ANDES AMAZON EXOTIC

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Hi Peg, It was wonderful and this is what I wrote about our trip. Best wishes, Cindy

Ecuador overflows with all the vibrant and colourful things in nature. It is one of the smallest countries in South America and straddling the Equator (that it gets its name from) lies in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Bordering on Colombia in the north, the Andes are its backbone with the Pacific Ocean on the west and the Amazon Basin and Peru in the south and east. There are more than thirty volcanoes in Ecuador – many of them active – and all the major peaks are of volcanic origin and have many glaciers. The “top ten” peaks are all over 5000m with Chimborazo at 6384m being the highest place on earth – taking into account the equatorial bulge. Mt Everest reaches a higher elevation above sea level but the summit of Chimborazo is reported to be the furthest point from the Earth’s center!

Being a vast mass of water the Pacific Ocean controls many climate features of the region. In most years the northern-flowing Humboldt Current carries relatively cold water northwards along the west coast of South America. This effect is increased by the upwelling of cold water along the Peruvian coast which then flows westward along the Equator and is heated by the tropical sun. However in El Niño years a warm southern-flowing current is driven to the west coast of South America and the Central or Eastern Pacific may become as warm as the Western Pacific, causing heavier-than-normal rain and flooding.

Due to the vast range in altitude, diversity of the climate and massive variation of temperature as well as abundant water - all contributing to many different eco-systems - the birds are out of this world! There are over sixteen hundred different species!

We flew two, hour-and-a-half hops on Copa Airlines from Kingston to Panama City and then to Quito in Ecuador where we spent a night in the very comfortable Hotel Sebastian. Xavier Munoz who developed birding tours in South America, was the founder of Neblina Forest and put together our itinerary met us early on Monday morning and we started birding on the Old Nono Road, a shrubby area near secondary woodland not too far from Quito at an altitude of 3800m.

The first bird we saw was a Sword-billed Hummingbird whose bill was 10cms long!

It was feeding on the nectar of large, bright red, trumpet-shaped flowers of the small shrubby tree Brugmansia Brugmansia sanguinea of the Datura or commonly known Moonflower family.
We were fascinated watching it hover and manoeuvre its long bill into the yellow base of the flowers. The second bird we saw was a Tawny Antpitta – almost comical as it hopped about, flicked its wings and tail and bobbed up and down on long legs! What a start!

We passed a Polylepus (paper tree) plantation and further on walking down the road in the Jocotoco Foundation’s Yanacocha Reserve we passed very tall tree-ferns and came across plants with enormous, rounded leaves that were bigger than me! The views of the snow-clad Pichincha Volcano that were continually changing as the clouds moved over it were breathtaking.

We had a picnic lunch beautifully packed and presented in individual Neblina Forest boxes after which we drove downhill to just under 2000m in the Tandayapa Valley to a small-holding with fruit trees and meadows going down to a river. Owned by Fabian who was obviously a Jack-of-all-trades and an enthusiastic birder he gave us a guided tour of his property showing off his “specials” – a White-capped Dipper on a rock in the river and a female Cock-of-the-Rock that was nesting under a bridge further downstream. We had coffee made by his hospitable wife on a verandah overlooking the garden full of hummingbird feeders and sat entranced watching all the hummingbirds feeding as well as some Blue-gray Tanagers eating the bananas that had been put out on a feeding table. Xavier then drove us up to Bellavista where we spent the night. Conspicuous in the valleys below us were shining silvery-leafed Cecropia trees. There are at least twenty-five species of Cecropia trees in Ecuador, all umbrella-shaped with 30-40cm diameter leaves – different ones seemed to be at almost every elevation we visited. Some were fruiting with long, skinny whitish fingers hanging in bunches beneath the leaves. Important in tropical forests they’re fast-growing – up to six feet a year – and are used by many animals including ants, birds, bats, monkeys and also have medicinal properties.

At Bellavista there were more hummingbird feeders with different hummingbirds visiting them, as well as an area that attracted moths. A square, white piece of fabric around a meter across was suspended beneath a light and as the moths settled on it you could study them. We’d identified 57 species on our first day’s birding including 25 different hummingbirds! There are over 130 hummingbird species in Ecuador – and they all need nectar year-round so the flowers (and butterflies) are equally amazing, with more than 3,500 different orchids! We even saw plants whose green leaves had red tips to attract the birds.

