January 7-16, 2026 with Willy Perez & Oscar Tapuy and Wilson
Spending a whole week at Sacha is a really enjoyable and easy experience in the Amazon rainforest. To get there, we took the usual flight from Quito for half an hour to Coca, and some people enjoyed the views of the snowcapped mountains like Antisana and Cayambe. We landed in the hot steamy town of Coca, where our Amazon adventure began. Once there, I teamed up with Oscar and Wilson, our wonderful local guides, who accompanied us the whole way through, and we of course made up the newly named WOW team... Willy, Oscar, Wilson!
Every place was very birdy, from the dock in Coca, along the Napo River, the creeks and canals, all the way to the Lodge. The array of birds was magnificent. We managed to visit the canopy towers, and for some people the Kapok tower was a truly unbelievable experience, coming literally face to face with a lot of colorful birds. Other people enjoyed the hikes a lot, exploring the very lush and huge rainforest.
Along the lake, we enjoyed the Anhinga fishing, clumsy Hoatzins flying, and even some lucky people saw some Giant Otters. For others, the Zigzag Heron experience was one like no other, when Wilson got out of the dugout canoe with a paddle, he bent a leaf down and found two of them sitting when it was already dark, and we saw them with a flashlight; amazing!
The display of the Umbrellabird after the rain was a real show through the scope, and luckily it stayed for a while so everyone got to enjoy it. The Wire-tailed Manakin was worth the effort to find it, especially when the male showed up so nicely for some great photos. For some of us, the great diversity of parrots was very special, several species at the clay lick on the Napo River, and the Scarlet Macaws drinking mineral water were just superb. Of course, the very wet Sloth was a highlight and the many species of monkeys that ventured across our path. I have to say that being part of making the chocolate brought back memories of my childhood and I think everyone else enjoyed it, too.
The whole week in a very comfortable lodge with super delicious food and a brilliant group of people and the WOW team, made this trip very memorable. Thank you to all of you for coming with us; it was a pleasure to spend time with you. Thank you to Oscar and Wilson for all their hard work, and I hope that you all found it “just serious fun birding” and I look forward to seeing you again soon.
Other animals seen along the tour:
White-bellied Slender Opossum (Marmosops noctivagus)
Northern Black-eared Opossum or Common (Didelphis marsupialis)
Proboscis Bat (Rhynchonycteris naso)
Black-mantled Tamarin (Saguinus nigricollis)
Guianan Squirrel Monkey (Saimiri sciureus)
Spix's Night Monkey (Aotus vociferans)
Red-bellied Titi (Plecturocebus moloch)
Colombian Red Howler (Alouatta seniculus)
White-fronted Capuchin (Cebus albifrons)
Brown-throated Three-toed Sloth (Bradypus variegatus)
Black Agouti (Dasyprocta fuliginosa)
Giant Otter (Pteronura brasiliensis)
Spectacled Caiman (Caiman crocodilus)
Black Caiman (Melanosuchus niger)
Yellow spotted amazon river turtle (Podocnemis unifilis)
Caiman Lizard (Dracaena guianensis)
Smoky jungle frog (Leptodactylus pentadactylus)
Tree frog sp.
Tarantula sp.
You can see my complete trip report on eBird at this link: https://ebird.org/tripreport/478935
You can download a combined PDF of this page and the eBird report at this link: https://fieldguides.com/triplists/sac26aTRIPLIST.pdf
-- Keep on birding! Willy