Jon Feenstra on the conclusion of his tour to Southern Ecuador

At the end of the trip watching the Pacific Ocean rage and Peruvian Boobies flying by it’s hard to imagine how far we’d come and how much we had seen in the past fifteen days. It all began at treeline in the Andes, progressed through high passes and Amazonian foothills, dry interior valleys and west slope cloud forests and finally to finish on the coast. Though highland scenery,

Just one of many marvelously wild Southern Ecuador scenes

cozy eco-lodges,

Copalinga Lodge, a nice place to come back to after a day in the field

top-notch food, and good company all contributed to a memorable trip, it was really the birds that made this trip. The last count was 499 species that included endemics like Violet-throated Metaltail and Pale-headed Brush-Finch, birds with minute populations like Jocotoco Antpitta

An image of our interregator, a Jocotoco Antpitta

and Orange-throated Tanager, just plain scarce ones like Blackish Pewee and Gray Tinamou, and the outrageous and showy like Comb Duck and Long-wattled Umbrellabird.

It was a little bit of everything in a little bit of everywhere.