Fernando, our guide for the next four days arrived in the LandCruiser that we willed to start every time Pablo turned on the key and it groaned without catching! We walked a trail in the cloud forest with vistas of plunging valleys along a path lined with fuchsias, begonias, ferns and tall trees dripping with moss, orchids and bromeliads. A White-throated Quail-Dove walked along the path in front of us showing us the way. Next morning we were up early – one huge disadvantage for me is that I never get to have any lie-ins as the best time for birding is early to mid-morning! We walked along the road and through some secondary forest in old farmlands and as we stepped out of the gate some Beautiful Jay – dark violet-blue with a contrasting milky bluish-white crown - landed in a tree near us. On the ridge not far away some Plate-billed Mountain-Toucan landed facing us showing off their grayish-blue fronts and amazing banana-like 10cm long black bills with yellow plates for noses on them and circles with turquoise green above their eyes and bright yellow below them. Wow, what a sighting of our first toucans!

We breakfasted with a pair of brilliant, shiny, green and red Masked Trogon with bright yellow bills and orange-red eye-rings sitting erect sunning themselves outside the window. Then we drove further down the old Nono-Mindo road and reached Sacha Tamia Lodge before lunch. You’re obliged to leave your shoes at the entrance and instead don a pair of disposable theatre booties so as not to damage the gleaming hardwood floors. In the afternoon we walked along a trail there and down to a river seeing an amazing Chocó Toucan with a bright yellow throat and chest that contrasted with the rest of it that was mostly black. Its boat-like hooked bill was also black and yellow and very striking. Perched on a stump above the river was a magnificent Golden-headed Quetzel – a shimmering emerald green bird with contrasting bright red breast and yellow bill - very similar to a trogon. Another brilliant days birding!

The following morning a very special treat was in store – the drawback being that we had to rise at 4.15am! We drove to the small farm of Angel Paz who is now world-renowned for his ability to “tame” the very elusive antpittas. It was barely light as we walked down the wet and muddy path through subtropical forest to a shelter and watched in amazement as six spectacular male Andean Cock-of-the-Rock flew down and gave us a cacophony of loud squawks whilst flapping their wings and very determinedly defended their patch! They looked like soft, fluffy toys made of brilliant red pom-poms with white feathers on their backs and black wings and tails. Digesting the incredible and awesome show in my mind as we continued along the path in the forest Angel started whistling and calling “Maria, Maria”. Maria a Giant Antpitta soon appeared on a mossy log and Angel threw a worm to her! Standing very upright she was around 10cms tall and was a gorgeous, rich rufous with dark brown speckling on her front, practically no tail, long legs and big brown eyes. Again I stood spellbound watching as she ate one worm after another thrown to her. Rare and terrestrial she was tame enough not to take off whilst our cameras clicked, but as soon as she’d had her fill she bounded off into the undergrowth and disappeared. We zig-zagged downhill to a clear stream and this time Angel whistled and called “Willy, Willy”. He called for at least five minutes, and I’d almost given up, before Willy – a Yellow-breasted Antpitta appeared on the other side of the stream and was also fed worm after worm. At one point Willy (Willamina and not William) disappeared with a worm to feed her chicks and reappeared for more. We identified woodcreepers, woodpeckers, flycatchers, tanagers and hummingbirds too in the forest and were busy admiring a Crimson-rumped Toucanet – a green toucan with a red rump and big reddish bill – when Angel called us to see a Dark-backed Wood-Quail and her chick that he’d whistled up and was once again feeding with worms. Back at the top of the hill and out of the forest we were given breakfast cooked by Angel’s wife sitting in a palm-thatched shelter overlooking the valley we’d just climbed out of. The first course was Borlas de Verde – fried, round, big-as-tennis-balls, Plantain fritters followed by Empanadas de biento – fried turnovers filled with cheese with aji (garlic) salsa to dip them into. Dessert was a fruit salad with babaco (paw paw family), and tree tomatoes in it. Tree tomatoes are grown as a crop and used extensively as a fruit and juiced in Ecuador. A very, very special morning and Angel had one more treat for us before we left.

