Birding Trip Ecuador 25 june-25 july 2014 By Daniel Arias, Gabriel Marcacci1 , Julien Mazenauer and Chris Venetz Introduction During august 2013, we decided to organise on our own a 1-month birding trip through Ecuador that would take place during june and july 2014. We were lucky to meet Daniel Arias (a young Ecuadorian birdwatcher) in Switzerland 8 month before the trip. We discussed with him and he was very interested by folllowing us for the whole trip to discover the best spots of his country. Our main goal was to find the numerous typical Andean birds such as Andean Condor, Andean Ibis, Giant Conebill, Rufous-bellied Seedsnipe and of course some endemic targets like Violet-throated Metaltail, Jocotoco Antpitta, El Oro Parakeet, etc. Indeed we wanted to see as much species as possible during 1 month, by visiting the best parts of the whole country, from the far north to the far south. Daniel was back in Ecuador several months before our trip and could arrange a rental car and some accomodations for us. To plan everything, we used the very good website of Lelis Navarrete ‘Where to find birds in Ecuador’ (birdsinecuador.com). You will find almost every good spots with maps, explanations on access roads, the major targets, etc. Thanks to the incredible job that did Lelis, birding the whole Ecuador became accessible to everyone! If you hesitate on going on your own for such a trip, don’t hesitate anymore, Ecuador is an easy birding destination! The directions are often well indicated. We also used many trip reports found on Cloudbirders (www.cloudbirders.com) and one good trip report sent by a danish friend (just ask if you would like to read it). Many of the visited reserves were owned by the fundacion de conservacion Jocotoco. To visit their reserve, go on their website and contact them (fjocotoco.org), you will find all the informations needed. If you need more extra informations on access, targets, practical, don’t hesitate to ask us. Safety During the whole trip, we didn’t felt a single time unsafe. We would maybe avoid to spent too many time outside at night in big cities of the coast (e.g. Machala, where we had to spend one night after our car breakdown). Trafic is along the coast quite busy with many big trucks. Except this, we found the ecuadorian roads safe. Weather We encountered during this trip all kinds of weather, from the dry and hot coast to The Amazoninan rain forest as well as the cold and humid cloud forest of the Andes. Despite the heavy rain sometimes in the west slope we didn’t felt that it was much more complicate to find the birds. But we suggest to consult Lelis Navarrete’s website to find more specific informations about weather. 2 Accomodations and food We spent the major part of our nights in cheap hotels or lodges, found on our way without previous booking. There was no problem to find hotels in small towns, even without making reservations before. To be sure for the lodges, you better have to book in advance. Globally, the cheap hotels costed us around 10 USD per night. We also spent some nights camping. Usually, you can arrange with the lodges to got a camping place. If we had to spend one more month in Ecuador, we would not worry much about finding a place to sleep. You will find during your trip many small restaurants serving rice, vegetables and meat for around 2-3 USD, incredibly cheap compared to the european ones ! There are no problems to find food in Ecuador. Itinerary 25/06: Geneva-Quito flight 26/06: Quito – Yanacocha - Bellavista Cloud forest reserve 27/06 : Bellavista 28/06 : Bellavista – Paz de las Aves 29/06: Bellavista – Tandayapa bird lodge – Mindo 30/06: Mindo 01/07: Mindo – Mangaloma 02/07: Mangaloma – Rio Canandé reserve 03/07: Rio Canandé reserve 04/07: Rio Canandé reserve 05/07: Canandé – Quito 06/07: Quito – Antisana – Papallacta 07/07: Papallacta – Guango lodge – Baeza 08/07: Baeza – San Isidro – Cosanga 09/07: Cosanga – Wildsumaco reserve 10/07: Wildsumaco reserve 11/07: Wildsumaco – Gareno lodge 12/07: Gareno lodge 13/07: Gareno lodge 14/07: Gareno lodge – Cuenca 15/07: Cuenca – Cajas National park – Lojas 16/07: Lojas – Tapichalaca reserve – Vilcabamba 17/07: Vilcabamba – Catamayo – Machala 18/07: Machala – Buenaventura reserve 19/07: Buenaventura reserve – Manglares Churute 20/07: Manglares Churute – Cerro Blanco – Salinas 21/07: Salinas – Ayampe 22/07 : Ayampe 23/07 : Ayampe – Quito 24/07 : Quito – Geneva 3 https://www.google.com/maps/ Here are the birding sites we visited during the trip. Most of time was spent in the north-western part of the country (Choco bioregion) where we considered necessary to spent enough time to find the numerous targets. We spent unfortunatlly only 4 days in Amazonia (very expensive!). The second