EL CAJAS NATIONAL PARK

Our final morning’s birding was spent in the valley below our hotel, which entailed a 4.30am departure in order to make an attempt at Rufous-banded Owl. Well we well and truly nailed this bird with point-blank views shortly before sunrise. The rest of the early morning was taken up with walking around the lake seeing many Andean Gulls, Andean Coot, Andean Teal, a superb Ecuadorian Rail, Superciliaried Hemispingus, Tyrian Metaltail, Plain-coloured Seedeater, Mountain Wren, Grass Wren, Sapphire-vented Puffleg and Turquoise Jay.  

Violet-throated Metaltail

Then it was back to the hotel for breakfast and a quick check above the hotel for Violet-throated Metaltail that took all of 10 seconds! And that was it, we were done. All that was left was to get ready, pack our luggage and set out on the nearly 4 hour drive to Guayaquil airport where we said our goodbyes to our excellent guide Juan Carlos and great driver Carlo. What a tour!

I hope you enjoyed my story about our Southern Ecuador tour. I still need to do a birdlist, but I have to say this was an extremely enjoyable tour. There's great birds (of course), really brilliant lodges with good rooms and feeding stations, the food is excellent (probably too much food!), superb scenery and a great local guide in Juan Carlos. It's a classic tour and I can't wait to return next year. 

See next year's tour info here: Southern Ecuador 2024

CERRO ACACANA

We headed up to Cerro Acacana at 3200m in search of Crescent-faced Antpitta this morning, which involved a 5am breakfast at our hotel in Loja and then just over a 90 minute drive with the last 8kms steeply uphill on a track barely passable by our minibus. But we made it and got cracking on the antpitta straight away. Unfortunately the CFA didn’t respond despite numerous attempts involving walking into the bamboo understorey and crouching down on the steep slope. But all wasn’t in vain as Juan Carlos called in an Equatorial Antpitta on two occasions with the latter attempt getting us cripplingly close views of a bird perched a few feet off the ground right in front of us. What a chunkster it was, a real round ball of bright rusty brown! 

Equatorial Antpitta - one of the numerous Rufous Antpitta splits....

We also had some very, very good views of a Mouse-coloured Thistletail that didn’t really skulk too badly beside the track, as well as a Brown-backed Chat-Tyrant being another new addition to the trip list. 

Mouse-coloured Thistletail

Previously seen species included Glossy Flowerpiercer, Red-crested Cotinga, Lacrimose Mountain-Tanager, Glowing Puffleg and Tyrian Metaltail. We spent a good few hours searching for the near-mythical Chestnut-bellied Cotinga without any luck, and also a calling Andean Pygmy-Owl didn’t cooperate either. 

Glowing Puffleg

Red-crested Cotinga

Bird density was very low at this altitude so we called it quits and headed to lower elevations, which proved to be a genius move as we had cracking views of an Ocellated Tapaculo calling away from a tree stump beside the track. It was an unbelievable sighting and we watched it for a good 5 minutes before it jumped down off its songpost and melted into the undergrowth. 

Crowned Chat-Tyrant

Ocellated Tapaculo

A Masked Trogon was equally showy at the same spot and we also added Crowned Chat-Tyrant to our impressive list as well before leaving for lunch at a nearby restaurant.

Masked Trogon

Well , we ate our packed lunch at the restaurant actually and had a cup of coffee before going to the Red-faced Parrot site, just a 20 minute walk across a field and through a narrow belt of forest to a clearing. All uphill of course! But boy was it worth it as we saw over 20 Red-faced Parrots flying around the epiphyte-laden forest, as well as nailing a couple really clear scope views of perched individuals. Yes! And what a beautiful parrot it is. 

Red-faced Parrot - looked better through the scope tbh!!!

There was also scope views of Grey-breasted Mountain-Toucan and a Northern Mountain Cacique to add to the excitement as well. And then it was a 3 hour drive to our amazingly plush hotel at El Cajas NP.

PODOCARPUS NATIONAL PARK - LOJA

After a 5.45am breakfast we spent a little time loitering in the car park, where a female Rufous-throated Sapphire had been seen recently and is something of a rarity here. Luckily it was still around and we watched it feeding on the Verbena flowers along with our first Wire-crested Thorntail. 

Rufous-throated Sapphire

Overhead we had both Chestnut-collared and Grey-rumped Swifts motoring through the valley. And then we drove a short distance to the trail of the Bombuscoro Section of Podocarpus National park and spent the morning birding the excellent forest. There’s not as big a variety of species here as at Maycu Reserve but what’s here is special. First up was a female White-crowned Manakin in the canopy beside the trail, followed by a White-necked Thrush and then a very confiding Black-billed Treehunter. 

Black-streaked Puffbird

A short distance further along the trail and a Black-streaked Puffbird was a welcome addition to our life lists and it showed really well at eye level for several minutes. Next up was Ruddy-tailed Flycatcher and Montane Foliage-Gleaner, the latter probably loitering at the edge of a large mixed species flock just around the corner. In this mishmash of movement in the canopy above were several previously seen tanagers in good numbers including Yellow-bellied, Spotted and a few delightful Orange-eared Tanagers, a pair of Red-headed Barbets, Slaty-capped Flycatcher, and a Wedge-billed Woodcreeper. And then we arrived at the park HQ where a pair of Lemon-browed Flycatchers called away and just at this point a superb Amazonian Umbrellabird appeared and we saw it several times before flying off into the forest. 