We walked along the farmroad with Angel calling and there in the middle of a thicket was an Orange-breasted Fruiteater. When I saw it I just exclaimed “Wow!” It had a black head, red bill, yellow eye, fiery orange throat, brilliant yellow front and lime green back. We only saw it for a few seconds before it took off. I couldn’t help but think that the fashion houses of Europe would be proud of emanating the amazing patterns and colour combinations we’d seen. Back at Sacha Tamia Lodge where there are ten very busy numbered hummingbird feeders as well as a fruit table, we birdwatched in the vicinity of the lodge in the evening and again early the next day before breakfast. Excitingly around five Pale-mandibled Araçari flew in. Toucans with big creamy-coloured bills, black heads, tails and backs and look as if they’re wearing bright yellow vests washed with red with a black dot in the middle and a black stripe lower down.

We then drove to Choco Forest birding along the way and being entranced with a flock of striking Blue-winged Mountain Tanager with bright yellow fronts and crowns, a black mask, back and tail and vivid blue wings, and a multicoloured Toucan Barbet. Tanagers are beautiful, around robin-bird size (some are bigger), very colourful (some brilliant with fluorescent blues, others iridescent green and gleam in the sunlight), boldly patterned and conspicuous but not particularly vocal birds. We continued downhill to Rio Blanco and across the other side, again stopping to walk and birdwatch along the route and identifying a Squirrel Cuckoo – another spectacular bird. Large and long-tailed with a yellowish bill and rufous-chestnut upperparts. We saw our first palm farm, grown for Heart of Palm.

We had lunch at Isadora Rio Blanco which looks down on the river and there’s a platform in a tall Kapok tree in front with a 110km view up and down the river. In the afternoon we dropped further in altitude to Santa Domingo and Silanche and although the weather deteriorated and it rained we had a wonderful sighting of ten Swallow-tailed Kite circling above us as well as a Guayaquil Woodpecker – a big woodpecker with a crimson head, black back, neck and tail, a white V on its back and heavy barring in front. Today we identified seventy-one different species

We awoke to heavy cloud and drizzle but undeterred did a circular route walking through the forest, uphill along the powerline and along the main road and back to Sacha Tamia Lodge. In dim light we saw three Golden-headed Quetzel flying in and out of a nest in a dead tree as well as three woodcreepers – Strong-billed, Plain-brown and Tyrannine, a rare Lazuline Sabrewing hummingbird, an endemic White-tailed Hillstar, also a hummingbird, and a very colourful Flame-faced Tanager wearing an amazing costume. It had a scarlet fore-crown and cheeks merging into bright golden yellow on its hind-crown and sides of its neck, and contrasting with a small black mask, throat patch and bar encircling its ear-coverts. Its back was solidly black, with opalescent rump and wings and a mainly black tail but with a large and contrasting opalescent area on the wings. It was silvery greenish opalescent below! The heliconias, bromeliads and orchids were equally beautiful and amazing.

After a late breakfast we drove back to Quito (and Hotel Sebastian) stopping at El Pahuma Orchid Reserve to see two Andean Cock-of-the-Rock females (that are quite drab in comparison to the bright red males) sitting on nests in small, inaccessible caves above a stream. We saw one feeding its chick. One of the orchids - Draculonidae had a small flower but looked evil and as if it was pulling a tongue. We drove through Calacali, a town inside a volcano and through the very dry town of Mitad del Mundo – the middle of the world.