part of the trip was focussed on birding in the south with also many nice targets like the Jocotoco Antpitta. The last few days were spent along the coast where many new important species were found like Inca Tern, Tumbes endemics, etc. Ecuadorian birdwatching is probably one of the easiest way to discover the neotropics and its incredible biodiversity. Distances between birding sites are short and roads are most of the time quite good. 4 Daily report 25/06 (day 1): Geneva - Quito Our flight from Geneva arrived in Quito in the end of the afternoon. Daniel was waiting for us at the airport and brought us to Conocoto, in the neighborhood of Quito. We made our first birding there: Black-tailed Trainbearers (our first ever hummer, what a bird!), Sparkling Violetears, Rusty Flowerpiercer (the only one of the trip), Saffron Finch, Grassland Yellow-finch, Vermillion Flycatcher, Southern-Beardless Tyrannulet etc. We slept at Daniel’s parent’s house, all very excited about the next morning. Black-tailed trainbearer, Quito. Chris Venetz 26/07 (day 2): Quito – Yanacocha – Bellavista Cloud Forest We left Quito early in the morning to avoid the traffic around the capital. During the climb up to 3500m to reach the Yanacocha reserve, we made stops every hundred meters (birds were really everywhere!): Cinereous Conebill, Black, Glossy and White-sided Flowerpiercer, Paramo Pipit on the road, Southern Yellow Grosbeak, Scarlet-bellied and Black-chinned Mountain-Tanager, Yellow-breasted Brush-Finch, Tyrian Metaltail, Shining Sunbeam, Buff-Tailed Coronet and many more. From the road we spotted the first Andean Condor for the trip, rarely seen there. Arrived in the reserve, we just saw our first Sword-billed Hummingbird in flight. During the walk along the main trail, we managed to see : Masked Flowerpiercer, Purple-backed Thornbill, Sword-billed Hummingbird, Crowned Chat-Tyrant, Andean Guan, etc. Suddenly, a stunning male of the endemic Black-breasted Puffleg appeared in front of us, around 300m before the feeding station. It stayed sitting and flying in front of us for the next 3 minuts, before disappearing. 5 Sword-billed Hummingbird, Yanacocha. Chris Venetz After this, we went back to the car and began to go down to Tandayapa Valley by the Old Mindo Road, making regular stops along our route: Blue- and-black Tanager (the only ones of the trip), Spectacled and Slate-throated Whitestart, Crimson-mantled Woodpecker, Speckled Hummingbird, Blue- winged Mountain-Tanager and a female Andean Cock-of-the-Rock along the road. We were greeted at Bellavista Lodge by a Beautiful Jay just before darkness. A few minuts before total dark, we already saw some hummingbirds at the feeders, like the typical Booted Racket-tail. We built our tents just above the accommodations of the reserve, at the usual camping place. A Common Potoo was sitting on the entrance of the lodge (like all nights) and Band-winged Nightjar gave nice views on the road. The camping place costs 8 dollars per night per person and full access to the trails is guaranteed. Just send an e-mail to the Bellavista Cloud forest Lodge for this (we highly recommand this option for those with low budget). You can also take a bird guide from the lodge to find the most difficult species. 27/07 (day 3) : Bellavista We woke up in paradise: from our tents we had a great view of the Tandayapa Valley. Our first morning in the cloud forest was incredible with many emblematic species : Plate-Billed Mountain Toucan, Toucan Barbet, Turquoise Jay, Sickled-Wing Guan, Collared Inca, Booted Racket-tailed, Strong-billed and Montane Woodcreeper, Lineated Foliage-gleaner, Russet- crowned Warbler etc. All these birds just from lodge and in one hour! We spent the rest of the morning on the trails : Green-and-black Fruiteater, Grass- 6 green, Golden, Golden-naped, Beryl-spangled, Flame-faced and Black- caped Tanager, Spillmann’s Tapaculo, Masked Trogon, Rufous-headed Pygmy-tyrant (skulking low in the dense vegetation inside the forest), Flavescent and Cinnamon Flycatcher. We heard from the road just above the lodge a White-faced Nunbird but couldn’t locate it. During the afternoon, we went to Tony Nunnery’s Hummingbird Garden, just a few kilometers under the Bellavista lodge. There was many hummingbird feeders in his garden which is a very attractive place for Hummingbirds : Violet-tailed Sylph, Green and Brown Violetear, Violet-fronted Brilliant, Empress Brilliant, White-bellied Woodstar, White-necked Jacobin, Rufous-tailed Hummingbird, Booted Racket-tail, Purple-bibbed Whitetip, Wedge-billed Hummingbird etc. This garden is probably the best place of the Tandayapa Valley to look for hummingbirds, go there to give him a visit! You don’t need to book anything, just go and ring the bell.