3-Day Bird Photography Tour in Northwest Ecuador with Mindo

Departure at 6 am from Quito to Yanacocha Reserve – some of the feeders' possibilities include: Scarlet-bellied and Black-chested Mountain-Tanagers, Shining Sunbeam, Great Sapphirewing, Sword-billed Hummingbird, and Yellow-breasted Brush-Finch; several Tawny Antpithas do walk around us during this stop. Then we will have lunch on the road and drive to Birdwatchers House where several tanagers do visit and pose for us in the well-created bodies of water; our target, however, will be the spectacular and odd-looking: Plate-billed Mountain-Toucan along with tanagers and other birds. The hummingbird feeders have some different species like Collared Inca, Gorgeted Sunangel, and Speckled Hummingbird. After this fantastic first day; we will have dinner in one of the restaurants in Mindo and then spend the night at Mindo Lindo, another bird photo venue. 

Meals: Lunch, dinner & overnight are included.

After an early breakfast, we will drive to Rancho Suamox, a private farm in the lowlands where the owner has set up both: fruit feeders and hummingbird feeders that attract tanagers, woodpeckers, and a couple of different hummingbird species only found in the lowlands. Golden-olive and Black-cheeked Woodpeckers, Rufous Motmot, Dusky-faced, Flame-rumped, and Silver-throated Tanagers, Ecuadorian Thrush, Buff-throated Saltator, Thick-billed and Orange-bellied Euphonias, can all often be seen and photographed at the feeders. After this productive photo session, we will drive to our next spectacular destination – lunch on the road – before we arrive at Milpe, a small reserve within the Andes' foothills that offers a very different suite of birds from Tandayapa. This reserve, run by an Ecuadorian NGO, the Mindo Cloudforest Foundation, has some nice forest and a tiny café with very busy hummingbird feeders. The new set of hummers complement the ones found higher up and include the incredibly cute Green Thorntail, the exquisite, jewel-like Green-crowned Woodnymph, and “butch” Green-crowned Brilliant, and the hyperactive White-whiskered Hermit. The area will also offer up other photo opportunities as fruit feeders sometimes attract colourful tanager species, euphonias, motmots, and toucans. For those who don’t mind a short hike, there is also a display area for the bizarre Club-winged Manakin; after this fantastic day and dinner, we will spend our last night at Mindo Lindo. 

Meals included: Breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Depart at 5 am; our early rise will let us visit an area deep within the forest, where a short time after dawn, the bright scarlet forms of several displaying Andean Cock-of-the-rocks start the day with a spectacular forest performance. However, our day is far to finish, because San Tadeo has set some fruit feeders visited by several spp of tanagers (Black-capped, Beryl-spangled, Golden-napped, for mentioning some of them) private residence was converted to another excellent cloud forest bird viewing and photography site. This efficiently laid out private residence features two different feeder set-ups. After this fantastic first part of the morning, we will drive to Alambi Reserve where with 10-20 species visiting on most days. The most common is usually is the outrageous Booted Racket-tail, the male of which has a strange long tail, with two paddles at the end. Other regular drop-ins are a number of glistening species like the audacious Violet-tailed Sylph, the standout Purple-bibbed Whitetip, and the gem-like Western Emerald., dinky Purple-throated Woodstar that regularly buzz around the Reserve. After Alambi`s visit, we will drive to Quito, stopping on the route for lunch, arriving by approximately 5pm. 

Meals included today: breakfast and lunch.