On our sixth morning in Ecuador we had a half-hour flight in a small VIP Airline aircraft to Coca in the north-east, a small town in the oil-rich region of the Amazon Basin and on the Napo River, one of the major tributaries of the Amazon River. We transferred to a 30ft longboat with a canopy and two, hundred horsepower Yamaha motors and sailed downstream passing an oil well and a few community settlements, for two-and-a-half hours. Five hundred meters wide in places it reminded me of the Zambezi River in Zimbabwe. At an altitude of only 200m above sea level it flows slowly through northern Peru where it joins other tributaries and becomes the Amazonas and continues its journey through northern Brazil to the sea – a journey of 3,000 miles! The river is a major transport highway in the region and we passed barges belonging to petroleum companies transporting trucks, we saw a floating hotel, a longboat full of school children that was the school bus and various longboats carrying supplies and fishermen. When we reached the Kichwa Sani Community Centre we transferred to a smaller canoe and branched off into a tributary and rode upstream for another half an hour, deeper into the Amazon rainforest, before it opened up into a still lagoon with the thatched wooden Sani Lodge reflected in the water on the opposite side. As we reached the lagoon the engine was turned off and we paddled across so as not to disturb the Cayman.

With solar power the lodge is owned and run by the local Amazonian Sani community. We were welcomed with a glass of fruit juice (which the lodge is renowned for) in the bar/lounge/recreation area which is open with a lovely view across the lagoon and to the forest beyond. The birdsong was different and it wasn’t long before we had our binoculars out and started exploring the vicinity. Carlos, whose knowledge and love of the Amazonian rainforest and its birds, their habits, habitats and voices was staggering, was our guide for the next three days. A very loud but strange birdcall attracted us – like the last few litres of water going down a very deep plughole! We found the Russet-backed Oropendula, a large crow-sized bird with a big, strong black bill and that appeared mostly a dull, olive brown with a rufous rump and yellow and brown tail feathers. We watched in fascination as it leaned forward on the branch, flapped its wings, raised its tail and made the loud, gurgling noise as if having a convulsion! Its nests were equally outstanding and fascinating. They nest in colonies in very tall trees and their nests are meter-long woven pouches that hang down from the branches. One tree we passed on the river had fifteen long nests dangling from its high branches. I also saw one blowing in the wind higher up in the eastern Andes and it reminded me of a windsock blowing at right angles in a breeze on an airfield.

As it grew dark we saw a Common Potoo and heard its mournful calls from the rainforest with six descending notes every night. Solitary nocturnal birds resembling nightjars but instead they perch vertically, absolutely motionless and often fully in the open on prominent branches and with their cryptic, mottled brownish, greyish and rufous colouring potoos are totally camouflaged! Carlos, knowing his patch backwards, poled us into an inlet on the lagoon where we parked the dugout and walked through the forest to a dead tree stump and perched on top was a small Rufous Potoo. The smallest potoo it’s a rich cinnamon-rufous colour with black flecks. Another day, returning downstream on the Napo River from the Yasuni National Park he stopped the boat and we clambered out and up the bank to see a Great Potoo perched in the hot sun, out in the open on top of a bare branch. Being pale greyish and brownish it was the same colour as the branch and looked like a large lump or growth where another branch had broken off the tree, and again was totally camouflaged.

On our first morning at Sani Lodge with Carlos carrying a telescope, we walked from the camp through the rainforest for about half an hour to a very tall and majestic Kapok or Silk-cotton Tree Ceiba pentandra where they’d built wooden steps leading up to a platform 45 meters (150ft) up and above the canopy of the surrounding trees, but beneath the open-umbrella shaped crown of the Kapok – the Canopy Tower. We reached it at dawn and were able to witness flocks of parrots, parakeets, parrotlets and macaws going to their feeding grounds. Some Mealy Amazon, Orange-winged Amazon and a Black-headed Parrot came to feast on some fruit in a tree nearby. We saw five different species of toucan – Ivory-billed Araçari, Lettered Araçari, Channel-billed Toucan, the bigger but similar-coloured White-throated Toucan with a huge black bill (21cms long) and a Many-banded Araçari – very similar to the Pale-mandibled Araçari we’d seen at Sacha Tamia but instead of the black dot in the middle of its yellow vest it had another black stripe. And its triangular eye patch was blue as opposed to red. We saw a Bat Falcon, a Plumbeous Pigeon, flycatchers, fruitcrows, Russet-backed, Crested, Olive and Green Oropendulas, a Violaceous Jay, a Common Piping-Guan, beautiful Opal-crowned, Paradise and Blue-grey Tanagers, honeycreepers, cotingas (including one called a White-browed Purpletuft), warblers, swallows, a Greater Yellow-headed Vulture, Yellow-rumped Cacique – another big common bird with an ivory bill, which is glossy black with a large bright yellow patch on top of its back, rump and top of its tail. We saw a Cream-coloured Woodpecker – very different from any other woodpecker we’d ever seen. It was creamy-yellow with a pointed crest and had contrasting dusky brown wings and tail.

