose was to see lots of different birds, we did not have certain specialties that we desperately wanted to see. Especially at the start of our trip, the diversity and amount of birds was sometimes overwhelming and we missed species, but what the heck. At the end, we managed to spot 476 species in 5 weeks. No taping was used. Travelling by public transport was good: distances are short, low prices compared to Europe, good public transport, different climates and of course lots, lots, LOTS of birds.
Itinerary
We started at Quito, went then to west slope cloud forests (San Miguel de los Bancos, Rio Silanche, Bellavista incl. Tony’s Place) for a nice range of different heights and hence different species. After this we headed for the coast with Puerto Lopez, Isla de la Plata and Ayampe. We then headed down south via Salinas and Guayaquil to Zamora to stay a few days in the western side of the Podocarpes NP/ Rio Bombuscaro. Back through the Andes and via Cuenca (El Cajas) back to Quito. During this part of the journey, we mainly visited great hiking areas such as Laguna Quilotoa, Mt. Cotopaxi and Baños. We then spent a few days in Mindo, as we skipped this town previously. This was followed by an amazing week with our visit to the Oriente: camping at Sani Lodge! With still some time left, the eastern slopes of the Andes were visited including Baeza (Virgen de Huacamayos), Guango Lodge (only stopover visit) and Papallacta Pass.
Quito
We arrived on September, 12th by a direct KLM flight (Amsterdam-Quito) with stopovers at Bonaire and Guayaquil. Worth to mention was the spectacular scenery during the Guayaquil-Quito part of the flight and the only Crested Caracara of the trip alongside the runway (!) of Guayaquil airport. The trip list had started…We took a taxi ($5) to hotel Othello. After refreshing ourselves we headed to the nearest park, El Ejido. There we saw our first birds including Vermillion Flycatcher, Great Thrush, Eared Dove and some frustratingly hard-to-determine hummers. Next day we went for sightseeing Quito. El Panecillo/ Virgen de Maria has a nice panorama including White-collared Swift and a “sylph” spec, probably long-tailed. This place should be good for raptors as well. And it was, but not the avifaunal ones, as my camera was stolen here…
San Miguel de los Bancos
We left Quito to San Miguel de los Bancos on Tuesday, September 14th. Busses directed towards Puerto Quito should bring you there. Our bus driver said he knew the hotel/restaurant Mirador de Rio Blanco, our destination, but he didn’t, so we had to take a taxi back a few kilometers. In fact, the restaurant is located a few 100 meters in the town on your left. The Mirador Rio Blanco is a restaurant with some cabins to sleep and a nice owner who speaks English. The view over the Rio Blanco is absolutely stunning, but of course the hummingbird- & tanagerfeeders very soon attracted our attention. Species: Lemon-rumped & Silver-throated tanagers, Green Thorntail, White-whiskered Hermit, Green-crowned Brilliant, Green-crowned Woodnymphs and Andean Emeralds. In the valley, >50 cattle egrets flew by regularly, gathering for sleep. Unfortunately the tanager-feeders did not attract any birds. We met our friend Bas van Schooten here who would accompany us the next days on the western slope.
Silanche
Next day we woke up early (5am) and took the bus to Pedro Vicente Maldonado. From there, we arranged a taxi to bring us to the Rio Silanche area. Directions: see Hosner, 2006. When we finally arrived a birding tour was already taping in some birds on the observation platform. Not our kind of play, but all right. The next hour was a whirlpool of cool sightings: Guayaquil, Lineated and Cinnamon Woodpecker all appeared one-after-another in the top of the same tree in a scope of 5 minutes! Other highlights: Masked Titrya, Chestnut-mandibled Toucan, Western Slaty-antshrike and heaps of Tanagers. After the tour left and the birds dried up a bit, we walked the trails around the area. Welcome to jungle-birding: stiff necks & big flocks! This provided us of more tanagers, woodcreepers, Broad-billed Motmot, White-bearded Manakin and three species of trogon. Spectacular was a Coral Snake crossing the path. Back to the tower at 2pm and we were rewarded with 4 Swallow-tailed Kites sailing over. Compared to the amazing morning, between 12-3pm bird activity was very low. Our taxi driver was awaiting us at exactly 4pm and we went back to Pedro Vic. Mald., where we took the bus back to San Miguel de los Bancos, while enjoying a very badly Spanish synchronized Japanese fighting movie… Back in town, we bought food and drinks for the next days and had a good “pollo con arroz”. The Ecuadorians apparently take this meal for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We phoned Bellavista to reserve some dorm beds in the Research Station.
Bellavista
We left Mirador Rio Blanco on Sep, 16th and went back to the town of Nanegalito, where the three of us took a camioneta ($20 single trip) towards Bellavista, with a short break at Tandayapa birding lodge. A bit too short, as we hoped to view the hummerfeeders there for a small fee, but the quite arrogant personnel asked us $10 for half an hour viewing. A Dutchman phoning home in Dutch on his cellphone there was also not contributing to the native-birding-experience. So we backed off and continued to Bellavista. The atmosphere there was way nicer, also because of the splendid hummers delighting our waiting time at the reception: Booted Rackettail, Speckled Hummingbird, Collared Inca, etc. We were dropped at the Research Station and arranged a pickup date & time with the taxi driver.
We had the Research station all for ourselves, due to the weekend. Price: $17 pppn, bring sleeping bags plus enough food and drinks for the length of your stay. Gas is available. After our arrival we had an afternoon left so we decided to explore the extensive trail system of Bellavista. There were not much flocks, but one of them contained a Toucan Barbet. In the evening we walked to the headquarters of the lodge where we had excellent sightings of a roosting Common Potoo. Next day we also spend discovering some trails and this delivered a.o. Plate-mandibled Mountain-Toucan. We also stopped here at Tony’s Nunnery (Ahlman, 2003). He bought a part of the hill there, built a beautiful house and installed lots of hummer-feeders. We were kindly received with good coffee, cookies and beautiful hummers like Little Woodstar (not at the feeders), Violet-tailed Sylph, White-bellied Woodstar, Gorgeted Sunangel, Buff-tailed Coronet, some very territorial Booted Rackettail and lots more. Two Barred Hawks soared over. We were quite happy with that as raptors proved to be quite hard to find in Ecuador so far. What a spectacle of hummingbirds over here, beautiful! Tony charges a small fee, but it’s worth it. The evening produced a Swallow-tailed Nightjar at a rockslide a couple of hundred meters from the T-junction to the Research Station. Take the road that does not lead to the entrance, nor to the Research Station.
