Domicile of the condor and home of the world’s largest hummingbird, beautiful Ecuador harbors approximately 1600 species of birds, approximately 16.5% of all the world’s avifauna.  And all within an area smaller than Arizona!  Our tour is designed to sample a transect of habitats from the Amazon rain forest to the summit of the highest range of mountains in the Western Hemisphere.  Near Quito we’ll visit a private preserve where Giant, Yellow-breasted, and Moustached Antpittas are all possible, as well as a lek of Andean Cock-of-the-rock.  At our lodge near Mindo, a dozen species of hummingbirds vie for nectar, including three species of violetear, Purple-bibbed Whitetip, Velvet-purple Coronet, and Booted Racket-tail.  Next we transfer to the frontier town of Coca on the Río Napo for our journey into the Amazon rain forest.  From Coca we travel by motorized dugout canoe for three hours on the Río Napo to our home for the next four nights, the Napo Wildlife Center.  Birders have recorded an astounding 500-plus species in this area of Amazonia!  Birds like Black Caracara, four species (of five present!) of macaw, Many-banded Araçari, Cinereous Antshrike, and Masked Crimson Tanager are actually common.  The prehistoric Hoatzin is usually readily found on the edges of the cocha—or lake—practically on the doorstep of the lodge.  The newly opened Napo Wildlife Center offers our group comfortable access to the most diverse terrestrial avifauna on earth.  This beautifully constructed facility is set in the heart of 2.5 million acre Yasuni National Park, where the potential for such peak predators as Jaguar, Harpy Eagle, or Anaconda is always present.  Podocarpus National Park in the southern Andes preserves a huge tract of highland cloud forest which encompasses virtually all of the pristine forest remaining in southern Ecuador.  It is no surprise, then, that the birds have retreated with the Spectacled Bears to this last expanse of some 564 square miles.  Some of the species of the 500+ found here include such lovelies as Mountain Velvetbreast, Rainbow Starfrontlet, and Flame-throated Sunangel hummingbirds, Pearled Treerunner, Undulated Antpitta, Barred Fruiteater, and—once again—Andean Cock-of-the-rock.  No fewer than 50 species of the tanager tribe also ornament the park list.  From Quito we'll take several field trip to nearby hummingbird locations in the Andes, including Papallacta Pass and Volcán Antisana where we may expect such charismatic species as Giant Hummingbird (at 8 inches the largest hummer in the world), Great Sapphirewing (second in size only to the Giant), Swordbill (the species with the longest bill of all), Black-tailed Trainbearer (with a tail alone that’s 6.5 inches long), Shining Sunbeam, Sapphire-vented Puffleg, and Rainbow-bearded Thornbill.  All told this small nation boasts 130 species of hummingbirds!  If brilliant tropical birds are your pleasure, join us this fall in politically stable, culturally rich Ecuador.

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