Welcome to Birdquest
NORTHERN ECUADOR
Wednesday 29th September - Saturday 23rd October 2010
János Oláh
The stunning Giant Antpittas are now local celebrities! (János Oláh)
We recorded an unbelievable total of 826 species on our 2010 tour! Out of this amazing total, 761 bird species were seen and 65 birds were heard only. This year’s tour was only nine species short of the Birdquest all-time record, which was set in the same country by Paul Coopmans encompassing the entire country and not only the north! This also clearly shows that there has probably not been a better time to visit this amazing country. Why is this? The bird watching and eco-tourism has grown in Ecuador over the years and many new lodges opened allowing relatively easy access to previously out of the beaten track places. Also many difficult-to-find birds has been staked-out or even habituated. In addition to these factors the travelling distances are short and our itinerary has been designed to give a fantastic overview of the northern part of this country. Ecuador undeniably offers the best of the ’Bird Continent’ with most species of birds per square mile in the World and even with its close competitor Colombia opening up again at last Ecuador still offers the most truly spectacular experience for visiting birders!
Birdquest has operated a very long series of successful tours to Ecuador over the last 17 years. On this unbelievable tour in 2010 we travelled through a wide range of habitats and saw a good number of Ecuadorian and other South American specialities. The regular birding hotspots were visited but we added a few new destinations as well such as a visit to the newly-opened Mashpi Reserve in the very wet and mossy Chocó region and our first ever stay at the Wild Sumaco Lodge in the eastern foothills. We visited the magnificent Antisana National Park for the second time and enjoyed breathtaking scenery as well as exciting high elevation birding. The superb selection of lodges served as a perfect base to explore the surrounding areas throughout the tour. Our first base was the Septimo Paraiso Lodge in the western Andes close to the famous town of Mindo. We visited the newly-discovered Mashpi Reserve where Indigo Flowerpiercer, Rufous-Brown Solitaire and many Moss-backed Tanagers were the highlights. The Indigo Flowerpiercer and the solitaire were actually ‘write-ins’ for this long established tour, a testament to how special they are in Ecuador. The morning experience at Angel Paz was as amazing as ever since Angel established his ’antpitta show’ and yet again he had more on offer, adding a new antpitta to the ever growing list of specials habituated birds. Seeing Giant, Moustached, Yellow-breasted and Ochre-breasted Antpittas in one morning was an incredible performance from Angel and we had the full show! Still in the Mindo area we made a short visit to the Rio Silanche reserve, where we added lots of goodies like Lanceolated Monklet, Spot-crowned Antvireo, Slate-throated Gnatcatcher and Blue-whiskered Tanager just to name but a few. The Bellavista area did not disappoint with good views of the two mega birds there, Tanager Finch and Plate-billed Mountain Toucan. The next lodge was the fantastic Wild Sumaco set amidst perfect lower elevation eastern foothill forest with many specialities. The best birds here included Maroon-chested Ground-Dove, Military Macaw, Band-bellied Owl, Rufous-vented Whitetip, Chestnut-crowned Gnateater, Grey-tailed Piha, Green Manakin and Blue-browed Tanager. After this magical area the rather basic Gareno Lodge was our next port of call, which was probably our last visit here without electricity as it was due to be installed at the end of 2010 and will no doubt affect the feeling of remoteness. Nevertheless the birding was superb this year again with male Fiery Topaz and daytime views of roosting Rufous Potoo as the major highlights followed by Pavonine Quetzal, Short-tailed Nighthawk and Collared Puffbird. From the rolling ’terra firme’ Amazonian forest we were back to cool montane forests of San Isidro and the Guacamayos Ridge. Not only is the birding is terrific here but the food is equally special! The undoubted highlight here was a male Peruvian Antpitta for some but it was closely followed by Ocellated Tapaculo, White-bellied Antpitta and Black-billed Mountain Toucan. Our last lodge on the main tour was the somewhat faded Tinalandia back on the west flank again. A welcome surprise was the new dining hall where we were the valued guests of the opening ceremony! Birding was very good however with Chocó Screech Owl and Whit-tipped Sicklebill in the garden plus a great selection of goodies in Rio Palenque nearby such as Ecuadorian Trogon, Barred Puffbird and Grey-and-gold Warbler. After the main tour we had a ’La Selva extension’ and this was the last one of the superb Ecuadorian Lodges we visited! The very well-known La Selva was as brilliant as ever with specialities like Zigzag and Agami Herons, Sungrebe, Cocha Antshrikes, Black-spotted Bare-eye, Spot-backed-, Dot-backed- and Banded Antbirds and Black Bushbird all appearing nicely on cue not to mention the bird of the tour – a fantastic adult Harpy Eagle from the canopy tower there!
Hummingbirds were amazing and this is probably the best tour in the World for this special family! We visited an amazing cross-section of habitats and a multitude of hummingbird feeders resulting in an incredible total of 73 species of hummingbirds, which is the highest total for any Birdquest tour ever (we beat yet again our record of 67 from the same tour in 2007)! This list included species like the diminutive Little Woodstar, the amazing Sword-billed Hummingbird, the shiny Velvet-purple Coronet, the lovely Wire-crested Thorntail, the rare Rufous-vented Whitetip, the huge Giant Hummingbird and Ecuadorian Hillstar. We also had numerous breathtaking encounters with colourful cotingas, toucans in the lowlands and multicoloured manakins and tanagers on both slopes of the Andes. It would take a long time to list all the goodies and specialities that performed beautifully on the tour (and not yet mentioned) but the displaying Torrent Ducks, the pair of Tiny Hawks, the displaying Barred Hawk, the obliging Dark-backed Wood-Quails, the well-camouflaged Ecuadorian race of Rufous-bellied Seedsnipe, the tiny Scarlet-shouldered Parrotlets, a day-roosting Tawny-bellied Screech Owl, a male Swallow-tailed Nightjar, the amazing selection of Ringed, Scale-breasted, Cream-coloured and Rufous-headed ‘celeus’ Woodpeckers, the strange Long-billed Woodcreeper, the very handsome Yellow-browed and Striated Antbirds, the shy Striated- and Barred Antthrushes, the superb Chestnut-belted Gnateater, the glowing Orange-breasted Fruiteaters and the gaudy Wire-tailed Manakin spring to mind!
In the steamy lowland and foothill jungles featuring hundreds of tree species we found an enormous diversity of antpittas, antthrushes, antshrikes, antwrens and antbirds, and recorded a staggering total of 73 species of them. Other ‘family’ totals to highlight this year’s tour were 13 species of trogons; 5 species of kingfishers; 8 species of jacamars including coppery-chested and yellow-billed; 15 species of puffbirds; 6 species of barbets; 13 species of toucans, 22 species of woodpeckers; 40 species of ‘furnarids’; 17 species of cotingas with outstanding views of Scaled, Black-chested and Orange-breasted Fruiteaters plus Purple-throated Cotinga, Amazonian Umbrellabird and four pihas; 12 species of manakins to mention a few. We also recorded 24 species of nightbirds, of which we managed to see 18! I am sure that all the Birdquesters thoroughly enjoyed the astonishing selection of rare and colourful birds we had on this fantastic tour and can hardly wait to get back to South America!
The delightful Banded Antbird is always a favourite (János Oláh)
