Samona Lodge; Cuyabeno

I'm jumping my trip to the coast of Esraldas, where I saw a few birds, but only 18 new birds, which is nothing if you consider that I had never been at the coast and was at a completely new habitat. My personal favourite there were the cute Pacific Parrotlets. Also did I see Rufous-necked Wood-Rail, White-throated Crake and Stripe-billed Aracari, but not a single new shorebird could I add to my list. Magnificient Frigatebirds and Brown Pelicans were abundant and a single Blue-footed Booby led me to a colony of sleeping boobies.

But apart from that this trip wasn't dedicated to birding and so I won't write much about it. Oh yes, there were also some Green Iguanas.

But now I'll write about my experiences in Cuyabeno. Cuyabeno is situated in northeastern Ecuador. It has some magnificient lagoons with trees standing in the middle of the water. My parents had come from Germany and we were going to travel through Ecuador. Cuyabeno was our first trip.

I had much fun, since the people were all very nice and I saw tons of new animals. Only the fact that our guide didn't have the eye for animals as the other guides was frustrating. He was quite funny, but I'd liked to have been with Neiser during the trip... He saw everything

But well I saw many things:
Mammals: Pink River Dolphins, Hoffmann's Two-toed Sloth, White-tailed Titimonkey, Yellow-handed Titimonkey, Monk Saki Monkey, Common Wooly Monkey, Common Squirrelmonkey, White-fronted Capuchin, White-lined Sac-winged Bat, some more bats
Although we got to see Squirrel monkeys almost daily, it was almost impossible to get pictures, where the face wasn't hidden...
A White-lined Sac-winged Bat
On the last day we finally saw a sloth!


Reptiles: Black Cayman, Anaconda, Amazon Tree Boa, 2 Anoli and 1 Skink species, Black-and-white Tegu, 1 big lizard they called I think Dracanaea...
This Amazon Tree Boa was the first snake on our jungle tour...
Our first Anaconda followed soon...
Our second Anaconda was much larger, than the first one. Almost 3 metres...
The gigantic Tegu mesured aproximately 80cm!
A baby Black Cayman


Amphibies: Smoky Jungle Frog, various different frogs and toads
A toad, that ressembles the leafs very much!
Another of those toads
Another frog, that ressembles leaves, a glassfrog.
A little visitor to our dining room...


Fish: Arapaima, Red, Golden and Silver Piranha, different smaller fish

Insects and other crawlies: Tarantulas, whip spiders, katycids, spiders, beatles, millipeds and especially butterflies were abundant and everywhere. It was impossible of getting a good picture of the big morphos but I got a few other interesting ones...
During the night we found this gigantic katycid
Also was there this terrifying looking whip spider...
In our dining rooms roof, were at least 7 of these tarantulas...
We ate those larvaes, which tastes like coconut milk, but not too good...
I was told this was the only diurnal moth existing... Looks very pretty for a moth








All those butterflies were just around the lodge...


Birds: Many,many so here's just a list of my favourites: Blue-and-yellow and Scarlet Macaw, Mealy Amazon, Green Ibis, Cocoi Heron,Rufescent Tiger-Heron, Spix's Guan, Anhinga, Hoatzin, Common Potoo, Common Paurauque, White-chinned Jacamar, Ivory-billed Aracari, Chestnut Woodpecker, asked Crimson Tanager, Green-and-gold Tanager, Purple Honeycreeper, Sungrebe and many more...
A White-throated Toucan
The Common Potoo, one of the weirdest birds in the world...
The very beautiful Red-capped Cardinal...
A Green Kingfisher and his very large beak
Hoazins were the favourite birds of many of the tourists, including me...