Sep 19th, we woke up at 5am and spent the morning birding along the road. This is actually quite OK in these dense cloudforests as you get better overviews of the flocks than inside the forest itself. Near the Base Camp, there’s a compost pile where we had a White-throated Quail-dove. Good birding with good flocks around. Azara’s Spinetail got us confused with its strange sounds and a Scaly-naped Amazon was our last new species here. Our taxidriver met us at noon and we departed for Nanegalito. Here we parted ways with Bas (he returned to Quito) and we decided to travel as far as possible towards the coast. After a travelling day, we arrived at the uninspiring city of Santo Domingo at 9am and decided to spend the night here. Never realized that you can sleep at a Sheraton hotel for $7 pppn, but in Ecuador, everything’s possible…
Puerto Lopez
Next morning we took the earliest bus possible to Puerto Lopez. We discovered that our direct bus was indeed travelling to Puerto Lopez, but at an Ecuadorian pace. That means that extensive lunch stops were included on the voyage, with dubious meals sold by the street merchants entering the bus. The fruit was good though.
Please keep your eyes open near the town of Chone as the wetlands here could add some cool herons (Straited, Cattle, Great, Snowy) and Black-necked Stilt to your list. Bus-birding at its best! Finally, we reached Puerto Lopez at 9pm in the dark. We got a motor-taxi to hostel Itapoa and were glad they had a “matrimonial” available. Fortunately this meant that we got our own little cabaña! Note that the map in the Rough Guide is wrong here. Just get a taxi. Next morning we woke up and enjoyed an excellent breakfast together with a sea-view. Birding in the garden delivered Tropical Gnatcatcher, Pacific Parrotlet and Croaking Ground-dove. This hostel was one of the best we had in Ecuador. A matrimonial for $9.50 pppn, laundry service is $5 per batch.
Isla de la Plata
We walked to downtown (Black Vulture, Magnificent Frigatebird) and arranged a daytrip to Isla de la Plata at Machalilla Tours a few hours later. As the Galapagos Islands were too expensive to fit in our itinerary, this daytrip gave us a good opportunity to see some Ecuadorian sea-life and pelagic species. After an 1,5 hour boat drive in dreary weather, we arrived at the Isla de la Plata and, although late in the season, saw several Humpback Whales. A few weeks earlier and you could see them jumping, but this was really cool to watch as well. Birding on the boat trip is hard due to the high speed and the resulting spray and bumps, but I managed to see a Pink-footed Shearwater though.
On the Isla de la Plata itself there are two options: or you go for the walk with “good views” and Red-footed Booby, you will not be able to see this species on the other walk. Or you can choose the walk with possibility for Waved Albatross, Blue-footed & Nazca Boobies. Hard choice… It is sadly not possible to combine both. The group decides so we tried to convince the rest of the group that the albatrosses would be way cooler. Our cunning plan worked! The weather improved and soon we came across breeding Blue-footed Boobies on the footpath. Picture time, watch the difference in pupil-size between male and female! After some time we entered the territory of the Nazca Boobies with some youngs. Then, very hard to see through the dense bushes, we saw a breeding pair of Waved Albatross. Wow! A few minutes later we were enjoying the sights on a cliff when two beautiful Red-billed Tropicbirds passed by. How beautiful those birds are! Checking the boobies that were flying around, I suddenly noted the typical shape of a diomedea, yep, a Waved Albatross soared overhead! Finally a good sighting! The round-trip continued and delivered several Mockingbirds which are of ssp. platensis, plus a beautiful Peruvian Meadowlark. We dipped however the island’s endemic woodstar, Little Woodstar, as we did not see any hummer at all. Bad luck. After the round-trip we boarded the boat again for some snorkeling above the reefs. Explaining to the guide that I still would like to see the other booby he convinced the skipper of taking a slight detour on our way back, which provided me with sightings of a breeding Red-footed Booby in a colony of Magnificent Frigatebirds. The trip returned and while looking for more whales we suddenly saw a Manta Ray jumping out of the waves. Not expecting this at all, it took a few moments before we realized what we saw… Back in town we took a shower, cleaned all the salt from our equipment and clothing, had dinner, met the local people who are a bit too adapted to tourists and went to bed.
Ayampe
In the morning we took a bus to Ayampe. They run frequently along the coast, but are quite ramshackle buses though. In Ayampe we checked in at Hostel Palma de Coco ($6 pp), including seaview panorama, hammock and the beach only 100 meters away. Like all typical small Ecuadorian villages, in Ayampe itself there are no ATM’s or shops so better bring your own food and coins. Take at least one meal at the restaurant “El Paso” alongside the soccerfield which served excellent food and jugos for low prices. Good stuff.
The Rio Ayampe apparently holds the only spot in Ecuador for Esmeraldas Woodstar (Hosner, 2005). We unfortunately were there on a very busy Sunday when whole families were dining along the river and driving around with motorcycles. As it was really hot also, bird activity was low. Common birds were Black-striped Sparrow, Common Tody-flycatcher, Green Kingfisher, Chestnut-throated Seedeater. In the evening, we took a walk on the beach towards the delta of the Ayampe river, which was a beautiful walk. Walking through the scrub on the beach we startled at least 10 Anthony’s Nightjars! This delta provided us of some excellent sightings of Yellow-crowned Night-heron, Cocoi & Great Blue Heron, Wattled Jacana, Blue-and-white Swallow. Next morning we woke up with a beautiful seaside view and a Group of Parrot-billed Seedeaters in front of the cabin. We took a short walk on the beach to the same area and this provided us of our only two gulls of the trip, two different species as well: Laughing Gull and Gray-hooded Gull. We returned to the hostel, paid and took a bus southbound.
