2008 Tour Narrative
In Brief: Our 2008 WINGS tour of southern Ecuador was once again a unique trip that visited a wide diversity of environments, from high-elevation paramo, to cloud forest, to the arid desert along the southwest coast, to the Pacific Ocean. Our total list of more than 500 species in just 13 days of birding is indicative of how great the birdwatching can be in the southern portion of this very species-rich country. The number of specialty birds seen on this tour was high, including such amazing species as Jocotoco Antpitta and Long-wattled Umbrellabird, and we saw an impressive 42 species of hummingbird, 70 species of flycatcher, some 60 species of tanager including 16 species of the colorful Tangara tanagers, and a high number of regional endemics. This year’s tour marked the first time we stayed at the wonderful Jocotoco Foundation reserves at Tapichilaca and Buenaventura, and we once again visited their new reserves of Utuana and Jorupe located near the Peruvian border, where we saw a high number of Tumbesian specialties.
In Detail: The tour began with a day trip out of Quito to Papallacta Pass and the Antisana Reserve. Fog dominated our visit to Papallacta, yet we managed to see most of the high-elevation specialties found near the pass, including both Stout-billed and Bar-winged Cinclodes, Andean Tit-Spinetail, and Red-rumped Bush-Tyrant. We flushed a pair of Rufous-bellied Seedsnipe, and perhaps the species of the morning was the close Andean Snipe that we watched walk through the cushion plants! Antisana was once again very productive, with tons of Carunculated Caracaras, close Silvery Grebes, Andean Lapwings, Black-winged Ground-Doves, Ecuadorian Hillstar, Plain-capped Ground-Tyrant, Paramo Pipit, and lots of Plumbeous Sierra-Finches. Perhaps the highlight of the day was the thrilling pair of Andean Condors that came right overhead!
Things really got underway the next day with our early morning flight to Loja in the south. This year we rearranged the order of our visit in the areas near Loja to take better advantage of the wonderful new lodge on the Rio Bombuscaro, Copalinga, where we began our sojourn with a three-night stay. Areas covered included the nice trail along the Rio Bombuscaro in Podocarpus National Park, the old highway between Loja and Zamora, some roadside birding a little downslope from Zamora, and the grounds of Copalinga Lodge itself. The Rio Bombuscaro area is now famous for a number of specialty birds, and we did quite well seeing most of them. Of course there were crowd favorites such as White-necked Parakeet, Andean Cock-of-the-Rock, and Amazonian Umbrellabird, all of which we got excellent looks at. Then there were species restricted to a very narrow elevation range, such as Coppery-chested Jacamar, Black-streaked Puffbird, Yellow-breasted Antwren, and Black-throated Brilliant, and some very rare species that are most easily seen here, such as Equatorial Graytail, Foothill Antwren, and the recently described Foothill Elaenia. Other than the “rarities” that we always look for, the Rio Bombuscaro area is also excellent for general birding and a wide diversity of tanagers—it will be difficult to forget seeing flocks that included Paradise, Blue-necked, Spotted, and Green-and-gold Tanagers! Other highlights from this section included Torrent Duck, Fasciated Tiger-Heron, Green Jay, Golden-winged Tody-Flycatcher, Black-capped Donacobious, and Lined Antshrike.
One of the real highlights of this tour was our two-night stay at the Jocotoco Lodge at Tapichilaca—the first time we have actually stayed at the lodge, saving us a 90-minute daily commute daily. The lodge was quite comfortable, and staying there allowed us access to the trails, in particular the trail to the Jocotoco Antpitta feeding area. Amazingly, a family group of Jocotoco Antpittas have been “trained” to come onto the trail to feed on worms. We were a bit unlucky in seeing “only” one Jocotoco (four had been coming in), but given how difficult this species had been to see in the past, seeing even one was enough! Although fog dominated our visit to Tapichilaca, we still saw some amazing species, such as Gray-breasted Mountain-Toucan, Rufous-headed Pygmy-Tyrant, the stunning White-capped Tanager, and of course the many hummingbirds coming to the feeders at the lodge, including Collared Inca, Amethyst-throated and Little Sunangels, and Chestnut-breasted Coronet. Below Tapichilaca we birded the patches of forest down to and below Valladolid. We had a number of excellent tanager flocks, with such gems as Saffron-crowned and Flame-faced Tanagers, and near Valladolid we found several specialties such as Marañon Thrush, Rufous-fronted Thornbird, Green-backed Becard, and Black-faced and Silvery Tanagers. Returning to Loja we spent a late afternoon and full day in the Cajanuma Section of Podocarpus National Park, where we picked up a number of nice birds, the best of which included Bearded Guan, Rufous and Chestnut-naped Antpittas, Chusquea Tapaculo, Grass-green Tanager, Hooded Mountain-Tanager, and a Paramo Seedeater.