It was an incredible experience and it was just cool to swim with a baby anaconda, eat while you know, you are watched by 7 tarantulas and watch the monkeys jump. We swam in the lagoons, while the sun was going down and I fished the biggest piranha of the group... It just made fun :-)

Yellow House Trails

I was thinking to go to a new “wildilifing“site this time and thought of 3 possibilities: Milpe, which has a few Tanagers and Manakins I still am missing; Mangaloma, which has many interesting birds, like Scarlet-browed Antpitta, Long-wattled Umbrellabird and Banded Ground-Cuckoo, but where I don’t know very good, where it is located; and the Yellow House Trails in Mindo, where I know the city, but not that special site. Once went up to the Yellow House I was told, there was a good possibility of seeing the Spectacled Bear and also many beautiful birds. Like it had to be confirmed a Golden-headed Quetzal flew over our heads.
That looked like somewhat pristine rainforest. And it was very beautiful...
So I made my decision for the Yellow House Trails, the Spectacled Bear was calling. I arrived there, searched for the Yellow House and found it after a while, without noticing I had passed its gates various times, but noticing different flocks. Before I even got onto the Yellow House Trails I had added four lifers: Pacific Antwren, Giant Cowbird, Tropical Gnatcatcher and Black-striped Sparrow.
At the Yellow House I “checked in” and then started to walk to the trails. A few mixed flocks on my way didn’t contain too much new, or at least I couldn’t identify it, because all the birds were hiding in the treetops. In a bamboo stand I found the very beautiful Bay Wren, the other beauty Bay-headed Tanager. A Crimson-rumped Toucanet and a few Ornate Flycatchers I arrived at the trails where I was greeted by a pair of Grey-breasted Wood-wrens, which soon showed to be very common here. I made my way to the view point, where I hoped to see raptors and canopy birds. But the only thing I found was a lonely Black Vulture… A mixed flock passed by some 10m from the view point, so I went to find many common Woodcreepers, but not much more… Following my way I found a Golden-headed Quetzal, but they would fly off to catch some insect when I tried to point with my camera at them… I heard various Wattled Guans around me, without seeing them, but that didn’t matter…
Back at the Main Trail a canopy flock held Scaled Fruiteater for me and another bird that looked like an Olivaceous Woodcreeper, which according to my book is a very rare species… Then it started to rain and also to get late… I ended the day with a few Red-billed Parrots and went back. The rain got heavy and I had forgotten my umbrella so I used the big leaf of a banana-plant to cover me…
Back in Mindo I ate a whole Pizza (first time I ate a whole one…) and later went back to go to sleep.
Umbrella...

The next day I woke up early to watch birds that would come to eat some moths that were flying around a light. Before the sun came out already a few Tropical Kingbirds were catching moths and also a Rufous Motmot came in. Soon after the sun came out I made my way up to the trails, where I found another lifer for me, when Chestnut-backed Antbird showed itself, while I was hearing many more around me. Near the view point there was a Masked Trogon. Then some weird calls from behind me and also from in front of me… I thought of a very loud frog but it soon turned out, that two groups of Chestnut-mandibled Toucans were flying around in the canopy… I got very good views and also the pictures were satisfying.
A group of at least 4 Chestnut-mandibled Toucan made various twigs and branches fall down as they hopped around in the canopy...
I made my way back to the Yellow House to eat a very good breakfast, but before flushed a big Crested Guan, which landed in a close tree and let me get good pictures, that even showed its crest and the red wattle.
From the table where I was eating I saw various hummingbirds, the western race of Russet-backed Oropendola and a group of Blue-fronted Parrotlets. On my walk back to the trails I tried to count the butterfly-species and there were much more than 20 of them in almost all colors you could imagine, even two different species with transparent wings. When I made my way to a creek I found a big footprint which I would have said belonged to a dog, but there are no dogs there, so it was probably the bear’s footprint. While I looked at the print some weird noises made me go back some 10m where I found 3 coatis feeding in a tree. I got really close, without disturbing them much. After a while they left and I walked on and found a very big dark bird flying up into a tree, probably one of the Wattled Guans I had been hearing but I couldn’t find it anymore. But a Rufous Motmot and a male Cock-of-the-rock made up for it, being a nice compensation…
I found a family of 3 Coatis. Probably my favourite sighting, eventhough I got many more interesting animals