A Yellow-browed Tody-Flycatcher flew in to feed in the leaves above us. It was just amazing and we’d be spotting birds and looking at them through our binoculars whilst Carlos found others in the scope – at times you just didn’t know where to look! There were very annoying little flies though – like the Mopane flies in the Zambezi Valley – that got into our eyes, ears and even between the binocular lenses and our eyes. Tearing ourselves away from the theatre of birds for a few seconds we put insect repellent on our faces and hands (we wore long-sleeved cotton shirts) which did the trick and they left us alone. Whilst leaning on the wooden railing and peering through my binoculars I got stung on my upper arm – a severe wasp-like sting – which I discovered came from a Conga or Bullet Ant. It stung for the rest of the day and the area around it became inflamed and it itched for ten days. I later learned that they can cause fever and respiratory problems too. They’re more than two centimeters long, aggressive and their colonies grow to more than two thousand individuals. They build their nests at the base of trees, often between buttress roots and defend their nest at any time of the day even though they’re nocturnal. Workers leave the nest to forage live prey and extra-floral nectar.

As the sun rose and it got warmer the birdsong dropped and the forest became still and we climbed down and into it. Walking back to the lodge Carlos side-stepped the path and took us through the undergrowth to a huge tree with enormous buttresses and in a hollow in the trunk hidden by vines hanging down in front like a curtain was Tawny-bellied Screech-Owl that sleepily opened its eyes to look at us. We also stopped to look at a tree that had been chopped down to make into paddles. Their paddles looked very efficient as they had big, rounded, diamond shaped heads able to scoop a large amounts of water. What was fascinating about the tree was the red colour of the wood. It was very red – even the shavings that littered the path where the planks had been sawn were red.

In the afternoon we birded from a canoe gliding in the shade beneath the trees which had canopied overhead. We also stopped and picked up people going about their daily business and dropped them off along the way. We saw a Boat-billed Heron that had a broad shovel-like bill, a Boat-billed Flycatcher that likewise had a broad, heavy bill and was a striking bird with a yellow front, white throat, rufous back, black mask, white stripe above its eye and a black cap, a very similar-looking but smaller Great Kiskadee, a Speckled Chachalaca (a mostly bronze and rufous brown pheasant-like bird with a small head, blue bill, slender neck with white spots in front and like Guineafowl, I’m sure are delicious to eat), a pretty Black-tailed Trogon, Neotropical Palm-Swifts that had longer, forked tails than African Palm Swifts, Shiny and Giant Cowbirds – glossy purplish-black birds which parasitize smaller birds and oropendulas and caciques respectively, as well as some water birds the most exciting of which were Pied Plover and Large-- billed Tern.

Next morning we headed for a sand island in the Napo River where we parked the canoe and saw some seedeaters. On the way we saw a female Amazonian Umbrellabird – with a less conspicuous and prominent umbrella-shaped crest than the male – as well as a Ringed Kingfisher, Grey-necked Wood-Rail, Yellow-billed Tern, Black Solitary, Greater Ani, Oriel Blackbird, Drab Water-Tyrant, amongst others. Before heading back to Sani Lodge for lunch we stopped off at the Sani Community Center and drank a few beers with Carlos and some of his family. We’d taken a few packs of playing cards which we gave them and they were thrilled and very grateful. I recognised a shrub I’d had growing in my garden in Tanzania and South Africa – Bixa orellana or lipstick tree and Jessica, his cousin, picked a brown, spiny pod. She took a small piece of palm leaf from the thatch which she stripped down to its spine, poked a few holes into the bixa pod, inserted the thin stick and stirred up the contents. When she was happy that she had the right consistency she came over to me a proceeded to paint my face with the stick - strips on my cheeks and chin and a sun on my forehead. She then painted Steve’s face too. They use it once a year to paint their own faces for a festival. Bixa is the source of the natural pigment annatto which is produced from the bright red, spiny fruit which contain red seeds. The fruits dry and harden to brown capsules and are grown commercially to colour food products such as cheese, fish and salad oil. It’s growing in popularity as a natural alternative to synthetic food colouring, used in a Mexican spice mixture as well as Latin American, Jamaican and Filipino cuisine. The Tsáchila or Colorados tribe in the north-west of Ecuador use it to dye their hair and it’s used for various medicinal remedies too.

