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The Bird That Finally Took Me to Ecuador

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My first morning in Mindo started at 5:00 a.m. The moth blind was only about 100 to 150 metres away, but getting there early was important. A quick look the evening before had revealed exactly where the best spot in the hide would be, and there was no intention of giving it up. The lodge owner had already warned that a group of birders would be arriving at first light, so beating the crowd became the first mission of the day.

Disappointingly, I didn’t make it.

The group had already arrived with their guide and set up shop. I had to settle for a position closer to the entrance and convince myself it was a perfect spot.

Ecuador had been on my birding bucket list for some time now, and last January I made up my mind that the time had come to check this item off my list.

Global Big Day was in May and seemed like the perfect time to go. It was still a few months away, which gave me enough time to properly plan the trip, and so all the arrangements were made well in advance. We settled on a place called The Birdwatchers House lodge, located deep in the forest at an elevation of about 2100m, in the Santa Rosa area above the town of Mindo.

I usually do not have a target bird in mind when I travel for birding but this trip was different, I came to Ecuador and chose this lodge specifically to see one regional endemic species.

But within a few mins of arriving, I was completely distracted.

The hummingbirds seemed to be everywhere in the garden. Every time I focused on one species, another would appear from a different direction. Photographing them quickly became an exercise in patience, reflexes, and extreme luck. The cloud forest light didn’t help much or at all for that matter.

Then came the tanagers.

Golden Tanagers glowed in the morning light, while Blue-winged Mountain Tanagers seemed almost impossibly colourful at the reflection pool. Golden-naped Tanagers joined the parade and before long I found myself taking far more photographs than I had planned.

The Flame-faced Tanager was present but not nearly as numerous as the Golden Tanagers that appeared everywhere you looked.

A lone Black-capped Tanager perched surveying the action below.

This Yellow-breasted Antpitta usually makes an appearance almost every morning from around 7:30 to 8:00am.

The Flowerpiercers were around and this Masked Flowerpiercer kept trying to break into the hummingbird feeders, without success.

It didn’t take long for the Toucan Barbet to show up and added even more colour to the already colourful scene.

Back at the blind the Turquiose Jays battled for the moths and other insects on offer, the Cinnamon flycatchers, Strong -billed Woodcreepers, Slaty-throated Redstart, Buff-rumped Warblers, Masked Trogons, more Toucan Barbets, House Wrens Ecuadorian Thrush, Ornate Flycatchers, Glossy-black Thrush, Slaty-backed Nightingale Thrush, Scaly-throated Foliage-gleaner and others had a feast.

Then Global Big Day arrived. May 10th.

For the morning portion of the count, I headed to the Milpe Bird Sanctuary, another lodge owned by the folks at the Birdwatchers House and at a lower elevation site that offered a completely different birding experience from Birdwatcher’s House. The habitat changed, the atmosphere changed, and so did the many different species of birds.

The hummingbirds were all around, different species from the higher Birdwatchers House elevation.

Then one of the many highlights, the Chocó Toucan, a species that had somehow escaped my attention while planning the trip. Seeing it was an unexpected bonus.

The Chocó Toucan is one of the signature birds of the Chocó region, a biodiversity hotspot stretching along the Pacific slopes of Ecuador and Colombia. With its oversized yellow bill and striking black and yellow plumage, it is often impossible to miss when it appears in the canopy. Despite its bold appearance, this near-threatened species faces ongoing pressure from habitat loss as the forests of the Chocó continue to shrink.

This Swallow Tanager perched high up almost out of reach of my lens. Despite its name, the Swallow Tanager is not closely related to swallows. The name comes from its sleek shape and graceful flight, which often causes birders to do a double take when they first see one gliding overhead.

Probably the biggest highlight for me at this location was this Bronze-winged Parrot. It sat quietly, alone, and seemed to have picked the highest tree it could find just to tease me, as if saying, “Go on, take a photo if you can.”

The bird had clearly given some thought to its choice of perch. It was high, distant, backlit, and surrounded by enough branches to make any photographer question their choice of gear. Meanwhile, it seemed perfectly content to sit there and admire the view and the crazy birder/photographer below.

Back at Birdwatcher’s House, the birding continued much as before, hummingbirds, tanagers, trogons, and enough memorable sightings to keep any birder happy.

And of course, the bird that Finally Brought me to Ecuador... the Plate-billed Mountain Toucan.

Found only in the cloud forests of Ecuador and southern Colombia, the Plate-billed Mountain Toucan lives high in the Andes, often above 2,000 metres. Its restricted range makes it one of South America’s most sought-after toucans for birders. It showed up at the lodge every day during my visit ensuring a successful mission to Mindo.

On the last day of the trip we had the surprise of seeing the bird that no one was able to identify, it had not been seen at the lodge previously and seemed to be a leucitic bird, possibly a Tanager, the owner of the lodge, an accomplished and well known birding guide suggested its was a Saffron Finch. My online research including Merlin could not give a definite ID.

It did not stay in the open but instead favoured the undergrowth only showing itself briefly before heading back in. A little mystery at the end, but a totally enjoyable birding trip and one that produced an impressive number of lifers.

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