Southeast Ecuador: Orange-throated Tanager & Foothill Specialties

Up until fairly recently, a visit to the far southeast of Ecuador was for the more intrepid birder and explorer, but access to this region is nowadays easy, and we invite you to join us on this exciting offering to the eastern foothills. Our main quarry for the tour will be the very range-restricted and gorgeous Orange-throated Tanager, a bird that roves about through the forest canopy in small, noisy groups. But this is just the beginning: lush, tropical slopes offer tremendous birding with a wealth of foothill species; think head-spinning tanager and insectivorous flocks. The list of bird possibilities is a long one, with Gray Tinamou, White Hawk, Band-bellied Owl, Coppery-chested and Bluish-fronted jacamars, White-breasted Parakeet, Equatorial Graytail, Foothill Antwren, Foothill Elaenia, Blackish Pewee, Scarlet-breasted Fruiteater, Amazonian Umbrellabird, Blue-rumped Manakin, and Orange-eared and Blue-browed tanagers will all potentially be among the mix. We will of course be in search of a number of the local and rare species that are more restricted to the outlying ridge habitats, such as Rufous-browed Tyrannulet, Roraiman Flycatcher, Cinnamon Manakin-Tyrant, and Sharpbill.

Most of our birding will be based out of two lodges surrounded by the outlying ridges, east of the main chain of the Andes — one very comfortable and charming, the other more on the basic side, but both with tasty food and hot water. While the vast majority of the birding will be along gravel roads and wide in-forest trails, we will also explore some narrower — potentially steep — trails for some specialties.