Leaving the high Andes behind, we headed south and west toward the Peruvian border and the new Jocotoco Foundation reserves of Utuana and Jorupe. The Utuana area provided some nice birding, with specialties such as Rainbow Starfrontlet, Purple-throated Sunangel, Line-cheeked Spinetail, Chapman’s Antshrike, Red-crested Cotinga, Glossy Black Thrush, and Black-cowled Saltator. Our main destination was the Jorupe Reserve near Macara, where we were able to spend a late afternoon and a morning birding. This reserve is the best area we have visited for Tumbesian endemics, and the number of interesting birds we saw was high. This reserve is probably one of the easiest places to see specialties such as Scarlet-backed Woodpecker, Henna-hooded Foliage-gleaner, Blackish-headed Spinetail, Collared Antshrike, Sooty-crowned Flycatcher, Baird’s Flycatcher, Slaty Becard, White-tailed Jay, Plumbeous-backed Thrush, Gray-and-gold Warbler, Black-capped Sparrow, and White-edged Oriole, all regional endemics.
Continuing our journey toward the coast brought us next to the Buenaventura area in the western foothills. Buenaventura is yet another Jocotoco Foundation reserve, with another lodge built specifically for birdwatchers—Umbrellabird Lodge. Our two-night stay was, as usual, not nearly enough time to fully enjoy this wonderful area, but we did manage to sample all the birding areas and see a majority of the specialties available. The birds of this section (and likely of the trip) were the male Long-wattled Umbrellabirds we saw on the now-famous lek, truly an amazing bird. The hummingbird feeders at Buenaventura are also an amazing sight, attracting phenomenal numbers of several typically difficult-to-see species, such as Green Thorntail, Green-crowned Woodnymph, Violet-bellied Hummingbird, and Green-crowned Brilliant. Rarer species are also present, such as White-vented Plumeleteer and White-whiskered Hermit. The trails at Buenaventura provided views of numerous excellent birds, with some of the many highlights including Rufous-headed Chachalaca, Black-mandibled and Choco Toucans, Barred Puffbird, Immaculate Antbird, Buffy Tuftedcheek, Club-winged Manakin, Bay, Whiskered, and Song Wrens, Silver-throated and Rufous-throated Tanagers and Orange-crowned Euphonia. The accommodations and food at Buenaventura were both excellent, which made our stay even more enjoyable. By the time we had to leave, all were wishing for another week to enjoy this wonderful place.
We finished the tour with a drive to the city of Guayaquil, stopping at the shrimp ponds near Santa Rosa to pad our list with a number of waterbirds, including Cocoi Heron and Collared Plover. The Parrot-billed Seedeaters and Masked Water-Tyrants here were the only ones of the tour, and the interesting-looking Mangrove Yellow Warbler was easily seen in the patch of mangroves. Our last birding day was spent out at the Santa Elena Peninsula along the Pacific coast and at the Ecuasal salt ponds. Near Guayaquil we picked up a few nice regional specialties, such as Crimson-breasted Finch, Snowy-throated Kingbird, and Ecuadorian Ground-Dove. In the arid desert areas near Salinas we located West Peruvian Dove, Short-tailed Field-Tyrant, Gray-and-white Tyrannulet, and Collared Warbling-Finch. Our real objective was to bird the ponds and see a nice variety of gulls, terns and shorebirds. Surprises this year were several Peruvian Pelicans (for the second straight year) and, amazingly, a Great Grebe—which, as it turned out, had been found previously but still represented the only Ecuadorian record of this Peruvian coastal species. Augmented by many Chilean Flamingos, tons of Gray-hooded Gulls, and huge numbers of a nice variety of shorebirds, our birding on the coast was well worth it. We returned to Guayaquil in time for our late-afternoon flight back to Quito, where we enjoyed a farewell dinner and reminisced about all the great birds we experienced during our two weeks in Ecuador.
Gary Rosenberg
Updated: February 2008