Jon Feenstra on the conclusion of his tour to La Selva Lodge, Ecuador

Reporting in from the airport after a great week in the Ecuadorian Amazon where we combined superb birding with the near luxurious appointments of La Selva Lodge.

A room at La Selva Lodge

Most of our field time was either from La Selva's 150 foot canopy tower or one of their trails from the lodge, or by canoe as we were paddled around Garzacocha ("heron lagoon" in the indigenous Kichwa language)...and a heron was one of our singular highlights. It took a few tries but we were able to track down and get great looks at the small, cryptic Zigzag Heron.

Zigzag Heron - image Gary Rosenberg

It wasn't all herons, though. We went to two parrot licks - the big parrot lick for big parrots like Mealy, Yellow-crowned and Blue-headed Parrots, and the small parrot lick that hosted hundreds of squabbling Cobalt-winged Parakeets, plus a few each of Scarlet-shouldered Parrotlets, Orange-cheeked Parrots, while some very big parrots, Scarlet Macaws, screeched in the trees overhead.

Cobalt-winged and Scarlet-shouldered Parakeets

That's leaving out a vast amount, of course, as there were also antbirds, flycatchers, manakins, woodpeckers, raptors, and cotingas, but I just don't have the time right now to write about them!

Plain-throated Antwren