Ecuador, the country of the Hummingbirds, Tanagers and more, the perfect photographer’s paradise
$2990
10 Days
Medium
6 Guest
3.726 mdpl
Ecuador is famed for its extraordinary diversity. With a superb selection of lodges and reserves, many of them with excellent feeders, it is one of the premier bird photography destinations in South America. The jewels of the Andes, the hummingbirds, will feature heavily; fantastic feeder set-ups allow excellent photographic opportunities of these “winged gems”. While hummingbirds are undoubtedly a front and center feature of this tour, they will also be accompanied by other colorful tropical birds, including an assortment of tanagers, toucans, trogons, woodpeckers, and even the incredible, vivid scarlet Andean Cock-of-the-rock. An optional extension to Sani Lodge in the Amazon is also available.
Note: On some departures, the tour is run in reverse order.
The tour leader may modify the plan on any particular day based on weather, feeder activity, recent sighting information, newly opened sites, and other factors. As most of the tour is based in just a few lodges, there is a certain amount of flexibility built into the itinerary.
TRIP CONSIDERATIONS
Physical difficulty:
Easy to moderate. Much of the main tour will be spent near feeders which are accessed by only a short walk. At Refugio Paz, we will need to walk roughly half a mile (about 1 km) on moderately steep and often slippery trails in order to photograph some of the special birds. There will also be short walks on trails to target a few things at Milpe and Guango. Parts of at least three days will be spent at high elevations above 11,500 ft. (3500 m.), however little walking is done at these altitudes, and those nights are spent much lower at 8500 ft. (2600 m). On the extension, much more walking is required, up to 3 miles (4.8 km) a day, and sometimes on trails that are very muddy (the lodge provides rubber boots), and accessing the canopy tower requires climbing up 120 ft. (37 m.) via a sturdy and well-made staircase.
Accommodation:
Good, all have private, en-suite bathrooms, and full-time hot water. All lodges on the main tour have 24hr electricity. On the extension, electricity is provided by a generator that is turned on for limited hours, but it provides sufficient time to charge camera batteries and devices.
Climate:
Usually very pleasant (mostly 55°-75°F, 13°-24°C), but cold at Papallacta and Antisana (possibly down to near freezing) and hot on the one day at Suamox and for the entire extension (up to c. 90°F/32°C). Some rain can be expected, especially in the afternoons and evenings, and intense downpours are not unexpected on the extension (good rain protection for your gear is essential).
PHOTO PHILOSOPHY
To provide our clients with unique moments of enjoying and having fun with this hobby, through Photography we can capture unique moments in contact with wildlife, birds, mammals, and landscapes our photos will help us to understand biodiversity, Bird behavior and capture moments not available on the binoculars, you can capture your own pictures and memories and take them with you to home, but mainly develop your skills and your personal relationship with your camera and gear.
Gear:
A good 300mm lens (or high-end zoom that covers 300mm) and a full-frame camera are ideal for hummingbirds, but a longer lens is better for most other birds. A 500mm with a 1.4x or 600mm are the best options, but a 300mm with 1.4x and 2x teleconverters also usually does a great job. A smaller lens can be nice for scenery shots in the high Andes. A flash (where permitted) is also useful since light can be quite low early in the morning and inside the forest. 100- 400 lenses with an independent body are also important if possible. Weather permitting, there will be some opportunities for optional nocturnal macro photography, especially on the extension, where a good macro lens and flash (a ring flash or off-camera flash is best) would be useful. Flash is not permitted at Paz de las Aves or Mashpi Amaguza.
The tour starts this evening in Quito, and you will be transferred To Puembo Birding Garden, a nice and cozy place located just a few minutes from the airport. Overnight.
Our first morning of the tour will be truly spectacular and for good reason, as we visit the open grasslands surrounding the enormous Antisana volcano. This is often voted as the favorite site of the tour by many, for the wonderful surroundings in which we will be shooting. The towering peak of the Antisana Volcano itself is impressive, with a large snow-covered top, and dramatic rocky sides.
The páramo (grassland) is interspersed with rocky outcrops and scenic high Andean lakes dotted with high altitude waterfowl. Indeed the scenery itself may be our biggest photo asset. Aside from these breathtaking Andean scenes, the upper páramo is carpeted with Carunculated Caracaras, a striking pied raptor that occurs here in impressive numbers. Black-faced Ibis patrol these high plains as do Andean Lapwings and large flocks of Andean Gulls. It wil be time to try for an enconter with spectacled bear and Andean Condor, but for sure great chances for Giant Hummingbird, lunch at Tambo Condor, simple but great food and late afternoon drive to Guango Lodge.