I walked back because my bus was going to leave in 2 hours and I didn’t want to hurry. In the moment I was leaving the trails a big black bird sitting in a tree at eyelevel made me make a step back and I finally had my first good views of a Wattled Guan, even though I couldn’t see any wattle…
After I had taken many pictures I walked on, thinking, that that had been a nice final when I actually found a Chocó Toucan, which meant that I had seen all 4 possible toucan species this day. And back at the Yellow House I even added another lifer, a Gray-and-gold Tanager which was at its upper limit here…
At the bus-station I noticed I had seen the departure time for the Quito-Mindo bus, and not the Mindo-Quito bus, which had left 1 hour before, but that was no problem, as there are enough busses that pass along the “Y de Mindo” and took me back to Quito…
Easy to hear, almost never seen: Wattled Guan; I got stunning views on that one...

Well, that was a very nice trip, probably even my favorite, with the Spectacled Bear being the only target animal I had missed, but many others I had not expected and 16 lifers plus super-good views of many target birds, like Golden-headed Quetzal, all four toucans, Wattled and Crested Guan and the most beautiful Tanagers of the area… But the biggest surprise were the coatis! By the way I will get a new camera in a few days, with 20x Zoom so hope for even better pictures. And I also got “The birds of Ecuador” now, but it’s in Germany and can’t be brought because of its weight
And tomorrow I will visit the Ecuadorian beach for the first time, finally!!! Oh, yes and I have seen 400 birds in Ecuador now...

Tandayapa Bird Lodge

I had heard of a few interesting records from the lodge in the last days, like Oilbird, Plushcap and others, so I decided to find one of those. I took a very early bus, but it didn't help too much since no car came to pick me up. In the end a car came and took me about 2km up, and I arrived in Tandayapa 8:45AM. The best hour had already passed but nonetheless I tried my best. Before I even got onto the lodge property a mixed flock came across the way and my favourite was the Red-headed Barbet, which isn't uncommon but very beautiful.
On the lodge property I met Iain Campbell from Tropical Birding, who told me a bit about his sightings, but then I went the trails alone. I tried at the "lower deck" only finding a few Brown-capped Vireos and then went back to the trails, where the first birds were 4 Beautiful Jays. After a while I walked on but found almost nothing. A very few understorey flocks with very common birds were the most interesting until I flushed two White-throated Quail-Doves. They soon disappeared in the forest and I walked on. A female Andean Cock-of-the-rock perched in exactly the same spot, as I had seen one in April. The bird flew away in exactly the moment I was pointing my camera at it, so that I didn't get any picture.
The trails were all rather quiet and soon I tried to find something along the roadsides which didn't bring much apart from a Sickle-winged Guan and a Squirrel Cuckoo. I didn't find the spot where the Oilbirds had been seen and also failed upon other interesting species. When I got back to the Lodge a few voluntaries were there and one of them took me to a known lek of Wedge-billed Hummingbird. We heard one, but didn't see it, another fail. I was told they had seen a Wattled Guan and both Quetzals, so I tried another time to find something. At the "Hide" another two Quail-Doves tried to escape me and then after walking a lot I finally found something interesting. I had found the Cock-of-the-rock female another time without getting pictures when a big, black bird flew away and hid in the trees. Eventhough the views I had at it, where very bad, it was sufficient to know I had found the Wattled Guan, eventhough it had already wandered a lot. Then a Crimson-rumped Toucanet perched above my head. Eventhough I've seen it a lot of times, it still is one of my favourite birds. I tried another time for birds along the roadsides but failed another time. I tried another time for the Wedge-billed Hummer and failed. When I went back to the lodge I came into amixed flock, and got very close to a Strong-billed Woodcreeper, the only rather interesting bird in that flock, which then visited the hummer-deck and posed nicely for Iain and other photographers. A White-necked Jacobin visited the feeders aswell.
Jacob, the volunteer took me to the Wedge-billed Hummingbird-lek another time, but the hummer had vanished and so we tried on the Andean Solitaire, because they had found a nest along the Antpitta Trail. The Cock-of-the-rock watched us from a high perch another time. An interesting flock passed our way, but the birds knew how to hide so that not many birds could be ID'd. One of the few was the beautiful Crimson-mantled Woodcreeper another common bird. The way to the nest was rather dangerous as the trail had already broken in various places. When we arrived at the nest the mother was gone, while the nestlings lay there quietly without moving. We wanted to come back later and followed the trail but it ended soon and when we came back the mother still wasn't there. Another two Toucanets flew away and were a lifer for Jacob the volunteer who was with me...
For me this day only held 5 lifers, from which 3 are very common and I probably just overlooked them before, as they aren't very interesting. I failed upon a male Cock-of-the-rock, which had been seen at the Lower Deck ony very few minutes before I arrived and the Wattled Guan was the only VERY good bird... Eventhough the looks I got were VERY bad... Okay and the Beautiful Jay wasn't bad either...