Salinas
Our purpose was to reach the saltplanes north of Salinas, hoping to find some good birds out there. The best way apparently is just to get off the bus the moment you see a good spot, but we waited too long and ended up in Salinas. Not a good idea. This place looks in no way like traditional Ecuador, it seems like you’ve arrived at the Spanish Costa del Sol, including sky-high empty tourist hotels (it was outside the season, but don’t expect to get a good deal). In the afternoon we tried to arrange a taxi to the saltplanes but they charged way too much, so we decided to take a walk on the beach and have a helado. While sitting on the beach I checked some buoys for interesting birds and suddenly I saw a Peruvian Booby between the Blue-footed Boobies! On our way back to the hotel (which was shitty) we saw Royal Tern fishing in the surf.
The big trip: Salinas-Zamora
Public transport in Ecuador can be more efficient than the Ayampe-Salinas route. That was proven on this day. No mentionable birds seen, but quite a travel experience. Wanting to leave Salinas as soon as possible, we stood up at 4:45 and were on an airconditioned direct-express bus to Guayaquil at 5:30am. This bus did hardly stop in between and already at 7:30am we arrived in the brand new and excellent bus station of Guayaquil, just in time to visit the toilets, grab a breakfast and buy tickets for the 8am service to Cuenca. This was a good old Ecuadorian bus, including ginger-sellers and the contents of half a market place on the roof. The road to Cuenca was one of extremes: we left the traffic whirlpool of Guayaquil in humid but warm weather, passed through farmland until we reached the Andes and were dipped in mist and it became cold. The bus went higher and higher until the highest point in El Cajas NP at 4000 m was passed. Tired by the not-so-comfortable bus, we arrived under a gorgeous sky in beautiful Cuenca. The time was 12:50 and we decided to visit the toilet and to but some tickets for the bus to Loja. But that one would leave at 1pm already… The next direct bus would leave at 4pm. The driver was kind enough to wait for us and in a very comfortable air-conditioned bus we soon were enjoying the gorgeous Andean panoramas. The more south, the more beautiful, the more remote, until we were two corners away from Loja. Here we met “Traffic work Ecuadorian-style”: traffic in one direction is stopped for one hour, the next hour the traffic in the other direction is stopped. So, delayed by one hour we arrived in Loja at 6pm, night was setting. We wanted to avoid travelling at night, but we also wanted to reach Zamora so we decided to continue. By the way, we had figured out in trip reports that the west side of the Podocarpus NP (i.e. via Loja) is harder to enter than the east side (i.e. Zamora), hence our decision to travel to Zamora and stay there two full days instead of briefly visit each side. Note however that the east and west side are home to some completely different species of birds (notice the difference in altitudes, see references). The Loja-Zamora road is good for birds and apparently has stunning scenery, but we didn’t see it as it was dark. We did notice however that there is an amazing amount of corners in the road. But, at 9pm we arrived at the nice little town called Zamora and checked in at hotel Chonta Dorada for $15 for the two of us.
Zamora
Quite tired, we woke up at 7am and had a horrible breakfast at the hotel. We walked through the town to the river and walked it downstream towards the entrance of the Park. We soon encountered Mottle-backed Eleania, Common Tody-flycatcher, Ash-browed Spinetail, Ornate flycatcher, Golden-tailed Sapphire amongst the flocks of tanagers. It was a really hot day and after 10am there was virtually no bird activity anymore, so we went for butterfly photography and chilled a bit in the river. At 4pm we reached the park entrance and saw a Collared Trogon. We decided we would visit the park itself next day. Wandering back we had some typical river birds like White-capped Dipper, Black Phoebe and Torrent Tyrannulet.
An early wakeup and at 6am we were in the taxi to the Podocarpus NP. Soon after we entered, I was distracted by some unidentifiable tanagers flying over. The moment I looked through my bins I did not see the warblers, but two parallel rackets patiently swinging hence-and-forth! We had excellent sightings of this Blue-crowned Motmot for about 5 minutes. We really like these birds! After this, we checked the view over the river and saw a brief glimpse of a female Torrent Duck. In the forest itself, a shrill sound caught our attention and after a good search a Green Hermit revealed itself as the tiny little noisemaker. The forest was full of these little creatures, according to the sound, but it was hard to spot them. We were also treated with the sights & views of a Blue-rumped Manakin here.
The sun defeated the rims at 8:30am and from this moment, the activity of birds was dropping noticably. We managed to see 3 flocks in one hour, but they were not very large (25 birds max) nor varied, however a Strong-billed Woodcreeper and a Rufous-winged Antwren were nice in the flocks of Paradise Tanagers. At the waterfalls, we saw a White-capped Dipper. After we had walked all the short trails, we continued on the “big” trail along the river. Just before we reached a footbridge across the river, a stunning pair of Crimson-bellied Woodpecker appeared briefly in a tree in front of us, just enough time to make some pictures and to enjoy the view of these large woodpeckers!
At the bridge we turned and walked the same trail back. It was very hot already, so we took a trail to a mirador (viewpoint). Some clouds were appearing and after 15mins, a thunderstorm kicked in. The trail changed into a creek and we slipped back to the HQ where we paid our entrance fee (a park ranger was present). We did not arrange a taxi back as we hoped for some nighthawks or owls on the way back, but we had no luck. At one of the many rockslides a Cliff Flycatcher had us puzzling for a while.
Cuenca & El Cajas PN
We left Zamora Sep 26th at 8am and changed buses in Loja to Cuenca. This time no crazy traffic work appeared so we arrived in Cuenca at 1pm. At the bus station we took a taxi to the hotel we found in our Rough Guide, but it was under construction and did not have rooms available. Our second and third options did not exist anymore and our fourth and fifth choice were both turned into expensive hotels. Hotel Majestic offered us a cheap room at the back, it was very basic and I would not recommend it, but we took it ($10 pppn incl. small private bathroom). We visited the city of Cuenca in the afternoon, had a stroll alongside the river and saw Chiguango Thrush. We also got some good info on bus times & maps to El Cajas PN at the Information Centre of Cuenca. Beware, the buses to El Cajas do not leave at the main bus station, but at the old bus station called Terminal Sur. It is located next to a market place.
