Birding Ecuador

Birding Coastal Ecuador: Cerro Blanco, Rio Ayampe, Atahualpa, and more

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27 February – 7 March 2016. The forests along Ecuador’s south-west coast support numerous dry & semi-humid forest specialty species such as Pale-browed Tinamou, Gray-and-Gold Warbler, Speckle-breasted Wren, Elegant Crescentchest, Pacific Elaenia, Ecuadorian Piculet, Necklaced Spinetail, Esmeraldas Woodstar, Little Woodstar, [...]

Gareno Lodge and El Para Reserve

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16-21 February 2016. With our mixed luck getting access to good Amazonian sites, we were trying find good sites for rare birds, so we opted to give Gareno Lodge a try. Gareno Lodge (near Tena, Ecuador) is famous for day-roosting Rufous Potoo and for quite good hilly terra firme birding. Indeed, the Rufous Potoo is still easily found during the [...]

Rio Bigal – A hidden treasure of amazing pristine Amazonian foothill birding!

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12-15 February 2016. The foothills in the tropics are hands down one of our favorite zones to go birding in. Anywhere from about 600 – 1500 m in good habitat the birding can be not just good, nor really good, but truly mind-blowing. Not to mention that the climate is typically mild, not too hot, not too cold, and frequently there are fewer bugs; [...]

Amazonian Birding at Sacha Kawsay

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3-6 February 2016. We made plans to visit Shiripuno Lodge in Western Amazonia. Shiripuno is one of the best sites for remote and intact rainforest where there is little hunting pressure; hence you can still find a lot of mammals, Curassows, and Tinamous. Unfortunately, a week before our scheduled visit, one of the uncontacted tribes that still [...]

Birding the east slope of Ecuadorian Andes

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January – February 2016. The east slope of the Andes rise suddenly and dramatically out of the Amazonian lowlands and a good number of species are found only found here at the base of the Andes. However finding good foothill forest on the east slope is not always easy – not a lot of roads exist and where they do, not much habitat remains. [...]