Jon Feenstra on his recently completed tour, Ecuador: The Amazon Lowlands

A vast carpet of greenery stretched out before us as we descended on our flight from the lofty heights of Quito in Andean Ecuador to the steamy lowlands of the Amazon rainforest. Though flat and green it looked, it hid an astounding diversity from tiny little gray things easy to pass by like Dwarf Tyrant-Manakins to big showy Scarlet Macaws and White-throated Toucans. We had two days of birding in which we saw all five species of Ecuador’s kingfishers (Ringed, Amazon, Green, Green-and-rufous, and American Pygmy) and by the end of the trip and six full days in the rainforest we had also seen six species of cotinga and twenty-five species of antbird. All of that in front of a backdrop of a dark forest of giant trees draped with thick vines, quiet canoe trips through flooded forests, canopy towers that provided stunning rainforst overviews,  “clay licks” full of parrots and parakeets, big caiman lurking in the calm waters, and monkeys launching themselves through the canopy. When we were done we sped up the swollen Rio Napo, steering around floating logs and stumps, on our way out of the jungle and back into the realm of civilization – probably back where we belong, but not always where we want to be.

American Pygmy Kingfisher

The spectacular Red-necked Woodpecker, one of 11 woodpecker species on the tour

Heading home...

Blue-headed and Mealy Parrots at a "clay lick"

View from the canopy tower