So, next morning we took one of the many taxis at 6am to the Terminal Sur. At 6:15am the bus left from Terminal Sur and we left the bus at the Park Headquarters next to Laguna Toreadora. Paid our fee there and got a good map, and then dressed up as it was quite cold outside and cloudy, but no rain, so quite OK. Once we were out, we enjoyed the scenery and the birds: Paramo Ground-tyrant, Bar-winged Cinclodes and Paramo Pipit were common. We walked clockwise around the lake and followed the path alongside the main road. Once the path turned left from the main road, we encountered a forest patch. This contained Black Flowerpiercer and Scarlet-bellied Mountain-tanager. Femkje saw a large bird flying in the forest, eventually we got a glimpse of a Great Horned Owl! Walking back to the path we encountered a Tawny Antpitta w/ chick, very nice. At the far corner of the lake opposite to the headquarters, I took a toilet stop and was distracted by a strange sound: two Giant Conebills sat in the tree before me for a moment. Great! A Mountain Wren was also present. Then it was raptor time with a pair of Caranculated Caracara giving good views and a Variable Hawk hanging around in the area. The lakes contained Common Gallinule, Andean Teal and Andean Gull. Ecuadorian Hillstar and Glowing Puffleg were the typical hummers for this area.
Once we walked ¾ of the loop around the lake, we decided not to walk back to the headquarters, but instead we opted for a walk to the Park’s entrance downhill. After we walked 2 minutes on the trail, we already lost it… But were rewarded by an amazing scenery! By watching landmarks like the mountains, lakes and the main road we could make something like a footpath. Along the hike we encountered several lakes which contained Andean Ruddy-duck, Andean Coot and Yellow-billed Pintail. We were really glad to take this detour as the scenery was stunning, although the weather became a bit ominous with thunderstorms visible at the mountain rims. In various bushes along the path we saw Cinereous Conebill, Agile Tit-tyrant, Andean Tit-spinetail, Tit-like Dacnis and Plain-coloured Seedeater. The last part of the path is part of the Inca ancient hand-crafted Quito-Cuzco highway. At 4 pm we were at the barrier of the Park’s entrance and catched a bus back to Cuenca. In the evening we found a pizzeria, which was very welcome! Looking back, this walk was one of the best we did. We were lucky with the weather (i.e. a few drops of rain, no mist, some sun) and nice birds.
Baños
Sep 28th we woke up way too early due to the roosters next to our window which started singing, like the previous morning, at 3am. After a cold shower we checked out and arrived at the bus terminal at 6:45. For the first time we had to wait for a bus as this one was full. And in Ecuador it is really full then. So, we took the next bus and after a couple of hours gradually ascending while enjoying the scenery we arrived in Riobamba. Here we took a taxi to the wrong bus terminal (Terrestre), so after another taxi ride we arrived at Terminal Oriental. We bought fruits at the market and took a bus to Baños. Due to a recent eruption we had to take a detour, but this got us nice views of the Chimborizo, finally we arrived at 5 pm in Baños. Here we slept at the decent “Plantos y Bancos” hostel, were we good a really good room for $6,5 pppn. Baños lies on the slope of the very active Tungurahua volcano, so in the evening we joined a touristic tour to see some lava.
Woke up at 5:30am and went to the nice thermal springs, which was already quite crowded with locals. Back to the hostel then, in order to get one of the best breakfasts of the trip. We took a bus around noon to Latacunga, were we arrived after 2 hours and went to Hotel Central. The owner is fantastic and gave us lots of useful information. In the afternoon we arranged a trip at Neiges Tours for the following day to Laguna Quilotoa.
Laguna Quilotoa
It turned out that we were the only participants, so William (our tour leader) and the two of us left at 7:30 am in the morning to Laguna Quilotoa. He was happy to stop for birds and quite interested as well. This delivered Hooded Siskin and American Kestrel. Further, we stopped at the only canyon of Ecuador and at a tiny local Art gallery. The Laguna Quilotoa then was our main target, we opted for a round-walk which is more strenuous and longer then the walk to the lake’s shore. Beautiful surroundings here. The walk was not easy, due to the terrain and the height (3800 m). But it was worth it. Bird activity was, as expected, very low but a female Cinereous Harrier, Plumbeous Sierra-finch and Tawny-rumped Tyrannulet were nice. After the nice hike we briefly stopped at the traditional town of Pujilí before we returned to Latacunga.
Cotopaxi
The next day, we got another tour with Neiges, now to the majestic Cotopaxi volcano. Again, we had a “private” guide, a cool guy named Carlos. First stop was at Laguna Limpiopungo and we saw a lot of Andean Lapwings and some Brown-bellied Swallows. Some unidentifiable stilts were too far away to be determined though. We continued to the parquedora at 4500 m. Due to the mist we didn’t see the volcano at all! We left the car and started the ascend to the refugio (mountain hut) at 4800 m. This went pretty fast, due to the fact we were already acclimatized to the height the day before at Quilotoa. Height sickness can cause your death so don’t rush it. At the hut we saw an Andean Fox. We went even further up to the glacier (4950 m), where the sun peeked through for a couple of seconds, nice! During the descend it started snowing. We enjoyed a lunch at the hut (saw Plumbeous Sierra-finch and Mountain Wren), descended to the parking lot and visited the south part of Limpiopungo. Now, we were rewarded with at least 5 Baird’s Sandpipers and a Greater Yellowlegs. Excellent! In the distance a female Cinereous Harrier was briefly visible. Got back to Latacunga and ate some good pizza’s at Buon Giorno, enjoying the last two hiking days which gave us still some good birds. I love this country.