A couple of cute Black-mantled Tamarind monkeys with whitish muzzles came out of a building nearby, crossed over to us and sat in the Bixa tree and began to eat the fruit! I walked over to them as they were obviously tame but they beared their teeth when I tried to get them to jump onto my arm. A Spix’s Guan was in the yard chasing chickens which it seemed to dislike intensely! It was similar-looking to the Speckled Chachalaca but was larger, darker brown with a crest and red dewlap and white streaking. I thought how boring to just have dogs and cats for pets!

We then walked to the local school where we played leapfrog and had our photo taken with the youngest ones. They were really proud of their community and its achievements. A small people, I discovered that their staple diet is chicha which is made from yucca and drunk once a day. They also eat plantain, yucca, fish, chicken and animals and fruits from the forest. The chef at the lodge was excellent and produced delicious meals always at the set times of 6am, 1pm and 7pm. A mix of international and local Amazonian food which were always served with pitchers of freshly-made fruit juices. I must add here that we were served delicious soups every day in Ecuador often served with popcorn which you put into it.

It rained heavily during the night and in the morning when we headed out in the canoes once more there were at least a dozen Hoatzin fluffed up and drying out. Large, unique, bizarre-looking and ungainly birds with a shaggy crest of long stiff brown feathers and bright blue facial skin similar to that of the Guineafowl, it’s a ruminant with a stomach like a cow! Feeding mainly on the leaves of a variety of plants they will also eat the flowers and fruit. We headed upstream on the Napo River to Yasuni National Park where there are two parrot clay licks. We parked the canoe and walked along the path to the office to pay our entrance fee and within five minutes Carlos had pointed out four antbirds in the undergrowth – White-shouldered, Spot-winged, Warbling and Black-faced. We also saw an Amazonian White-tailed Trogon (which apart from its tail was grey with a yellow belly and white eye-ring), a Plain-brown Woodcreeper, a Yellow-tufted Woodpecker and a Black-breasted Nunbird. Both the licks were disappointing with no activity at all at the first one except for a brilliant, shiny, indigo butterfly that flew backwards and forwards. I’d only ever seen it pinned and framed behind glass before.

There was a group of twelve Englishmen (and women) plus their three guides at the second lick and every time a parakeet or parrotlet started to come down one of them would leap up with his camera to photograph it and they all took off in fright. We decided to head off into the forest instead and what a treat it was when Carlos whistled up a magnificent Golden-headed Manakin that had a shining golden yellow head which was a stark contrast to the rest of it which was glossy black. We also heard some Red howler monkeys, their roars reverberating through the forest (apparently they can be heard over 3km in the forest and 5km in the open, and are reputed to be the loudest sounds made by any land animal) and when we’d chosen our picnic spot for lunch a family group of around ten passed overhead. They’re heavy-looking with long, silky reddish-gold coats and long, muscular tails which are heavily furred except for the underside of the end which is naked – an adaptation for gripping branches. I thought they looked quite unsightly with their naked faces with protruding muzzles and snub noses. Led by the dominant older male searching for food in the forest canopy, they move slowly to conserve energy and by howling make their presence known to other groups that may be in the vicinity.

Drifting back along the Napo River we saw a Sun Grebe swimming near the bank and when we got closer it flew up into an over-hanging branch. It was beautiful. With a scarlet bill and black cap, the rest of its head had white, rufous and black bands. Its back was greyish, front white but its legs and feet were covered in cream and black stripes – that were striped downwards on its legs and across on its toes! Perhaps they’re used as camouflage against piranhas or as lures to attract fish or other aquatic animals to eat?

