December 28, 2024-January 7, 2025 with Willy Perez
This Wildsumaco tour is a perfect trip to end the year and this 2024 one was not an exception. We started December 28th and it was great to welcome the New Year at Wildsumaco lodge. Our first day we visited Antisana National Park for half a day and we got the great feeling of being in the high Andes. Here we saw Andean Condors, roosting and flying, Andean Ibis, and Ecuadorian Hillstar. Followed by Aplomado Falcon, Great Horned Owl, and Paramo Pipit, to mention a few. We were very surprise when even a Merlin gave us a show of how to hunt in the windy flat plateau close to La Mica Lagoon at 10,000 feet above sea level. Afterward, we drove along the Papallacta Pass and down towards the foothills on the east. In the itinerary we mentioned that we were going to visit Guango lodge but we were short of time so we went straight to San Isidro lodge.
Staying at San Isidro for two nights, we managed to get the feeling of the Cloud Forest and its avifauna. The first night there, the San Isidro Black-banded Owl showed up during dinner; job done for that bird. The next morning the porch from the dining room was full of amazing birds, from hummingbirds, tanagers, oropendolas, etc., so just a show of colors and shapes. Some very nice raptors also surprised us, especially the pair of Black-and-Chestnut Eagles. The White-bellied Antpitta came to eat some worms at the usual place. One morning we visit the shrine at the entrance of Guacamayos trail and the highlight there was a not a bird but an incredible Rhinoceros Beetle, but saying that, there were also fantastic birds there, like Hooded Mountain Tanager, Grass-green Tanager, Turquoise Jay and White-throated Screech-Owl that showed up nicely. Leaving San Isidro, our drive to the proper foothills took a while, but a very productive stop at Cascada El Hollin gave us the first nice introduction to the lowland birds. Here we saw Green-backed Hillstar, Green-fronted Lancebill catching insects at the waterfall and Fasciated Tiger-Heron that was incredibly well camouflaged. After watching all these fantastic birds, we met… Juanita… a very noisy Mealy Parrot pet that talked to us nicely.
At Wildsumaco, Ely and Jonas welcomed us and they were great hosts, and helped us with everything, even finding some nice wildlife. The hide with moths had some antbirds like Black-faced and Western Fire-eye and even the elusive Black-streaked Puffbird was present. The antpitta feeder was also active with Plain-backed Antpitta, but also a White-necked Thrush came to be fed. The viewpoints were very productive with Gilded Barbets, Golden-collared Toucanet, Military Macaws, and many colorful tanagers, especially Paradise, were active feeding. Along the trails we saw Coppery-chested Jacamar, White-crowned and Blue-rumped manakins, and even we heard the incredible song of Musician Wren. The hummingbird feeders were also busy, the verbena flowers had even a nice Gorgeted Woodstar female that visited the flowers a couple of times.
We stayed at Amarun Packcha for a while, to enjoy the breakfast that they offered us, especially the delicious empanadas, but also to see more birds and explore this unique area. After breakfast the visit to the hide was fantastic; Gray-cowled Wood-Rail, Orange-billed Sparrow, Gray-fronted Dove and even a family of Rufous-breasted Wood-Quail came to eat the corn. So, the whole morning was full of nice birding. During our stay at Wildsumaco we looked for some owls, but to be honest we didn’t have to go far to look for them, we were woken up every night by Band-bellied Owls that we saw from the porch.
The last day we left Wildsumaco early in the morning and we stopped at Guango for a 2 hour visit. The flocks there were beautiful, with nice Northern Slaty Brushfinch, Beryl-spangled Tanager and many Gray-hooded Bush Tanager. After lunch, we left Guango and started our drive to Quito, and along the way down from Papallacta, to finish the day, a Spectacled bear was spotted from the bus. What a way to finish this fun tour! The whole trip worked well and thank you to all of you, PEOPLE, that came to join me to do this trip; I certainly enjoyed it. I would also like to mention Edgar, our super driver that managed to get us to the perfect places to see these birds. Also thank you to the people from San Isidro and Wildsumaco lodges. They were great hosts.
Abrazos desde Dorset, Willy.
Here are other amazing creatures that we saw on the tour.
Black-mantled Tamarin, (Saguinus nigricollis), Red-tailed Squirrel, (Sciurus granatensis), We saw this species at San Isidro. Northern Amazon Red Squirrel, (Sciurus igniventris), the one seen at Wildsumaco. Black Agouti, (Dasyprocta fuliginosa), Spectacled Bear, (Tremarctos ornatus), Culpeo Fox, (Lycalopex culpaeus), Kinkajou, (Potos flavus), White-tailed deer, ( Odocoileus virginianus), Common Opossum, (Didelphis marsupialis). Rhinoceros beetle, (Dynastes sp), Giant Earthworm and Rothschildia sp moth, and the incredible Swordtail butterfly, (Rhetus sp).
You can see my complete trip report on eBird at this link: https://ebird.org/tripreport/318103
You can download a combined PDF of this page and the eBird report at this link: https://fieldguides.com/triplists/wsu24TRIPLIST.pdf
Abrazos and keep birding, Willy