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 animalsI 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...
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