Arrive today in São Paulo, Brazil, at Guarulhos
International Airport (GRU). No activities are
planned for today so you can rest
up from your travels. The transfer to our hotel
is included; our hotel is about twenty minutes away
and we can organize an early check-in as
an option for those that need it. (Normally rooms
can be available by noon, getting into a room
earlier than that requires additional charges.
Remember, you have at least 1.5 hours to get
luggage and clear immigration and customs; there
is a restaurant and public areas where you can
relax if you don’t want to pay an early room fee.)
This evening we enjoy a welcome dinner ― a
chance to meet your guides and traveling
companions, and learn more about our coming
adventure. Those on our highly-recommended
pre-trip to the Atlantic Forest will be returning
to join you. We invite you to sample Brazil’s
national cocktail, the caipirinha, made with
cachaça (sugarcane liquor), sugar, and lime.
We predict this may be the first of many.
Accommodations at Hotel Matiz Guarulhos (L,D)
*Note: Most flights from the USA originate Sunday,
June 30 to meet this arrival date.
Weather permitting, we will venture into the páramo grasslands of the high Andes around Papallacta Pass; on clear days we can enjoy spectacular views of several snow-capped volcanoes. The high altitude birds that reside there can be remarkably confiding. Comical cinclodes bound around on the páramo, Tawny Antpittas hop along the roads, and with the use of playback, shier birds like canasteros and tit-spinetails can often be brought in close. At lunch time we will return to Guango, where will have the most of the afternoon to shoot hummingbirds, walk the forest trails behind the lodge, or scan the river alongside for Torrent Ducks. In mid-afternoon, we shall pack up and head to Puembo and return
to PBG.
After leaving Quito, we’ll have four nights based in this very nice and comfortable loge, nestled within lush subtropical forest on the west slope of the Andes, an area renowned for its high bird species diversity. This is especially evident in the impressive hummingbird community found right around the lodge that will occupy much of our photographic energies. The lodge feeders attract thousands of individual hummingbirds, with 10-20 species visiting on most days. The most common is usually is the outrageous Booted Racket-tail, the male of which has a strange long tail, with two paddles at the end. Other regular drop-ins are a number of glistening species like the audacious Violet-tailed Sylph, the standout Purple-bibbed Whitetip, and the gem-like Western Emerald., dinky Purple-throated Woodstar and Vevet – purple coronet that normally visit the flowers and feeders around. If hummingbird photography is your goal, you are likely to come away with plenty of shots of over ten species of hummingbird, many of which are hard to photograph elsewhere. Fruit feeders at the lodge can also attract technicolor” birds like Red-headed Barbet, Blue-winged Mountain-Tanager, or Toucan Barbet. Other species often come in to eat insects attracted to lights, such as flycatchers, woodcreepers, and more. On its own Sacha Tamia lodge is a unique spot for bird photography, and we will spend a good amount of time shooting around the lodge (with chances for multiflash hummingbird photography); however it also serves as an excellent base to explore numerous other private reserves in the region. The exact places that we visit on the tour, and the order, will depend on various factors like weather, feeder activity, and most importantly, up-to-date local knowledge on which places have the best activity at the moment, and which places are best avoided.
Listed below are some of the options we have available, though we will also not hesitate to do something different if we obtain info on a new site or hot sighting.
We’ll depart very early and head to one of the most important bird sites in the area, the wonderful Paz de las Aves Refuge. This beautiful reserve is set within subtropical forest where the moist, moss-covered trees are burdened with bright red bromeliads. Our early rise will let us visit an area deep within the forest where a short time after dawn the bright scarlet forms of several displaying Andean Cock-of-the-rocks will start the day off with a spectacular forest performance. However, what has made this place such a joy for photographers and birders alike is the habituating of several rare and shy species of the forest floor, especially the antpittas. Giant, Moustached, Yellow-breasted Antpittas, Ochre-breasted, and Chestnut-crowned Antpittas are all possible, with usually at least two of them cooperating on any given visit.
Other birds we will be trying to photograph include Dark backed Wood-Quail, Rufous-breasted Antthrush, and White capped Dipper. Later in the morning, we may visit one of the other sites mentioned above, or we may return to Tandayapa for a few hours, before returning to Quito for the final night of the tour.
Wildlife photography in the Amazon is as tough as it gets. We had hesitated to offer a trip until we went to Sani Lodge in early June 2015, and that totally changed our minds. After a few days there, we came back with chips loaded with great photos, and were convinced that this was THE place to do it. This extension can also be done at any time as a custom tour, and longer and shorter packages are possible.
*Please note: For the Amazon Extension, a Tropical Birding guide will only accompany the group if there are three or more people. For groups of only one or two people, a local, bird guide from the lodge will be used.