Mindo
As we had some time left before our pre-booked jungle trip, we decided to visit Ecuador’s birding heaven we skipped at the beginning: Mindo, here we come!
On Oct 3rd, we left Latacunga early for a morning visit to the famous market of Saquisili (pronounce: Saqsili). The weather was splendid so now we had good views of Cotopaxi… Never mind. The market was OK, don’t forget to haggle! We took a bus to Quito then, together with some sheep and chicken on the roof of the bus. Exchanged buses in Quito and now took a direct bus to Mindo. Arrived around 4pm in Mindo and found a room at Casa Cecilia ($12 pppn for a matrimonial). Beautiful location, cosy but also quite noisy.
Next morning, we got up at 5:30am to walk-‘n-bird our way to the Cascadas. We did not have any specific locations here so we just gave the main road a try. Good mixed flocks along the way, with Golden-olive Woodpecker, Black-headed Tody-flycatcher and lots of tanagers. The more we walked, the more remote we got into the plantations. Highlights along this walk were Crimson-rumped Toucanet, Chestnut-mandibled Toucan, Red-billed Parrots, Golden-headed Quetzal, Broad-billed Motmot and Orange-fronted Barbet. The birds were quite vocal here, so we enjoyed the sounds of different species of wrens and some howler monkeys, who sound like a metal band but then without a band. You get the idea. In the evening, I arranged a taxi for the next morning.
Paz de Aves (Mindo surroundings)
Near Mindo lives Angel Paz, a farmer who used to hunt Antpitta’s but was converted by the owner of Tandayapa Lodge to show them to tourists. For contact & route (taxi drivers say they know the route, but in practice…), see trip report of Sangster, 2005. I called Angel the day we arrived in Mindo. You need to speak Spanish for the reservation, although Angel knows most English bird names. Making a reservation is essential as he will otherwise be working on his farmlands. So best call him in the evening.
So, Oct. 5th we got a taxi ($15) at 4:30am to get the pre-arranged taxi to Angel Paz’s property. We arrived at 5:15am in the dark & in middle of nowhere. At 6am he finally showed up half an hour late, excusing himself for a social evening the night before. Immediately we left (we were the only guests), passed some hummer feeders and soon encountered some Dark-backed Wood-quail with fledglings down the path, while trying to keep up with Angel’s clearly better experience in gliding down forest trails. He stopped for a moment on the trail and called the already famous words “Maria, Maria”. And after a couple of minutes Maria appeared, not his wife, but a Giant Antpitta! Angel also placed some fruit feeders in the forest and create a little refuge there, this attracted Sickle-winged Guan and Black-chinned & Blue-winged Mountain-tanagers. We heard Olivaceous Piha and Andean Solitaire in the forests below. The forest also holds some other Antpitta’s apparently, but they were playing hard-to-catch today. The Ochre-bellied was on holiday today, but finally, we saw a secretive Moustached Antpitta, thanks to Angel’s perseverance! Quite amazing how these beautiful creatures react to Angel’s voice. We returned to the shed where we met Angel that morning. Hummer-time! The feeders were “active” with Buff-tailed & Velvet-purple Coronet (beautiful!), Violet-tailed Sylph, Green Violetear and Purple-bibbed Whitetip amongst others. We were treated with a nice meal made by his family and meanwhile, we enjoyed the scenery. Especially some fruit trees at the front of this scenery, as a Orange-breasted Fruiteater showed up!
Beforehand, we were a bit afraid to get into a “zoo-like”-Antpitta-garden, but took the gamble and we were really happy we did it. It’s not only the antpitta’s, but way more birds out there. Plus, Angel is a nice guy! At 12:30 our taxi driver appeared again and took us back to Mindo. In the afternoon we walked the road to El Monte Ecolodge. The weather worsened quickly however. During the stroll along the river we had, before the rain kicked in, White-capped Dipper, Scarlet-backed Woodpecker, Striated Heron and Southern-beardless Tyrannulet. Next morning we took the same route, but then with better weather. We walked up to Mindo Garden, where the path ends. Along the way we encountered nice species like Squirrel Cuckoo, Marble-faced Bristle-tyrant, Greenish Eleania, Tri-coloured Bush-finch, Swallow Tanager (which was common around Mindo), Yellow-bellied Seedeater and a Double-toothed Kite which kept us busy for some time. In the afternoon we took a bus to Quito where we stayed at the El Taxo hotel. Had an excellent dinner in the touristy Magic Bean restaurant/hostel a few streets further.
Sani Lodge
On Oct 6th, our 6-day tour to the Oriente/jungle started! Back in Europe we already arranged the reservations plus flights through on website (www.sanilodge.com), and arranged we could pay the trip at their office in Quito the day we arrived in Ecuador. Communication with the office was excellent. We choose Sani because we wanted to stay a) deep in the jungle, b) at an indigenous not-too-luxury owned lodge appealed to us and c) we could camp here, which was cheaper and a very nice experience. They had tents, sheets and blankets for us so we did not need to bring any camping stuff.
So, we had a lie-in today and woke up at 7am. Took a taxi to the airport and after a delay of 1 hour we took of for the 30-min flight to Coca. In Coca we had a transfer with a bus to the harbour, where we transferred into dugout canoes. Here we got company of local people, the boat stopped several times to drop them off or pick some up. Taxis of the jungle! The boatride over the Rio Napo was nice with good weather and started with Yellow-headed Caracara’s just out of Coca. During the short stops, we saw Brown-chested Martin, Shiny Cowbird and White-winged and White-banded Swallows. Also, we saw some “yellow butterfly spec.” gatherings on the shores of the Rio Napo. After a short walk we entered other canoes as these could navigate through the low tide. And then we suddenly were on the beautiful Challuacocha Lake where the lodge is located. Soon we saw and heard some crazy Hoatzins, while Black-capped Donacobius, Masked-crimson Tanager and Silver-beaked Tanager were common at the main building. A Scarlet-crowned Barbet was a nice surprise here.
