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We call this tour "Jewels of Ecuador" for good reason -- we soaked in more than 60 hummingbird species, including this Sparkling Violetear. (Photo by participant Diane Drobka)

We note this in our annual catalog of tours, but I have to say it again: for Ecuador this is the most complete tour we do, birding the south and the north of the country, and also both slopes of the Andes with the range of different altitudes. We covered a great variety of habitats where myriad hummingbird jewels live (hence the name of the tour), and we saw more than 60 of them! Our trip, like most, had some adventures too -- rain, sun, mud, landslides, even a vehicle breakdown -- but nothing stopped us birding and reaching every single corner that the itinerary describes, so we did it all. Along the way there were so many memorable moments, and here are but a few of them:

--as usual a memorable first day, but this time with a fantastic welcome: in the middle of the trail was a small puddle of water where we had one of the most successful birding stops of the trip with Scarlet-bellied, Black-chested, and Buff-breasted mountain-tanagers coming to have a nice bath, all within two minutes!

--a clear day at Cajanuma with stunning views good flocks of birds and a tree decorated with six Red-hooded Tanagers;

--the Chesnut-crowned Antpitta that came out the second day we visited Cajanuma;

--the two male Torrent Ducks trying hard to impress a female, a fabulous viewing opportunity;

--the Inga tree with beautiful white flowers at Copalinga and the two most-wanted male hummingbirds, Wire-crested Thorntail and Spangled Coquette, both at the same time just before lunch;

--the Club-winged Manakin doing its mooning display at Milpe;

--the full morning at Angel's reserve with a range of magical events, from the display of the Cocks-of-the-rock, to a roosting Lyre-tailed Nightjar, the fruit-feeding station with Blue-winged Mountain-Tanagers, Toucan Barbet, Crimson-rumped Toucanet, and three species of antpittas with their very own nicknames;

--the stunning surprise of two Spectacled Bears that watched us for few minutes, followed by a surprisingly easy Rufous-bellied Seedsnipe at Papallacta;

--the male Crested Quetzal at San Isidro;

--the last-minute appearance of the Plate-billed Mountain-Toucan (phew) just in time;

--every evening or early morning that we went to look for owls, providing good rewards in many places: Band bellied at Copalinga, Great Horned at Cajanuma, and the Black-banded at San Isidro;

--and meeting nice people like the young artist Lino Salinas who was painting the gate at Cajanuma.

To conclude, I would like to thank all of you for making this tour happen and for contributing to it being such a success. I had a lot of fun, and I hope that you felt the same way. Our superb driver, Edgar, made the trip go smoothly and was always very helpful, so gracias amigo for a good job!

I hope to see you all again somewhere soon in the field chasing birds!

--Willy

KEYS FOR THIS LIST
One of the following keys may be shown in brackets for individual species as appropriate: * = heard only, I = introduced, E = endemic, N = nesting, a = austral migrant, b = boreal migrant

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

Totals for the tour: 559 bird taxa and 5 mammal taxa