White-breasted Parakeet - mega!

We followed this with Foothill Elaenia, before a group of stunning White-breasted Parakeets flew in and landed in the tree next to us. Wow! Further along the trail a pair of Ecuadorian Piedtails showed nicely, a Foothill Stipplethroat came in to check us out at very close quarters and at this point in the trail we decided to turn around. 

Foothill Stipplethroat

Fortunately our timing was impeccable as an exceedingly rare Orange-crested Flycatcher began calling and Juan Carlos called it in for a decent view and a Plain-breasted Hawk then flew in and landed nearby. 

 

Back at the lodge, it was 1pm and time for yet another excellent meal. We hung around until 3.30pm, checking out the various feeders. A Crowned Woodnymph seemed a little out of range, and we had fine views of Many-spotted and Violet-headed Hummingbirds, as well as Golden-tailed Sapphire, Sparkling Violetear and Violet-fronted Brilliant. 

Crowned Woodnymph

Violet-fronted Brilliant

Once the White-faced Capuchin Monkeys had departed some more fruit was put out and we enjoyed a flurry of activity with Golden-eared, Silver-beaked, Golden and Green-and-gold Tanagers all coming in – at one point they were side-by-side (check out my video on YouTube). 

Golden Tanager

Golden-eared Tanager

Green-and-gold Tanager

Russet-backed Oropendolas came in en-masse, a fine male Green Honeycreeper lingered, and both Thick-billed and Orange-bellied Euphonias were once again in good numbers. 

Crested Oropendola

Green Honeycreeper

Russet-backed Oropendola

Orange-billed Sparrows lurked in the understorey, and then a Grey-chinned Hermit came in to a close feeder, but was chased away by the larger Green Hermit. 

Orange-billed Sparrow

And that was it. So we drove back 90 minutes or so to Loja and the same hotel as we’d stayed in a few days before, where we enjoyed a nice meal out a local restaurant to celebrate my birthday.

MAYCU RESERVE - COPALINGA LODGE

We returned to the Maycu Reserve this morning but were hampered by rain for most of the morning, but we still managed to pick up a dozen new birds for the trip. We began with a Red Pileated-Finch in the lodge gardens before breakfast and followed that in the reserve, which is just a 10 minute drive up the road, with a pair of unusually skulking White-browed Antbirds. In between dodging showers, sitting in the minibus or standing around under umbrellas we chalked up a couple Lafresnaye’s Piculets before doing battle for some time with a pair of Golden-winged Tody-Flycatchers that would appear for the briefest of moments before simply vanishing into thin air! It was about now that the rain became heavier and we had to shelter in the minibus longer than before. A fruiting tree nearby was attracting Masked, Green-and-gold, Silver-beaked, Palm and Blue-necked Tanagers and several Russet-backed Oropendolas then appeared, with some Crested Oropendolas tagging along behind. 

Masked Tanager

Once the rain eased we walked down the road and found a pair of Slate-coloured Grosbeaks, as well as Purple Honeycreeper, a Golden-tailed Sapphire was scoped high up in a bare tree, a pair of White-winged Becards appeared, Bamboo Foliage-Gleaner showed well, a Bat Falcon posed nicely, Eastern Woodhaunter was unusually showy and decent views of a White-flanked Antwren ended our time in this wonderful area. 

Bat Falcon

After lunch we set off on the 2 hour drive to Zamora and the wonderful Copalinga Lodge. This was yet another fantastic Jocotoco Foundation lodge to stay at, complete with a set of feeders at the front and back of the property, trails and most importantly, a feeding station with a blind set up for Grey Tinamou! So upon arrival we went straight to the open air restaurant to view the fruit and hummer feeders. And wow! Straight away we were confronted by a flurry of activity with Golden-tailed Sapphire, Many-spotted Hummingbird and Green Hermit zipping in and out.

Golden-tailed Sapphire

Green Hermit

Many-spotted Hummingbird

The fruit feeders were attracting Silver-beaked, Palm, Green-and-gold and Golden-eared Tanagers, at least a dozen Orange-bellied and Thick-billed Euphonias, Sickle-winged Guan, Buff-throated Saltator, Inca Jay and a posse of Russet-backed Oropendolas. 

Orange-bellied Euphonia

Thick-billed Euphonia

And all of these were just a couple of metres away. Out front on the bank of verbena flowers several Violet-headed Hummingbirds fed avidly and a male Red Pileated Finch was posing nicely. 

Violet-headed Hummingbird

At 4.30pm we walked up the trail for ten minutes to the Grey Tinamou hide where after a tense 30 minute wait 3 individuals appeared and fed no more than 5 metres away from us. At one point they came just below our blind and were too close to use binoculars! Wow! 

Grey Tinamou

After this we did the checklist and then at 6.30pm drove just down the road where we had a Blackish Nightjar hunting on the slope above us and got a really nice view in the spotlight to finish another superb day.