Houston Audubon: Easy Ecuador A Week in Andean Cloudforest & Antisana Volcano

This Houston Audubon/TROPICAL BIRDING tour spends a week in one of the most remarkable birding regions in the World, Northwest Ecuador. Located in Northern South America, Ecuador is one of the most diverse countries in the World in terms of birds, boasting more than 1600 bird species! Furthermore, this particular region (Northwest Ecuador) has been chosen as it offers some of the very best birding on the continent, with a wonderful array of reserves in which to bird in. We have cherry-picked from the large number of these, in order to offer this, the easiest of any of our Ecuador birding tours. In common with our much longer “Relaxed Tandayapa” tour, there is plenty of downtime between bouts of birding, so it is perfect for people who wish to visit Ecuador, see some of their best birds, but are limited on time, and would like to do this at a significantly more relaxed pace than some of our other birding tours offered there. ke Any Ecuador tour promises massive avian rewards, and this one is no different, stunning and striking species like Sword-billed Hummingbird, Andean Cock-of-the-rock, Toucan Barbet, Plate-billed Mountain-Toucan, and Glistening-green Tanager are all likely on this short tour. Many of the super reserves included on this unique itinerary come equipped with excellent bird feeders, with species like Violet-tailed Sylph, Equatorial and Yellow-breasted Antpittas, Golden-naped and Flame-faced Tanagers, Blue-winged and Scarlet-bellied Mountain-Tanagers all possible at these, among others. We will likely get more than 25 hummingbird species alone on this short tour by virtue of the excellent feeders available.

The final birding day of the tour makes a sojourn out east, into the gorgeous surrounds of the high Andes for the day, where majestic Andean Condors may be seen gliding above spectacular Andean cliffs, while Carunculated Caracaras and Andean Ibis may be seen foraging on the ground, amongst some of the most spectacular Andean landscapes in the country with the towering, 18,875 ft (5753m)-high Antisana Volcano being at its centerpiece.

*Part of the tour fee includes a donation to Houston Audubon from all HAS members who join this tour.

When there are 4 or more Houston Audubon members signed up for this tour, there will also be a Houston Audubon representative, (as well as the Tropical Birding guide), along on the tour.

What does “easy” really mean?

We still have early starts (as that is when the birds are most active in the Andes), though some of these are later than on some other tours covering the same areas. One big difference from some of the other Tropical Birding Ecuador tours is the earlier finishes. The afternoons on this trip have been specifically planned to allow downtime between the principal, morning-based, birding activities. It also means there are and no packed lunches in the field on this tour.

“Birders” and Birders with a Camera are both welcome on this tour!

As the pace of this tour is quite relaxed, relative to other birding tours, it is compatible with both casual birders and birders with cameras. This tour does not seek to get the biggest list of any birding tour in the area – that is done on the Andes Introtour that spends more time in the field, but the relaxed pace of this tour means there is plenty of time to take photos as we will not be rushing from one bird to the next!