To reach the campsite from the main building, you have to cross the lake by canoe, as you cannot walk to it from the main building. Which added even more excitement to our stay there! Our group consisted of 8 people, but the two of us got a special birding guide named Carlos for the next couple of days. He was really good in birding, knew all species and also the English bird names, could imitate lots of bird songs very very accurate and his laser pointer was sometimes also very useful in the dense forests. He was only quite quiet, communication was sometimes not good, but anyway. No worries. After the excellent dinner (also the food was really nice at Sani), Carlos brought us to the campsite by canoe, just in time before a thunderstorm kicked in.
So, next day, we woke up at 5am, had breakfast and started the birding day by visiting the 34m high wooden canopy tower, hand-crafted by the local people. Here, we finally saw our first jacamar, a Purplish Jacamar! It was busy with all new species there, of course. White-fronted Nunbird, Slate-coloured Hawk, Black-headed Parrot, Gilded Barbet, White-throated Toucan, Ivory-billed Araçari, Purple & Green Honeycreepers, Plum-throated Cotinga, Gray-crowned Flatbill, Black-tailed Titrya and a full package of tanagers, oropendola’s etcetera. Chased away by the rain we returned to the lodge to have lunch & siesta. In the late afternoon and after dinner we made two boat trips round the lake. This delivered, a.o., Cream-coloured Woodpecker, Amazon & Green-and-rufous Kingfisher, Black Caracara, Agami Heron, White-lored Euphonia, Slender-billed Kite, White-chinned Jacamar, Plumbeous Antbird, Sungrebe and Common Nighthawk. Back on the campsite, we frequently heard a Great Potoo calling.
Our second full jungle day was spent on some Rio Napo islands. Today we also had a private sailor with us, plus Frank, a Texan farmer. He wanted to see the islands and did not have any problem with birding, as he was bored by the culture things and piranha-fishing yesterday. Each island is home to its own specialties. On our way to the islands, a troop of White-fronted Capuchin Monkeys and Common Squirrel Monkeys crossed the river above our heads. This day, we could add some more jewels to our life list: Amazonian Umbrellabird, Olive-spotted Hummingbird, White-bellied and Dark-breasted Spinetails, Black-and-white Antbird, Castelnau’s Antshrike, Barred Antshrike, Speckled Chachalaca, Golden-headed Manakin, Swallow-winged Puffbird, Long-billed Gnatwren, Yellow-tufted Woodpecker, Black-faced Antbird, Yellow-billed Tern and Great, Purplish (OK, not new) and Brown Jacamars. We had some beautiful walks in remote areas, fortunately Sani Lodge provided us with boots as we really needed them out there! The guides played some tricks with us by pointing out an “interesting” tree, well, one of the branches was not made of wood but consisted of a roosting Ladder-tailed Nightjar. Potoo-time then, as the same trick a bit further up the river yielded a roosting Common Potoo. In the evening, we had a short trip across the Challuacocha Lake to the roost of a Rufous Potoo! Navigating a dugout canoe seemed cool to do for me, so I was allowed to give it a try on our way back, when suddenly a Black Caiman appeared and headed crash-course towards us. Nice testcase. Carlos and his father made some hissing sounds while my girlfriend and Frank were laughing out loud, we altered our course and passed the animal within a meter or so. Well, we also saw a Laughing Falcon and enjoyed a beautiful sunset. While falling asleep in our tent we heard a Great Potoo again.
The next day it was time to visit some clay-licks. Franks was with us again, plus also an extra guide/sailor. The previous days the weather was not really nice, but today the sun shone and this is necessary otherwise, the parrots won’t come. So, back in the dugout canoe again. On our way to the claylicks we saw a juvenile Rufescent Tiger-heron at the opposite side of the Challuacocha lake. The Rio Napo itself contains a lot f branches and trees which fell into the river. But my attention was drawn by an odd-behaving “branch”. We stopped & turned the canoe and the “branch” turned out to be a Violaceous Jay which was desperately trying to lift off from the water. The poor animal was probably caught in a stern-wave. Using a paddle we could get the bird out of the water, dried it using a T-shirt and released it once we moored at the claylicks.
The claylicks are also visited by the other lodges (e.g. La Selva, Sacha) so it was quite busy out there at prime-time. Claylick #1 yielded Mealy and Yellow-crowned Amazons plus Blue-headed and Dusky-headed Parakeets. After a short transfer we got to Claylick #2, but apparently, just before we arrived, a hawk spec. had startled all parrots so they were high up in the trees. They were sure out there, what a noise. This gave us some time to explore the surroundings, Carlos knew a roost of two Crested Owls which provided good views. Beautiful birds. Paying attention to the various ant colonies payed off as I got brief views of a Amazonian Streaked-antwren. Finally, after 1.5 hours, the first Cobalt-winged Parakeets descended to the claylick, soon to be accompanied by hundreds of their friends. They were very cautious and at one moment they were scared again, the whole group flew away as fast as possible and also passed through the observation hut. Magnificent. We made a short stop at the other side of the island which gave good views of 2 roosting Great Potoos, Blue-winged Parrotlets, a Black-fronted Nunbird and a family of 4 White-eared Jacamars. In one of the trees, a cute and rare Pygmy Marmoset was visible. It seems that every corner in this jungle boosts another spectacular species. The afternoon was characterized by rain and thunder, although we had a Bat Falcon on our way back to the lodge. Just before sunset we tried our luck again at the canopy tower, but bird activity was very low. Red-bellied Macaws and Chestnut-eared Araçaris passed the tower and we had good views of an attractive Purplish Jacamar again. Back to the lodge, a Boat-billed Heron flew over in the twilight. After dinner and some nice talking with the others, we sailed back, for the first time on our own. Nice to see the reflecting eyes of the lurking Black Caimans on the lake…
Our final full day in the jungle started with fog, but soon it became hot & humid. We spent this day in the forest behind the lodge. Highlights were a Wire-tailed Manakin, Crimson-crested & Red-stained Woodpeckers, Screaming Piha, Great & Bartlett’s Tinamou, Spangled & Purple-throated Cotingas, Little Cuckoo, Plain Xenops, Lafresnaye’s Piculet and a whole bunch of tanagers, wrens, trogons, antwrens, antshrikes and antbirds. We also encountered two Black Agouti and saw Howler Monkeys from the tower.
