Ecuador: Eastern Andes to Amazon Lowlands

This tour is an epic journey that bridges the extremes of Ecuador from the frigid glaciated heights of the high Andes to the steamy lowland rainforest of Amazonia. The epic begins in the mountains with Andean Condors taking off of their cliff roosts and circling over the alpine tundra. Over the course of the first week, we descend though mossy cloud forest with dazzling tanagers and hummingbirds into transitional foothill rainforest. We will stay at some of Ecuador’s best and most famous eco-lodges, each situated in their own pristine forest reserves. Each has hummingbird feeders right off the porch, as well as trails and little-travels roads for easy access to the forest. Each of our three Andean lodges is at a different elevation, and with that, a different set of birds. We might find the outrageous Sword-billed Hummingbird or a Gray-breasted Mountain-Toucan at our higher forest lodge, perhaps Saffron-crowned Tanager, Long-tailed Sylph, and Rufous-crowned Tody-Flycatcher at our middle lodge, and Yellow-throated Toucan, Napo Sabrewing, and Coppery-chested Jacamar at our lowest foothill lodge. The possibilities along the way are seemingly endless.

After all that, our second week begins when we leave the mountains and our van to get on a boat to spend the remainder of the tour at a remote jungle lodge in the lowland Amazon for which the birding superlatives are well-known. Sani Lodge is three hours by boat down the Napo River from the end of the road at the town of Coca and is owned, managed, and operated by the indigenous Kichwa community. It is a comfortable base with wonderful meals, private bungalows, and excellent service. Nearly 600 species of birds are known from this single locality, including five species of macaw, 10 puffbirds, seven toucans and more than 40 species of antbirds. From the lodge it is possible to see classic Amazonian species like White-throated Toucan, Red-bellied Macaw, Masked Crimson Tanager, and Black-fronted Nunbird, all common, and with oqwWnly a short canoe ride the rare and local become possible, including species like Zigzag Heron, Black-banded Owl, White-lored Antpitta, Orange-eyed Flycatcher, Orange-crowned Manakin, and the extremely local Cocha Antshrike. A sturdy steel 150-foot high canopy tower, easily accessible by stairs, supplies a brilliant dimension to Amazonian birdwatching: the ability to observe many rarely seen canopy species, such as Purplish Jacamar, and a wide array of canopy tanagers and flycatchers. Our week at this single location will permit a thorough exploration of the area’s extraordinary diversity.

This tour can be taken in conjunction with the Ecuador: Mindo & the NW Andes tour.