Ecuador: Mindo and the Northwest Andes

The Andes of western Ecuador have some of the best and most accessible birding locations in all of South America, and the wonderful Séptimo Paraíso Cloud Forest Reserve in Mindo is a prime example. While one-stop Ecuador tours will produce fewer species than a multi-week, all-country blitz, even a short tour based at a place like Séptimo Paraíso offers a superb combination of remarkable close-at-hand bird diversity and the inherent convenience of birding from a single comfortable base.

Séptimo Paraíso Lodge is comfortable indeed, with its own restaurant, spring-fed pool, spa, and support services. It is delightfully situated in the Mindo Valley and has great birding right on the grounds, as well as being an excellent base from which to explore surrounding areas. Among the birding localities we’ll visit, most of them along easily walked roads and trails, are the Tandayapa Valley, Mindo, the Paz de las Aves reserve, and the forest preserves at Milpe, Silanche, and Amagusa—all of them within 15 minutes to 1.5 hours from the lodge. During our seven days of birding we should encounter about 300 species, possibly including some of western Ecuador’s most celebrated: Giant Antpitta, Toucan Barbet, Plate-billed Mountain-Toucan, Ocellated Tapaculo, Andean Cock-of-the-rock, Rufous-tailed Jacamar, Club-winged Manakin, Indigo Flowerpiercer, Tanager Finch, and as many as 40 species of hummingbirds and 50 dazzling tanagers.

This tour can be taken in conjunction with our Ecuador: Eastern Andes to Amazon Lowlands tour.