BIRDING ECUADOR: MINDO
West Slope or Andes
2010
Saturday 23 January to Sunday 31 January
Guided by Gary Rosenberg
Price: $2300
$100 can be deducted from the total price if taken in combination with the Ecuador: East Slope of Andes tour.
Short one week tour (Saturday to Sunday) designed to stay at comfortable Septimo Paraiso for the entire time. Concentrates on west slope of the Ecuadorian Andes. Visits Yanacocha, Tandayapa, Mindo, Paz de las Aves, Milpe, and Rio Silanche. Incredible hummingbird watching with 40+ species. Andean Cock-of-the-Rock lek. Nice variety of Choco specialties.
The Andes of Western Ecuador has become one of the most popular birding destinations in Ecuador, with several now-famous sites such as Tandayapa, Mindo, Paz de las Aves, Milpe, and the Rio Silanche, all within a two hour drive of the capital Quito. Our short tour will be based out of a very comfortable lodge (Septimo Paraiso) near Mindo, where we will stay for six nights, and have access to many different private reserves which have become the hallmark of the Mindo area.
One of the nicer aspects of this tour is the amazing diversity of hummingbirds we have a chance of seeing. If you like hummingbirds, this is the tour for you. Virtually every location we visit has hummingbird feeders, which allows us numerous opportunities to leisurely study and photograph up to 40 species during the tour. Many of the species were once considered rare and local before the lodges and private reserves started putting up feeders. Some of the more spectacular species we will see includes Sword-billed Hummingbird, Buff-winged Starfrontlet, Booted Racket-tail, Violet-tailed Sylph, Brown Inca, Empress Brilliant, and Purple-bibbed White-tip, just to name a few.
We’ll visit the high elevation cloud-forest at Yanacocha where we’ll look for spectacular tanagers such as Black-chested, Hooded, and Scarlet-bellied Mountain-Tanagers. Near Tandayapa we’ll bird the lush montane forest home to incredible birds such as Ocellated Tapaculo, Plate-billed Mountain-Toucan. We’ll visit the wonderful property of “Angel Paz” where we hope to see an active Andean Cock-or-the-Rock Lek, and the incredible Giant Antpitta that he has “trained” to feed on worms! At the middle elevations near Milpe, we’ll search for a number of “Choco” endemics such as Choco Toucan, Club-winged Manakin, and numerous stunning tanagers including Rufous-throated and Gray-and-gold. We will also spend one day at lower elevation at the Rio Silanche where even more Choco specialties can be found, such as Slate-throated Gnatcatcher and Blue-whiskered Tanager.
Our tour will see about 300 species during the week, many of which are restricted to this region of Ecuador.
Our Mindo tour can be taken in conjunction with our tour, Ecuador: East Slope of Andes (Cabañas San Isidro and WildSumaco Lodge).
Day by Day Itinerary (PDF Download)