Sani to Baeza
On the morning of Oct, 11th, we woke up at 5am again, packed our stuff and sailed to our breakfast. During breakfast, we enjoyed the good weather and we now finally saw the famous groups of parrots (Mealy Amazons, Orange-winged Amazon, Chestnut-fronted Macaw a.o.) crossing the lake in the morning sunshine. We left the lodge at 7:45am and had a good trip back to Coca, where we arrived at 10:30. We saw a Bat Falcon during the boat trip. No terns though. In Coca we changed from boat to bus to airplane. The height difference between Coca and Quito is 2km or so, so during a 30min flight you have the feeling that you’re only taking off, before a very brief descent and suddenly you touch down. Weird. In Quito, we took a taxi to the Terminal Terrestre where we catched a bus to Baeza. We stayed at Restaurante Gina, which has some rooms and good food. Baeza consists of three separate parts (from Quito, first part = Y-junction & petrol station; second part = Gina, third part = supermercados), so pay attention when you get out of the bus. By the way, we could also have done Coca-Baeza directly by bus, but this still takes 8-10 hours or so, and buses are not frequent. Plus, Baeza was not in our initial scheme at the time we arranged our camping&flight-package at Sani Lodge.
Virgen de Huacamayos
Sunday, Oct 12th, we woke up at 4:30am in order to catch a bust towards Tena at 5am. We asked the hotel owners the previous day if buses would run that early on Sundays, and they agreed. Reality proved to be different however. At 6:30, still no sign of a bus so we hired a camioneta for $15 single trip. The place to be is at the antennae and the virgin shrine, there’s a parking place there. Ask the bus driver for “Virgen de Maria, Huacamayos” and keep your eyes open. By taxi, it was a 30 min. drive from Baeza. For more directions, see Hosner, 2006. When we arrived, weather was good and with a bit of sunshine we started our walk. Time to scoop up some eastern slope jewels.
After the first corner of the path, we already encountered multiple flocks. While watching a flock, I heard a white-bearded manakin-like sound ("machine gun/ fireworks"). Once I saw it (only briefly, 2 times for 2 seconds) at the edge of a flock, I was puzzled. Was it a female Blue-crowned Manakin, or a male Yellow-headed Manakin? It had a dark-yellow crown, further the overall “appearance” was orange. Striking was also that it had a substantial longer tail than other manakins I saw on my Ecuador trip up to that point (Golden-headed, Blue-rumped, White-Bearded, Wire-tailed). The belly was divided into two colors, more dark (orange/green) on the chest and lighter (orangish) near the legs. Behaviour was fast, restless (“explosive”) and secretive (typically manakin). I saw a totally dark eye. For a female Blue-rumped, it deviated too much on several points: tail, crown, more expressed dual-tone belly colours. I came to the conclusion that only one other manakin resembles it and that is Yellow-headed Manakin! If you have another suggestion, I would be happy to hear it.
The flocks contained a nice mix of other species as well: Masked Flowerpiercer, Pearled Treerunner, Green-and-black Fruiteater, lots of tanagers (Beryl-spangled, Saffron-crowned, Blue-necked, Grass-green), a north-american vagrant (Blackburnian Warbler) and flycatchers (Cinnamon, Handsome).
The road winds down and was sometimes quite slippery, we encountered several landslides, as well as some Dusky Pihas (large!). But bird activity was way less than at the start of the path. We walked until we met the Trans-Ecuadorian Pipeline at 11:30am. Here, we had a break and had good views of a beautiful Chestnut-bellied Thrush and a calling Emerald Toucanet. Once we knew the sound of the latter species, we found them to be common in the forest… Other species on our way back were Long-tailed Antbird, Blue-winged Mountain-tanager (abundant), Yellow-throated Bush-tanager and Sepia-brown Wren. But, the finest of them all showed up halfway the path: a pair of Brown-billed Scythebills! Back at the “Virgen” shrine, we again got more flocks than further down the path, but no new species this time. Fog kicked in and together with the drizzle it became cold, so we walked back along the road towards Baeza. After 15 minutes we could hop on a bus back to Baeza. We had dinner that evening in pizzeria “Kopal” opposite the road. It was owned by a Dutchman and we had a nice talk with him. He gave us the tip to visit the canyons behind the pizzeria next morning. Canyons? Allright, didn’t notice them.
So, Oct. 13th woke up at 5:30am and left for a walk to the cascadas. This was a very nice trip! Soon we encountered Highland Motmot, Andean Cock-of-the-Rock (other ssp.: orange! The birds at Paz de Aves were red!), Emerald Toucanet and an unidentified quetzal, apparently “crested” is regularly seen here but we did not have good views on it. The two viewpoint to the waterfalls were nice. We had a walk to the Mirador, but the bird activity declined the farther away we went from the waterfalls. So we headed back and Femkje saw a Rufous-breasted Antthrush.
Guango
Got our luggage and took a bus back to Quito, but dropped off at Guango Lodge. The bus driver and I missed it, but thanks to a local we stopped at the right place. We were kindly received, dropped our luggage and after paying $5 pp we could walk everywhere we wanted. Well, first stop at the hummingbird feeders of course! Collared Inca, White-bellied Woodstar, Speckled hummer, Chestnut-breasted Coronet, Tourmaline Sunangel, Fawn-breasted Brilliant, Mountain Velvetbreast, Buff-winged Starfrontlet, Tyrian Metaltail were buzzing around. Masked and Glossy Flowerpiercers were also attracted by the feeders. Several Violet-tailed Sylphs were also around, one of which missed a tail feather. This was fun to see and Femkje had the luck to find the missing feather! Sword-billed Hummingbirds were our favourites here. The bills of these birds are so long, they have to polish their feathers with their feet! Thereafter, we walked a small trail at the lodge. Down at the river, we had good views on a pair of Torrent Duck. Once back at the feeders, we met a local guide with an American birding tourist. Had a good talk with them about the manakin I saw yesterday, as I was still not completely convinced about the determination. They were looking for the ducks all morning now, so we gave them the directions. We left the lodge at 3pm and while waiting for the bus, the guide and the tourist passed by, smiling that they had seen the ducks! We arrived at Papallacta and searched for hotel Quito, but it did not exist anymore, so we ended up at El Viajero. Cheap ($6 pppn), but quite ramshackle & no showers available.