Bellavista Cloud-Forest Lodge

I hadn't been birding since I came home from Coca, that was almost 2 weeks ago...
I don't count the Cotopaxi trip, because my sightings there were more luck that really birding.
My parents will come soon, there is not too much time I can spent before. I hope to go the coast next weekend. I wanted to go to that Lodge with my sister, because they also have some nice waterfalls and things like this, but she went to Coca and now I notice it was probably better this way, because I walked at least 10km those days...
First I had a few problems because I caught the wrong bus. I had forgotten that there were two busses named "Flor del Valle" but soon I realized I was going wrong (to Cayambe), caught another bus back to the bus-station, where the Mindo bus drove away in front of my nose. Eventhough I tried to atch up with it by taking a taxi, I failed. So I took another bus that also went this way.
I started to walk the street, that went to Tandayapa and Bellavista and spotted a high-perched Purple-throated Woodstar, almost immediatly and after I had walked about 20m a car came and picked me up to bring me up the 12km to Bellavista Lodge, where I checked in to sleep the night there. The price was very good, with only 30$ and I could even eat a bit...
The Turquoise Jays seem to have their home in the bamboo in front of the Lodge and let me get very close.

Soon I started to walk on the trail C which resulted to be one of the steepest trails of all. It began rather quiet with only a few furnariids around me, a flock of Blue-winged Mountain-Tanagers and a hummingbird that I misidentified as Little Woodstar. It was probably a female Booted Rackettail or a female Western Emerald...
The Strong-billed Woodcreeper and Streaked Tuftedcheek were the only new birds so far.
Then I walked back to eat a lunch with tasty trout and started off again. After walking rather much without seeing anything I found a high-up canopy flock of Tanagers. A pair of Toucan Barbets was the highlight aswell as a small group of Grass-green Tanagers. My neck hurt from the looking up when the flock finally was gone, after about 30minutes. I followed my way and found Green-and-black Fruiteater, Plate-billed Mountain-Toucan in a very far away tree, the beautiful Bay Wren tried to hide from me and a bird that was probably a Narino Tapaculo...
This Dusky Bush-Tanager had some ugly wart on its bill.
At the research-station I found Masked Trogon and a jay of which I'm not sure if it was Turquoise, or Beautiful Jay, since the light was already fading away. So I hurried to get home. I crossed the way with Green-fronted Lancebill and a Collared Inca and when I was already very near to the lodge I came across a compost, where I flushed a Sickle-winged Guan and the best bird of the day, a Chestnut-crowned Antpitta.
Soon I went to bed, read a little bit in my new book: "Percy Jackson y el ladron del rayo", in Spanish of course.
A few Green-and-black Fruiteaters crossed my way. They're some of my favourite birds