Back in camp the highways that the Leafcutter ants had made were deserted. Perhaps because of the rain? For the previous two days their highways had been an armada of little green sails! They cut leaves from trees which they then haul back to their nest. They don’t eat the leaves, instead they use it as compost to grow a particular type of fungus, which doesn’t grow anywhere other than in Leafcutter ant nests. The ants then eat the fungus and feed it to their young. The fungus is grown in football-sized chambers inside the nest – where there can be more than three hundred of these chambers, and the earthworks to excavate them could involve the removal of 180,000kg of earth during the lifetime of a nest! The ants chop up up to a fifth of the forest vegetation in their vicinity, but rotate the trees they harvest, and only take the leaves from one tree to part of the nest, so that they aren’t poisoned if the leaves are infected or toxic to the fungus, and avert widespread disaster. They’re also meticulous in keeping their highways free of debris, plants and other obstructions. Astonishingly when we did our birdlist in the evening we discovered that we’d seen seventy-eight species that day.

The lagoon at Sani Lodge was surrounded with what I can only describe as freshwater mangroves, tall water philodendrons or elephant ears, very thorny water palms and short water grasses. I’d never imagined anything like the philodendrons with thick, woody-looking stems or prickly palms could thrive in water. In the forest we saw trees that were snow-white as they’d just shed their bark and the dried needle-like splinters of bark lay all around them. Vividly coloured butterflies were everywhere – we even saw one with transparent wings. There were trees with shiny, green trunks that had also shed their bark. Vines with frilled fungus in a spiral decorating them. Carlos told us that the Lawrence’s Thrush we’d seen could mimic seventy different species of birds – almost as big a repertoire as Carlos himself! Basking in the sun on sandspits were lots of terrapins – often stacked up like pork pies. We could learn a lot of lessons from nature. It truly was out of this world.

There are in Ecuador many Amazonian communities some of whom are known as “no contact” groups and the government allows them to live untouched by the outside world. Carlos certainly was at one with his environment and it was a great privilege to have shared some of it with him.

Our trip upstream back to Coca was uneventful although we did get stuck in the sand early on as the water near the lodge was very shallow in places. Again we had a half-hour hop back to Quito and back again to Hotel Sebastian. We’d met and bumped into an English couple, Catherine and Steve Allcock at Sacha Tamia and Sani and they travelled back with us and too were staying at Hotel Sebastian. The four of us took a taxi to the botanical gardens in the afternoon and spent a very pleasant couple of hours birding there. It wasn’t long before we were all oohing and aahing! We’d spotted a hummingbird with a long dark tail – a Black-tailed Trainbearer, and a couple of minutes later were admiring a rosy red Summer Tanager, and then an iridescent green and blue Sparkling Violetear caught our eyes. Another hummingbird!

Together with the Allcocks we were collected next morning by Alejandro who’d been their guide previously and headed out of the city, crossed the Chiche River and stopped on a dirt road above the dry gorge. There was lots of activity and we spent a great hour bird spotting. We continued, gaining altitude and at 2900m stopped off the road to look for a Giant Hummingbird. We saw a few. Alejandro knew his patch too! – and having a spotting scope we were able to view them clearly. Being mostly brown and rufous they’re not very pretty but are the largest hummingbirds. We also saw a Shining Sunbeam (hummingbird) and an Andean Gull. Alejandro told us that the road was originally built for the cinnamon trade route to the Pacific from Quito and the lowlands in the east across the Andes.

We continued up to the Papallacta Pass which is the boundary between Pichincha and Napo Provinces. We drove up to the forest of masts on top of the hill (4200m) to search for a Northern Rufous-bellied Seed Snipe. The clouds were closing in fast as we walked along the narrow, wet pathway. The others were all looking left and suddenly on the right side only a couple of meters away I saw a pair of them. Plump, quail-like birds that didn’t stick around for long! Above the tree-line the views all around us were spectacular with mountain lakes shimmering silver in the cloud. The rock-hugging, prickly cushion plants we saw looked as if they’d be more at home on a coral reef than high up in the Andes. Known as paramo the vegetation was all low and stubby. Driving down the windswept slope we stopped a few times and saw an Andean Condor wheeling, a Paramo Ground-Tyrant, an Andean Tit-Spinetail and an Andean Hillstar. Yet another hummingbird, it feeds while perched rather than when hovering, saving the energy required to hover in the thin atmosphere. Needing lots of energy it eats more nectar than other hummingbirds, and closes down its metabolism in the evening to save energy and appears dead if picked up.