Papallacta
On Oct 14th, we took a bus at 6am with direction Quito, were we left the bus at 6:30am at an unpaved road with a toll house. It is located after a turn to the right, you can see some antennae at the top of the hill. We walked up the path, passed the guard house & barrier (apparently $10 entrance pp effective March 2008) and soon saw a Tawny Antpitta crossing the road. The next kilometers to the antenna’s we would encounter more of them. The weather was foggy, with frequent rain and cold. Each time we used the bins, they steamed up. We saw a few birds however: Andean Tit-spinetail, Plumbeous Sierra-finch, Bar-winged Cinclodes (common), Many-striped Canastero, Andean Teal, Paramo Ground-tyrant, Brown-bellied Swallow, Grass Wren and Ecuadorian Hillstar. We were catched up by two minivans full of birders. Fifteen minutes later we heard quite some cheers, smashing doors etc. from the top of the hill, somewhat later we encountered them again. They startled a Rufous-bellied Seedsnipe. Well, due to the noise they made I was pretty sure the bird wouldn’t come back, thanks guys. At the top the weather shortly improved around noon, immediately the raptors became active. We saw 5 Variable Hawks and a Caranculated Caracara, but also a magnificent scenery unfolding before our eyes. We searched for the seedsnipes for about 3 hours, but in vain. At 2pm we started our return to the main road again. Bored by the rain, we now got snow and hail. Yeah!
We didn’t have a good map of the area, but I was pretty sure that round the corner a big lake should be present which seemed to be good for Grebes. As we were soaked anyways, but had good raingear, we decided to give it a try. Well, 10 km further downhill in the twilight, we finally saw the lake but it was too dark to use the bins. We had dinner at the Don Wilson hotel-restaurant, which was good. Wrecked, we went asleep at 8pm on our last full birding day.
Last full birding day? Yep, next morning we got a lift from the hotel owner to the Thermas de Papallacta ($7). More expensive than Baños, but also more luxurious and bigger. And quieter, especially during the week (we were there on Wednesday, Oct 15th). Instead of a waterfall, these Thermas have a river in which you can dip to cool down. The view on the surrounding mountains is very nice, in the Thermas themselves enough vegetation is present. So, still birding there, we saw Sword-billed Hummingbird and Black Flowerpiercer while lying in a whirlpool. We left the Thermas and down the road we saw Supercilliared Hemisphingus, Cinereous Conebill and Pale-naped Brush-finch. Back to the hotel then, packed our stuff and got a bus to Quito.
Quito and back
In Quito, we got fooled by a taxi driver who did not want to bring us to the hotel we requested, but to a hotel he proposed. A bit of negotiating and bargaining is the way to go in Ecuador, but this became quite annoying and we did not trust it anymore. So eventually we left the cab near Parque El Ejido and stayed at Hotel Othello again. Next morning we catched our flight back to The Netherlands without problems. The aircraft made a stopover again at Bonaire, but now in daylight, so this yielded Brown Pelican, Bananaquit and flamingos spec.. We arrived in the Netherlands at 4:50am in the morning with a huge jetlag, but also with a very nice trip in our pocket. Which we would relive the next months during the compilation of a photobook and this trip report. Ecuador is a fantastic travel & birding country.
References
First of all, many thanks to Wouter Halfwerk, Dusan Brinkhuizen, Jelmer Poelstra and Henk Krajenbrink for extensive birding travel information. Special thanks to Bas van Schooten for his company & birdguiding during our west slope trip. Also thanks to William & Carlos @ Neiges Tours and Viola @ Hotel Central Latacunga.
When we were preparing our trip to Ecuador, it was strange to find such a low amount of useful trip reports (i.e. including directions, not only containing a parade of birdlists). Literature we used:
• Rough Guide to Ecuador – We found this to be a very comprehensive guide for this country.
• Ridgely, R. S. and Greenfield, P. J. - The Birds of Ecuador, Volume II. Excellent guide, we had part 1 which was sufficient for us. It’s quite heavy and bulky tough. So, after I received it, I cut it into two parts (colour plates and background information) and let it be bound by a bookshop. This way, I always had the birding guide at hand and could leave the background info in my backpack.
• Hosner, Pete - Six months, two pairs of socks. 2005-2006.
• Ahlman, Roger - Ecuador 2003.
• Halfwerk, Wouter – Ecuador February-June 2005 including recordings.
• Sangster, George – Mindo, seing 3 species antpitttas. 2005
• Sani Lodge – www.sanilodge.com
• Guango Lodge - http://cabanasanisidro.com/pages/guango_lodge.htm
Tips for backpackers
A basic knowledge of Spanish is very, very useful, as even in our hostel in Quito nobody spoke English. We used the Rough Guide to Ecuador and we found it to be more elaborate on nature spots than e.g. the Lonely Planet guide. We travelled by public transport, which is excellent but be prepared for delays. Generally, one hour of bussing costs you $1-$1,50 but this mainly depends on how good your Spanish is… They tend to double prices for tourists. On short hops and direct buses (yes they exist, e.g. Salinas-Guayaquil) prices are higher. The bus station of Quito is quite gloomy, but Guayaquil has a newly high-tech renovated bus station. Taxis, even in towns, are available almost 24-7, but if you want to be on a good spot early morning, better arrange it the night before for a couple of extra dollars. Camping is possible, but in general hostels/hotels are that cheap compared to Western Europe that it’s not necessary. We camped at Sani lodge and we were provided with a tent, mattress and all sheets.