Birding Ecuador - Mindo's Cloud Forest

Ecuador is a country the size of the state of Colorado. Within its borders sit 47 volcanos, the Andes mountains including the tallest mountain in the world (Chimborazo- measured from the earth's surface), 1,390 miles of coastline, the Amazon jungle and the Galapagos Islands. All of these various extremes contribute to creating many different biodiverse ecosystems which support 360 species of mammals, 1634 species of birds 4500 species of butterflies and possibly 100,000 species of insects!

 
My friend, Nicole Koeltzow, flew in to Quito so we could spend a week birding Ecuador, from the cloud forest to the paramo to the Amazon jungle. We identified 380 different species, 190 of which I had never encountered before. It was a week of excitement, growth, and well, weird situations.

The view from our hotel room in Quito.

Day one began when our very knowledgeable, highly recommended guide, Nelson Apolo Jaramillo picked us up while it was still dark and drove us to the mountain forest of Yanacocha reserve where our adventure really began.

Our highlights were seeing the swordbilled hummingbird, whose bill is longer than his entire body, and a pair of White-throated Owls calling and landing very close to us.

Crowned Chat-Tyrant (above)   Masked Flowerpiercer (below)

Tufted Tit-Tyrant (above)  Yellow-Breasted Brushfinch (below)

This photo, taken from very far away and cropped, shows the rainbow that appears on the back of the otherwise plain brown Shining Sunbeam (hummingbird).

Can you believe they have leaves up to 6 feet wide?! 

Scarlet-Bellied Mountain Tanager (above)  Roadside Hawk (below)

Birding the aptly named, cloud forest.

We enjoyed a delicious lunch at Mirador Guaycapi in Tandayapa Valley while ten species of hummingbirds ate at feeders near our table. Next we spent time at nearby Alambi to see even more hummingbirds and pick up other species along their river trail. After dark we were delivered to our room at the Yellow House in Mindo. 

Ecuador is home to the planet’s highest concentration of colibries, or hummingbirds, representing 130 of the world’s 328 species. Here it's easy to see many different species all feeding together, as seen below with quite a few White-Necked Jacobins and Rufous-Tailed Hummingbirds.

A Brown Violetear faces off with another species.

Purple-throated Woodstar (above)  Great Sapphirewing (below)

Booted Raquetail (below) A bird I fell in love with on my first trip to Colombia.

Mindo, Ecuador is set in a valley surrounded by the Andes Mountains, an area that ranges in elevation from 3,150 - 11,290ft. The rivers and elevation combine to create a lush cloud forest more than 100 square miles in size. The landscape and climate in Mindo are ideal for the more than 450 different types of birds, numerous species of exotic butterflies, and a variety of animals and reptiles who call the cloud forest home.

Continued on next post...........