After a short flight to the lowland city of Coca, staff from Sani Lodge will meet us and take us to adock, where we’ll board a large, covered motorized canoe for the 2.5-hour journey down the Napo River. There won’t be much in the way of photo opportunities during this trip, so just sit back in relax. Upon arrival at Sani’s dock, you’ll have a chance to unpack your camera and get ready. Here in the virgin Amazon rainforest, you never know when something amazing will pop into view and it pays to be prepared! The path to Sani goes along a boardwalk through a seasonally flooded várzea forest to another dock at the edge of the Challuayacu River, a small channel that winds through a beautiful swamp forest to an oxbow lake. Five species of kingfishers occur along here along with herons and other water-loving species. Shy species like Cocha Antshrike can sometimes be lured into view, and while the dark rainforest makes the photography challenging, with persistence, the right gear, and a little luck, great shots are still possible. We’ll have lunch at Sani, and spend the afternoon either on the lake or river or spend time around the lodge depending on the activity. We’ll have four nights total based in Sani Lodge.
The day-to-day activities here are highly subject to change based on current conditions. Local guides are keeping up with the current hotspots, and their knowledge will be vital in deciding where best to spend our days at Sani Lodge. Here are some of the most likely areas we will visit during our time at Sani Lodge: The lodge clearing. The Sani clearing can be a great place to photography numerous colorful species, especially if any trees are fruiting. White-chinned Jacamar, Scarletcrowned Barbet, various toucans and aracaris, Orange-crested Manakin, Gray-fronted Dove, Masked Crimson, and Silver-beaked Tanagers, Purple Honeycreeper, Golden-bellied Euphonia, are some of the possibilities. This is a great area to spend time in during the heat of the day, which can be slow in other locations.
Oxbow lake and Challuayacu River. Using canoes or a floating platform/blind suitable for tripods, we’ll work the edge of the oxbow lake, which is great for getting photos of Hoatzin, Black-capped Donacobius, Rufescent Tiger-Heron, Capped Heron, Pale-vented Pigeon, White-winged Swallow, Lesser Kiskadee, and more. There is usually plenty of light to work with and the photography is easier than in the forest. The previously-mentioned Challuayacu River is darker but offers the chance for perched hummingbirds, manakins, various antbirds, and even monkeys and sloths. Canopy tower. Sani’s canopy tower is built into an enormous kapok tree, and the platform is the largest we’ve ever seen, allowing for lots of space to set up a tripod or to move around for the perfect angle. Activity can vary, but if a mixed flock comes through, this can be one of the best places in Sani to get great shots, and there is plenty of light. Some birds we have photographed there include Many-banded Aracari, Paradise and Opal-crowned Tanagers, Great Jacamar, Yellow-billed and White-fronted Nunbirds, Gilded and Lemon-throated Barbets, Cinnamon throated and Buff-throated Woodcreepers, Black-tailed, and Green-backed Trogons, Black-tailed Tityra, Cinnamon Attila, though many more are possible. Near the tower, there is a blind that allows good chances to photograph the dapper Wire-tailed Manakin. More blinds may be installed in the future as well.
Yasuní parrot licks. Not far from Sani Lodge are the famous clay licks that on dry days bring in hundreds and hundreds of parrots. Both have blinds and are well worth visiting. Flash is not allowed here, so a very fast lens and a tripod are recommended. The first clay lick is an active earl and is great for Yellow-crowned, Mealy, Blue-headed Parrots, and Dusky-headed Parakeets. Another lick is about a 20-minute walk into the forest and offers a chance at some rare species like Orange-cheeked Parrot, Scarlet-shouldered Parrotlet, and Scarlet Macaw among the hordes of Cobalt-winged Parakeets. Napo River islands. River islands hold a totally different set of birds, and the scrub and young forest make the lighting easier than inside the rainforest. It can be good to spend a few hours looking for the specialties including Oriole Blackbird, Black-and-white Antbird, Castlenau’s Antshrike, and Lesser Wagtail-Tyrant. Occasionally a roosting Striped Owl is also found here. Roosting nightbird stakeouts. Local guides usually know where at least some nightbirds are sleeping during the day, such as Common and Great Potoo, Tropical and Tawny-bellied Screech-owl, and Crested and Mottled Owls. Sometimes they are partly obscured by our badly backlit, but other times they show very well allowing for nice shots. It’s always worth checking them out. Night photography. Numerous bizarre insects, colorful frogs and reptiles, and other macro targets can be found on a night’s walk behind the lodge. If you are into macro photography or want to try it out for the first time, it’s a lot of fun. Of course, there is also a chance for a nightbird or even a night monkey as well.
Depending on flight schedules, there may be time for some early morning shooting before we have to travel back up the Napo River to Coca and fly back to Quito, where we spend a final night. Flight schedules are variable – sometimes you are back in Quito by lunch, giving you the afternoon to relax, whereas other times flights don’t arrive until late afternoon or evening.
The extension ends this morning with transfers to the airport.
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