For an informative overview of all our Ecuador birding tours, see Ecuador: Field Guides Tours. Also see Rose Ann's "Jewels of the Andes" post on our blog about the Jewels of Ecuador tour experience.

Centered around the lush, forest-cloaked slopes of the Ecuadorian Andes, the world's stronghold for tanagers, hummingbirds, and antpittas, this tour surveys both outer slopes of Ecuador's cordilleras, from paramo and treeline down to the rich upper tropical zone along the eastern base of the Andes and the tropical Choco lowlands in the northwest. We fly south to include fabulous Podocarpus National Park, itself spanning habitats from treeline to the tropical zone; El Cajas National Park in the paramo near Cuenca; and a nice sampling of the geographically restricted Tumbesian avifauna in the arid intermontane valleys near Loja.

A few of the 500 or so species we hope to see include Bearded Guan, Dark-backed Wood-Quail, Rufous-bellied Seedsnipe, the rare and local White-necked Parakeet, the "San Isidro mystery owl," Lyre-tailed Nightjar, Coppery-chested Jacamar, two quetzals, Black-streaked Puffbird, Lanceolated Monklet, three mountain-toucans, an amazing six to ten species of antpittas (possibly including Peruvian!), Ocellated and Chusquea tapaculos, Elegant Crescentchest, Club-winged Manakin, Scaled Fruiteater, Andean Cock-of-the-rock, Tit-like Dacnis, Giant Conebill, and Olive Finch.

Hummingbird fans! See our Hummer Slideshow plus a listing of all our best itineraries for 30, 40, even 50 or more hummingbirds on a tour.

But the real showstopper is the almost constant procession of tanagers and hummingbirds (more than sixty species of each are realistically possible!), a truly dazzling array of gemlike beauties, some very scarce or threatened.

Would you like to extend your Ecuador visit with a day or more of additional birding or cultural options with a local guide? Check out the various possibilities on our Ecuador: Add to Your Tour! page.

Download an itinerary, triplist(s), request space, and see more about this tour...

Combo Tours
If you would like a longer birding holiday, some departures of this tour may be combined with:
AMAZONIAN ECUADOR: SACHA LODGE