Lower down we ate our boxed picnic lunches overlooking a lake and admiring a gorgeous Scarlet-bellied Mountain-Tanager flying from bush to bush below us. With scarlet ears and belly its head and back are black with a pale blue rump – quite magnificent. Alejandro picked up some Andean Teal and Andean Coot in his scope. We continued to drop in elevation arriving at Hotel Termas (where the Allcocks were spending the night) early enough to do a drive lower down the Reserva Ecológica Cayambe Coca. We could see the snow-capped Antisana volcano. It was dark when we got back and our familiar driver Pablo and new guide Edwin picked us up in the also familiar LandCruiser that groaned into life, and drove us to San Isidro where we spent the next three nights.

We awoke to an explosion of colour and birdsong! Birding around the lodge at times was overwhelming with no time to record a species before the next one arrived. The biggish blue, white, yellow and green Inca Jays were spectacular. At the hummingbird feeders we again saw the smart-looking black and white Collared Inca hummingbird – Xavier had called it “Mr Tuxedo”. The gorgeous Long-tailed Sylph was there too. With a deeply-forked and very long tail it’s mostly an iridescent, shining green, shimmering emerald and glittering indigo. After breakfast we followed one of the staff into the undergrowth where he called up Hugo, a Chestnut-crowned Antpitta that he fed with worms. Shades (but only shades) of Angel Paz! A little later we saw the San Isidro “Mystery Owl”. A very striking owl that looked like a Black-banded Owl but shouldn’t occur there. Apparently they’ve taken blood samples and it isn’t a Black-banded Owl and three dead birds are required for a positive identification which, with such a small population, the owners of the lodge refuse to supply. We walked along the roadside and into the forest and had lots more great sightings including a scarce Black-billed Peppershrike. After lunch we drove to Baeza birding along the way and until it started raining. There were tall waterfalls in every valley. Horses, llamas and cows grazed lazily in the lush, green pastures on the slopes of the Andean foothills.

With passionate and enthusiastic Edwin we were up at 4am on our last morning in order to try for some night birds on Guaycomayos Ridge. We were rewarded for our extra early effort with a Swallowtail Nightjar. We walked along the trail in Antisana National Park with more beautiful vistas and a lovely Pearled Treerunner whose brown under-parts were heavily marked with large tear-shaped white, black-edged spots, kept appearing and scouting up trees and along mossy branches near us. We saw a Grass-green Tanager - bright green except for a red face, bill and legs. Driving over the bridge of Rio Santa Lucia de Bermejo I saw a bird on a rock in the distance. Pablo stopped and we all ran back but it had gone. Suddenly Edwin shouted “There it is”. And sure enough one male and two female Torrent Ducks were riding the rapids in the river! They hopped up onto the rock, jumped back into the water and swam upstream on the left of the river and again and again rode down the rapids. Such excitement and what a thrill to discover that birds as well as my son love doing things like that! The male and one of the females were displaying too bowing their heads up and down to each other.

We packed our bags at San Isidro and drove to Guango Lodge where we were able to a last bit of birding before lunch and our drive back to Quito. Having the same owners we could tell that the chefs too were trained by the same gourmet school as the cuisine was cordon bleu standard and delicious. An oil pipeline that crossed the Andes was close to the road on occasions then disappeared underground, reappearing further along.

The different shapes, sizes and brilliant colours of the birds were truly staggering and at times quite overpowering. We identified 414 different species including 53 different hummingbirds, 38 different tanagers and 10 toucans! Every day was exciting, bringing with it new experiences and new horizons and when I sat back in the evenings and reflected on our amazing sightings I thought that the next day would be dull in comparison. But the next day dawned and from sunrise to sunset it was equally exciting with more new and brilliant experiences and sightings. You simply run out superlatives to describe it. 16% of the world’s species are found in Ecuador, which has only 0.2% of the world’s land surface.

A true birders’ paradise that you have to experience yourself.