July 22-August 1, 2024 with Willy Perez
For many years the cloud forest hasn’t been as well known as the rainforest is, but that has changed in the last few years, and that is why we designed this tour to visit this very unique habitat for nine full days. Because we use Quito as the starting point, we did a half day birding at 11000ft at the beautiful Yanacocha and Zuroloma reserves on our way down to Maquipucuna. Here we enjoyed watching some of the most incredible Hummingbirds like, Mountain Velvetbreast, Green-tailed Trainbearer, Sapphire-vented Puffleg and the incredible Sword-billed Hummingbird. Several Mountain Tanagers showed up and we even had our first encounter with some of the elusive Antpittas. After our box lunch we drove down along the Old Nono-Mindo Road where we saw the colorful Plate-billed Mountain-Toucan.
We arrived at Maquipucuna in the afternoon. The two full days at this lodge were great and we explored several trails, walked the nearby gravel road and visited the hides and the feeders. But the garden had an amazing combination and variety of birds, so we didn’t have to go far. We saw White-capped Dipper, Barred Puffbird, Broad-billed Motmot and several lovely tanagers. Along the road we found Golden-headed Quetzals, Tiny Hawk, Guayaquil Woodpecker and Bat Falcon. The best hike that we did here was to go to see the Club-winged Manakin; the hike was a bit steep but we managed to see a couple of males displaying.
Leaving Maquipucuna, we drove up to the Tandayapa ridge and we visited the new Guaycapi Lodge and walked along the road toward San Tadeo-Mindo. It was a very successful day with Blue-winged Mountain Tanagers and Flame-faced Tanager. Eventually we arrived at Sachatamia lodge, but we kept coming back to San Tadeo Road where we saw the rare White-faced Nunbird. Sachatamia was spectacular, with the gardens full of Tanagers, Hummingbirds, Woodcreepers and even a pair of Powerful Woodpeckers. We managed to climb up the tower and we came face to face with Scaled Fruiteater, both male and female. Sachatamia was our base for the following days and from here we did a fantastic day out to the Long-wattled Umbrellabird lek, where we saw some males in full display. The next day we went to Amagusa and Sacha Guatusa reserves.
Arriving at Amagusa early was a good call (a bit painful, but worth it). Birds were incredible and the moth feeder was simply amazing, Black and Rufous-brown Solitaires were the first to show up, followed by a troop of diverse species that we enjoyed the whole morning. There were many incredible birds here, but just to mention a few that people liked: Toucan Barbet, Moss-backed Tanager, Barred Becard and even an Olive Finch.
Another full day, we went down to the lowlands to Rio Silanche and spent three hours on the tower and walked one of the trails there. Birds in the lowlands were very different so we enjoyed watching White-tailed and Blue-tailed trogons, Checker-throated Stipplethroat, White-flanked Antwren, Velvety Manakin and Orange-fronted Barbet.
The last day we went to visit the famous Angel Paz Reserve and the Cock-of-the-Rock lek. This place is fantastic, and we saw 5 species of antpittas, Rufous-breasted Antthrush, Orange-breasted Fruiteater, and Crested Guans, to mention a few. Here we really enjoyed our BRUNCH served by Diana (Rodrigo’s wife).
Besides birds, landscapes, stunning forest and amazing wildlife, we came across fantastic people that made our trip a truly success. The whole staff at Maquipucuna was great, the Sachatamia team was a dream, and of course Edgar, our super driver, was incredible, so thank you, all of you guys for that. We had an incredible 9 full days of birding and I really enjoyed the company of you people that came and joined me for this tour. Peter, thank you for the serenade with your guitar, and Cindy for all the stunning photos. I hope that I will see you again and please just keep birding.
I want to add other animals that we saw, here they are.
Mammals:
Western Dwarf Squirrel
Red-tailed Squirrel
Common Opossum
Central American Agouti
Western Mountain Coati
Others:
Owl and Morpho Butterflies
The incredible Giant Earthworm.
You can see my complete trip report on eBird at this link: https://ebird.org/tripreport/275727
You can download a combined PDF of this page and the eBird report at this link: https://fieldguides.com/triplists/ems24TRIPLIST.pdf
A big hug from Dorset, Willy