Birding Mindo, Ecuador, Part 1

So we have arrived in our 10th country of this epic birdwatching adventure – Ecuador. Due to the political and security uncertainty here we have restricted ourselves to a short trip of just over a week with one birding stop in Mindo.

Here we secured the help of Danny of Mindo Birding (Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp ‪+593 99 328 0769‬). We had three half days and one long day birding with Danny and he was brilliant. Very happy to recommend you use him. He has been bird guiding for over 20 years and is hugely skilled at identifying birds in flight, by sound or with poor views. One thing we loved about Danny was he only used playback as a last resort and since he had such fantastic birding skills this was really very little.

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Day 1 – San Lorenzo/Cascadas Road.

For our first day we birded along this dirt road outside of Mindo. For the morning I focused on birding rather than photography. Partly because the light wasnt great and partly because I wanted to savour the new place and tune into the local wildlife before getting the camera out which brings a whole new range of mental considerations.

Our early birding with Danny added several new birds including Golden-Headed Quetzal, Red-Headed Barbet, Crimson-Rumped Toucanet, Choco Toucan, Rufous Rumped and Slaty Antwrens, Scaly-Throated and Buff-Fronted Foliage Gleaners, and more.

I did eventually get the camera out and take some photos of Ornate Flycatcher, Masked Trogon (male) and Broad-Billed Motmot.

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El Descanso Lodge

Danny dropped us in town after our morning with him and after lunch we spent a couple of hours at the excellent feeder setup at El Descanso Lodge. Here I was able to focus on photography rather than birding. We had the whole place to ourselves and at $5 USD each it was a bargain. At first I focused on slower shutter speeds and birds on perches mainly Tanagers.

After a while I switched to photographing the hummingbirds mainly on a perch but occasionally in flight particularly the one lifer at this location – the White-Whiskered Hermit.

It wasn’t all birds here either, with a Great Owl Butterfly and an Agouti family putting in regular appearances.

At one point a Hooked-Billed Kite and a Crimson-Rumped Toucanet put in an appearance but too high for good photos. A Spotted Woodcreeper did allow a single photo. Initially I was confused by the male and female White-Lined Tanagers but managed to identify them as the same species after consulting the Merlin App.

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Day 2 – Paz de las Aves

Today was my 50th birthday and I had decided to make it a very happy Bird Day a few weeks before by asking Danny to take us to Paz de las Aves. Here we hoped to see the legendary Andean Cock of the Rock for the first time and 2 or at a long shot 3 new species Antpitta!

As we approached the Cock of the Rock lek the noise hit us first. A particular mixture of parrot-like squawks and electronic whistles. You can hear a brief sound recording of this amazing bird by following this link.

Once in the hide we were able to observe the birds as they jumped, hopped, bobbed and flew between branches. A wonderful experience that lasted about 20 minutes. Then suddenly all the males flew off at once (most likely chasing a female). They did gradually return but the main action had finished. A female Masked Trogon offered an alternative subject after the action had died down.

Moving on we went in search of Antpitta’s. The hardest one was the Giant Antpitta which did not visit a fixed feeder but rather had to be found in the forest. After about 30-40 minutes we struck feathery gold in the form of the world’s largest Antpitta. We then visited three other feeding stations for the Yellow-Breasted and Ocre-Breasted Antpitta and the Rufous-Breasted Antthrush (all lifers).

In between the feeders we were able to continue traditional birding seeing several interesting birds.

First up we enjoyed the hummingbirds around the feeders with six lifers in Violet-Tailed Sylph, Brown Inca, Velvet-Purple Coronet, Purple-Bibbed Whitetip, Empress Brilliant and Purple-Throated Woodstar.

At the general feeders and birding around the property we added several more fantastic birds often allowing great photo opportunities too. Red-Headed Barbet (the original bird from the Angry Birds computer game?), Flame-Faced, Golden-Naped, Golden and Black-Headed Tanagers and the a pair of confiding Crimson-Rumped Toucans and the wonderful Toucan-Barbet

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A wonderful couple of days and a great way to celebrate my birthday. But the best thing was we still had two more days to go which you can read about here.