The next day I woke up at 4:30AM but took my time in preparing me. My plan was to visit the compost pile again, as I hoped for a few skulkers to come here. It was still dark when I went outside and I heard a few nightbirds. I don't know very much about birdsongs, but Ienjoyed hearing them and trying to guess which bird I heard.
I tried to take pictures of the sunrise. Then it began to get day. I began to doubt if the birds would come, if I was only 2m away from the compost pile, so I went a few meters on one of the trails to find some birds. First of all a flycatcher, which I identified as Western Wood-Pewee. The only problem is, that it isn't supposed to be here in Ecuador since 2 months, because it is a boreal migrant. I don't know what to think of it, but I didn't have much time to think, when a few understorey birds emerged. Rufous Spinetail and Montane Woodcreeper were the only ones that didn't hide too much, to be able to identifie them. Then a pair of Long-tailed Antbirds let me get quite close, but for some reason climbed up in some bushes, almost into the canopy, which is not very normal for that species. Then another flock came in and I got very good views of Metallic-green Tanagers and also Black-capped Tyrannulet and a Blue-capped Tanager were there. When I went back a Chestnut-capped Brush-Finch hopped in front of me and later it showed to be resident there. At the compost were some White-tipped Doves and the Chestnut-crowned Antpitta was back. Nothing more was there, so I soon tried another trail, were some smaller birds got my attention. The Cinnamon Flycatcher turned out to be rather common, some other birds were hiding too good, to ID them. Also a very close calling bird was hiding very well, but in the end it came out for a few seconds. It was very easy to identifie it, since there is no bird, that looks like the Ocellated Tapaculo...
Nothing too interesting crossed my way then so I made my way back to the lodge, where I was going to have breakfast. After that a young Masked Trogon posed beautifully for me and another tourist and let us get very close. It's bright red eyering confused me a bit and I thought of another species, but indeed it was the Masked Trogon...
This immature Masked Trogon was around the lodge property and let me get very close... The strong red eyering was a bit confusing for me...

I made my way along different trails and found very soon a pair of Green-and-black Fruiteaters. Then I came to a huge flock of furnariids with Streaked Tuftedcheek, Montane and Streaked Woodcreeper and Pearled Treerunner, aswell as Dusky Bush-Tanager and Russet-crowned and Three-striped Warbler. Also a beautiful Crimson-mantled Woodpecker joined them some minutes later.
At the compost was the resident Chestnut-capped Brush-Finch and the Chestnut-crowned Antpitta. Also 3 White-throated Quail-Doves got very close to me...
Three White-throated Quail-Doves came to the compost, two decided to visit me, while I was watching a mixed flock not far away

When I followed my way I found a Tawny-bellied Hermit, a hummingbird I had been waiting for, since a long time. A Plain-tailed Wren tried to hide from me.
Then I got onto a very steep trail where I found almost nothing, after some 500m I got my first birds there. Some Andean Guans (I think so, at least I didn't notice a blue bill, but noticed a grey head and neck) flew away and I even saw one walking on the ground, with its tail pointing upwards, which made it look rather than a chicken. A few Band-tailed Pigeons sat down in a tree and then another pair of Long-tailed Antbirds showed up. I tried for the Tanager Finch, since I got into its territory, but nothing... Then I made my way back to the lodge and found another Plate-billed Mountain-Toucan, very close to it, showing very well for me. But then I ended the trip with the best bird; I had seen some very beautiful or difficult birds, so my favourites were Toucan Barbet, Grass-green Tanager, Plate-billed Mountain-Toucan, Green-and-black Fruiteater, Narino and Ocellated tapaculo, White-throated Quail-Dove, Green-fronted Lancebill, Tawny-bellied Hermit, Collared Inca, Long-tailed Antbird and Chestnut-crowned Antpitta, which all are very hard to top, but one bird did it: The Scaled Antpitta. It was not very far from the lodge and showed up very well for me... Soon after I caught another car that took me down to Nanegalito with a few other tourists and then I headed back to Quito...
That was quite a good trip!