La Selva Lodge is in a splendid location. Photo: Gary Rosenberg
The Amazonian lowlands of eastern Ecuador have proven in recent years to be among the most diverse areas in the world for birds, comparable to parts of eastern and southeastern Peru in both richness and beauty. La Selva Lodge, two-and-a-half hours by boat down the Napo River from the Amazonian town of Coca, is situated on an oxbow lake in the heart of the Amazon rainforest and offers us excellent access to the region’s extraordinary diversity. More than 500 species of birds are known from this single locality including five species of macaw, 10 puffbirds, seven toucans and more than 40 antbirds. It is possible to see some of the rarest and least known Amazonian species such as Zigzag Heron, Black-banded Owl, White-browed Purpletuft, Banded Antbird, Orange-crowned Manakin and the recently rediscovered Cocha Antshrike. The addition of a 100-foot tower, easily accessible by stairs, has brought a new dimension to Amazonian birdwatching: the ability to observe many of the rarely seen canopy species. The lodge itself is rustic yet offers a degree of comfort seldom seen among Amazonian lodges: excellent meals, service and private bungalows, each with a private bathroom, complete with hot water. Although most trips to La Selva are for three to four days, we feel that a longer stay at the lodge will allow us to experience more fully the area’s extraordinary diversity.
This tour can be taken in conjunction with our tour, Southern Ecuador: The High Andes to the Southwest Coast.
Day 1: The tour begins at 8 p.m. in Quito. Night in Quito.
Day 2: Because winter weather in the U.S. often delays travelers (or luggage), and even Quito Airport can close due to fog, we have intentionally scheduled our first day of birding around Quito. Once we leave for La Selva, it’s very difficult and expensive to catch up! We’ll spend the entire day exploring Yanacocha and the road to Tandayapa and Mindo. This road exits Quito to the northwest and descends through lush temperate and subtropical Andean forest. The variety of hummingbirds, flycatchers, warblers and tanagers here is remarkable, and we’ll search for such special birds as Plate-billed Mountain-Toucan, Golden-headed Quetzal, Toucan Barbet, White-capped Dipper and a variety of tanagers including the very gaudy Grass-green. A highlight of the day will be a visit to a friend’s feeders near Tandayapa where we’ve seen as many as 23 species of hummingbirds in one hour! We’ll travel the Tandayapa Road as long as time permits before returning to Quito. Night in Quito.
Day 3: We’ll fly this morning over the Andes to the Amazonian town of Coca and board our boat for the two-and-a-half hour ride down the Napo River to La Selva Lodge. As the lodge itself is located on an oxbow lake, not the main river, we’ll transfer to small dugout canoes and paddle 30 minutes across the tranquil lake to reach our accommodations for the next seven nights. After a welcome drink and a late lunch we’ll make our first of many excursions to the newly constructed 100-foot tower, a 10-minute walk from the lodge. The tower, reached via a sturdy staircase that wraps around a gargantuan tree, allows us access to one of the least-known habitats in the tropical rainforest, the canopy. Some of the many possibilities we may see from the tower are Blue-throated Piping-Guan, Great Potoo, Chestnut-fronted and Blue-and-yellow Macaws, Spangled, Plum-throated and Purple-throated Cotingas, White-browed Purpletuft, and Paradise, Green-and-gold, Turquoise and Yellow-bellied Tanagers. Each visit to the tower allows for the unexpected. Night at La Selva.
Days 4-9: Six full days at La Selva will enable us ample time to explore and re-explore the many different habitats accessible from the lodge. A highlight of any trip to La Selva is a visit to an easily-reached parrot clay lick. Literally hundreds of parrots come early in the morning to replenish their mineral supply by licking and pecking at exposed rocky areas. If we are fortunate we may see as many as four or five species using the lick at the same time including hundreds of Mealy and Blue-headed Parrots. La Selva Lodge’s excellent trail system will enable us to explore superb primary rainforest on both sides of the Napo River. The list of species found in this vanishing habitat is seemingly endless, and we’ll concentrate on observing mixed-species flocks of various woodcreepers, antbirds, ovenbirds, flycatchers and tanagers. Among the more beautiful birds that we’ll search for in the upland forest are Purplish Jacamar, Many-banded and Lettered Aracaris, Golden-collared Toucanet, Collared Puffbird, Scale-breasted Woodpecker, Undulated Antshrike, White-plumed Antbird, Wire-tailed, Striped, Blue-crowned and Golden-headed Manakins and Fulvous Shrike-Tanager. At night, particularly from the canopy tower, we’ll look for Black-banded, Crested and Spectacled Owls and Tawny-bellied Screech-Owl as well as Great, Gray and Long-tailed Potoos and Short-tailed Nighthawk.
One of the nicer aspects of our stay at La Selva will be the leisurely canoe rides around Garzacocha, the serene lake on which our lodge is located. We’ll be watched by the prehistoric-looking Hoatzins as we paddle around the edge in search of species found only in flooded forest and along the lake edges including specialties such as White-chinned Jacamar, Dot-backed and Silvered Antbirds, Cinnamon Attila, Black-capped Donacobious, Buff-breasted Wren and Masked Crimson Tanager. Our main goal, however, will be to snatch a glimpse of the rare and elusive Zigzag Heron, a species that has proven to be regular around the lake at La Selva. The boardwalk between the Napo River and Garzacocha traverses excellent semiflooded forest and we’ll look for the entirely yellow Cream-colored Woodpecker as well as Plumbeous and White-shouldered Antbirds and the extremely rare Orange-crowned Manakin.
One afternoon we’ll canoe a small stream in search of the recently rediscovered Cocha Antshrike, a species that until the fall of 1990 was known to science from a single female specimen. One morning will be devoted to visiting islands in the Napo River where a completely different assortment of species can be found, some of which are so specialized in their unique habitats that they have never been recorded on the mainland. We’ll look particularly for White-bellied Spinetail, Castelnau’s Antshrike, Black-and-white Antbird, Lesser Wagtail-Tyrant, River Tyrannulet, Mottle-backed Elaenia and Orange-headed Tanager. Along the river itself we can expect to see Collared Plover, Pied Lapwing, Large-billed and Yellow-billed Terns and possibly large groups of Sand-colored Nighthawks that frequent the sandbars. Nights at La Selva.
Day 10: We’ll depart the lodge in the predawn hours for our boat ride back to Coca and our morning flight back to Quito, arriving at our hotel by early afternoon. Night in Quito.
Day 11: The tour concludes this morning in Quito.
Updated: 03 March 2007
Prices
- 2009 price not yet available.
Notes
Maximum group size eight with one leader; 14 with two leaders.