Our first birding trip to Ecuador (Sept 13-24, 2010)

For those of you who are considering birding in Ecuador, here is a summary of our experience. First of all, you can easily take 3 or 4 extensive trips to Ecuador. Even though it is a relatively small country (about the size of Colorado they tell me), there are multiple biozones. This was our first trip to South America, so we knew we would be inundated with new birds, yet we didn't know if we would ever return back there. We decided on a 12 day stay, allowing us to visit two regions, covering the east and west sides of the Andes surrounding Quito. Other regions that can be considered are a ~5 day stay in Amazonian lodges, a trip to the Galapagos, and I've seen outfitters offering 10-14 day trips to southern Ecuador. All are undoubtedly worthwhile.

The trip that we decided on is relatively simple in terms of travel arrangements....no internal flights within Ecuador or full days of travel (as is needed with Amazon extensions or Galapagos), since great locations are found starting ~1 hour outside of Quito. We spent ~ 1/2 of our time on the east slope, and 1/2 of our time on the west slope. Most outfitters offer trips of ~5-6 days on each slope, usually with options for combining either an Amazon lodge extension or a Galapagos extension, or more rarely with both slopes.

The east slope

There aren't any real cities in this part of Ecuador (outside of Quito itself, which has ~2 million people), so most outfitters use the same small set of lodges, usually spaced such that you can experience the birdlife at different elevations. On the East slope, Guango Lodge is at the highest elevation, San Isidro is lower, and Wildsumaco is the lowest that we went, located at ~1500 meters above sea level. All are relatively small (~10 cabins/rooms each) and rustic in atmosphere, yet comfortable. Each has hummingbird feeders and you will see different subsets of bird species at each of these elevations. San Isidro (~2000 meters) was the first birding lodge established on the east slope, and for us it was the nicest, with some fairly open grounds that can be roamed around during any free time, which made seeing the birds easier. They also have acclimated a White-bellied antipitta to feeding, which was pretty amazing to see. Wildsumaco is the newest. It has trail systems on its extensive property, but not so much on the lodge grounds. The trails give access to the rain forest and the birds that like the thick rain forest ground cover, so you might see rarer birds there, but the birding in this type of terrain is tougher, usually providing only very short views. Don't expect good looks at them. It can be frustrating if you are not used to it....good for increasing your life list, but for us, not as much fun. It was OK in small doses, but I'd hate to do a whole trip like that. There are certainly many species at Wildsumaco. We didn't spend too much time at Guango (2700 m elevation) due to our scheduling. It is at higher elevation, so it serves as the best lodge within reach of the high open treeless paramo region of the Andes (such as Papallacta Pass or Antisana Reserve, where Papallacta is 4000 m = 13,100 ft above sea level!), that constitutes its own biozone. If the weather up here is good, it can be really nice. Dress warmly...gloves, wool hat, warm layers. (yes, wool hat within a hundred miles or so of the equator!!!) We saw hail on the ground, and at one place the wind was blowing so viciously that it was difficult to stand straight up. As I said, when the weather is nice, (and it switches almost hourly in this country), the paramo could be very interesting and would be part of any east slope trip. We missed out on one day in the paramo due to our flight problem getting into Quito.

The west slope

On the west slope we stayed at only two lodges; Septimo Paraiso which is ~1 1/2 hr drive from Quito, just outside of the small town of Mindo (~1250 m), and Bellavista Lodge, which is ~30-45 minutes closer to Quito on a ridge at higher elevation. Septimo was our favorite lodge on this trip. It serves as a great base for day-long or half day trips in the Mindo area. The pool and whirlpool were a very nice treat that we didn’t have at other lodges. From Septimo we took trips to locations such as nearby Mindo, down the Milpe road, Mashpi Reserve (where there were tons of birds, but lost in the dense fog / clouds that are typical of that location), Rio Silanche (lower elevation), an oilbird roosting site / 'cave', and Paz de las Aves (the Angel Paz farm). Of these, I enjoyed Rio Silanche and Paz de las Aves the best; Rio Silanche because it has a ~50 ft high canopy tower, and fortunately the tree right next to the tower was fruiting, and birds were coming in constantly for about 2 hours straight at eye level. Wow. I was not expecting to like Paz de las Aves because it gained its fame from Angel being able to habituate antpittas (and other birds) to feeding. To me it sounded a bit like going to a zoo, but I have to admit it was pretty incredible seeing those birds up close, with 4 species of antpittas. a Dark-backed wood-quail covey, and an Andean cock-of-the-rock lek. They also have a fruit feeding station, where Sickle-winged guan, Toucan barbets, and other exotic species are regulars now. Its a regular stop on most tours to the region. Its certainly a place where great looks are nearly guaranteed, but different from your standard birding outing. We stayed one night at Bellavista lodge, which is nice, but didn't spend much time on their trails, and visited Tony Nunnery's house and feeders, which was a 5 minute drive down the hillside. I enjoyed that short stay.

It is worth noting that some species are seen on both slopes, but others are restricted to one slope or the other. The key is to visit different altitudes, which any good tour would do.

We contacted several outfitters, but were unable to find a scheduled group tour that worked out for our timing restrictions and where we wanted to go (or in some cases we found a tour, but nobody else had signed up, so they had to cancel). Eventually we found outfitters that were willing to take my brother and I alone, and we decided on Andean Birding, with Charlie Vogt as our personal guide for the entire trip. Charlie is an excellent and extremely knowledgeable birder, and was able to spot many, many birds that we didn't, even while he was driving. We had troubles with our flight getting in (delayed by ~8 hours) and he was able to change the itinerary around to fit our new arrival time, which was very helpful. Rich needed hospital attention on this trip, and Charlie, his wife, and assistant all helped us non-Spanish speaking visitors with Rich's medical needs. So all of that is very positive. On the negative side, I suspect that Charlie's typical clients are people who are extensive listers and highly experienced birders, targeting specific species, so he probably was not the best guide for people like us, who were taking their first trip to Ecuador. Despite all the positive aspects mentioned above about Charlie, I would have preferred to be in a small group of ~6-8 people. We bumped into group tours along this trip, and the guides with those groups seemed more personable and willing to describe the bird we just spotted and not as intent at 'getting' the next bird. I suspect that for Charlie and his typical clients, the number of birds is the big thing, whereas for us, good sightings were primary and numbers secondary. I would check with other outfitters (Mindo Bird Tours, Neblina Forest.com, Wings, VENT, Cheepers, Tropical Birding, etc), or at least ask about whether the tour is more about numbers or good quality looks. Andean Birding is run by top well-known birders, but at least from our tour, I felt it was not the best outfit for beginners to the region; maybe one of their true group tours would have a different feel to them. Its tough to be negative about them because they accomodated our problems on this trip really well, and its clear that they know their stuff.

In case you are considering it, it would be very difficult trying to do a trip like this yourself, even if you speak Spanish, unless you are experienced do-it-yourselfers. Its nearly undoable. For too many reasons. A guide is needed partly because of the wide variety of birds, partly because birding by ear becomes even more important in the dense rain forest (and with 1600 species, that's not doable by anybody without extensive experience down there), and partly for the logistics. One aspect that would make it relatively easy to do it yourself is the easy access to great locations…for example, by exploring the west slope by basing it in Mindo.

Another thing that I should mention is that much of the birding that we did I would put in to the category of 'road birding'. This consists of driving along a road (often unpaved), trying to find flocks. When you find a flock (usually of tanagers with other species mixed in), the action can be frantic. Then the flock moves on, and it gets very quiet. Then you drive on and repeat the process. So its alternating quiet periods and frantic madness. You might have experienced periods of that kind of birding in your local patch, but it seemed to be accentuated down there.

Several of the lodges that we visited were nearly empty (Guango, Wildsumaco), so I suspect that either it wasn't their peak time or that they are hurting for visitors now due to the economy. I haven't seen prices for birding tours coming down much, although you can sometimes get deals when they are trying to fill up spaces a month or two before a scheduled departure, and I found guiding prices to be highly negotiable.

A word about the weather. We were pretty fortunate with the weather in that we only had one huge downpour, and that was just after breakfast, so we waited it out in the lodge. Not only do you want a rain jacket, but carrying an umbrella is as good idea in case one of those changes in the weather includes a heavy rainfall. As the trip progressed, we put our umbrella into our daypack when we were doing 1-3 hour walks and left the rain jacket behind. Expect rain, be prepared for it, remain cheerful and hopeful. In fact the best weather is overcast days. Bright midday sunshine just killed activity.

Overall, it was a great trip, and I’d love to return to Ecuador to explore other areas of the country. A trip that combines the lower west slope Choco region and the Amazon is high on my wish list, with southern Ecuador right behind.