Tandayapa Bird Lodge

4 Days – 3 Nights

Day 1: 5:30am pickup from your hotel in Quito. Birding at Yanacocha and the Nono-Mindo ecoroute with a packed lunch. Night.
Day 2: Full day birding in the Tandayapa Valley. You can have lunch at the lodge or take a packed lunch. Night in the Lodge.
Day 3: Full day birding at the Milpe Bird Sanctuary with a packed lunch. Optional visit to the Mirador Rio Blanco tanager feeders ($3 extra per person). Afternoon return to Tandayapa. Night in the Lodge.
Day 4: Most of the day birding Refugio Paz, including the antpitta feeding station, with a packed lunch. There may be time for more birding at Milpe or in the Tandayapa Valley before returning to Quito in the afternoon, arriving at your hotel by around 6pm.

3 Days – 2 Nights

Day 1: 5:30am pickup from your hotel in Quito. Birding at Yanacocha and the Nono-Mindo ecoroute with a packed lunch. Night in the Lodge.
Day 2: Full day birding in the Tandayapa Valley. You can have lunch at the lodge or take a packed lunch. Night in the Lodge.
Day 3: Most of the day birding in the Milpe Bird Sanctuary with a packed lunch. Optional visit to the Mirador Rio Blanco tanager feeders ($3 extra per person). Afternoon return to Quito, arriving around 6pm at your hotel.

2 Days – 1 Night

Day 1: 5:30am pickup from your hotel in Quito. Birding at Yanacocha and the Nono-Mindo ecoroute with a packed lunch. Night in the Lodge.
Day 2: Full day birding in the Tandayapa Valley. You can have lunch at the lodge or take a packed lunch. Afternoon return to Quito, arriving around 6pm at your hotel.

Most people visit the reserve at Yanacocha on their way from Quito, and then drive along the Old Nono–Mindo Road to get to the Lodge. The reserve was established to protect Black-breasted Puffleg, one of the rarest hummingbirds in the world. Your chances of seeing it are highest between about April and June, when it is seen more often, occasionally even at the feeders. Even if you do not find this great rarity, you will still enjoy Golden-breasted and Sapphire-vented Pufflegs, Sword-billed Hummingbird, Great Sapphirewing, and Buff-winged Starfrontlet among others. If you get to Tandayapa before dark, you could see twenty-five or more hummer in a single day, a great start to any tour. Most of the other birds here are flock species, and they include stunning mountain-tanagers, Bar-bellied Woodpecker,Barred Fruiteater, and the embarrassingly-named Superciliated Hemispingus. Between November and March, you will almost certainly hear Undulated, Rufous, Tawny, Chestnut-naped, and Chestnut-crowned Antpittas, and Ocellated and Blackish Tapaculos, but seeing them is another matter…

Between the Lodge and the pass at the top of the Tandayapa Valley, 600m higher in altitude, there is a substantial change in the avifauna. The mixed flocks here have species that rarely or never come down as far as Tandayapa, such as Grass-green Tanager, Green-and-black Fruiteater, Western Hemispingus, and Streaked Tuftedcheek, sometimes accompanied by the beautiful Plushcap. Plate-billed Mountain-Toucan is usually easily found along the roads, and if you missed them on the Lodge trails you have another chance for Toucan Barbet. More elusive are the spectacular Tanager Finch and Ocellated Tapaculo. There are fewer hummingbirds up at this elevation, but three species are commoner here than they are at the Lodge: Collared Inca, Gorgeted Sunangel, and Speckled Hummingbird. If you continue over Tandayapa Pass to San Tadeo, Black-chinned Mountain-Tanager and Velvet-purple Coronet are possible, though both of these are more easily seen at Paz de las Aves.

A further 40 km along the main highway from Quito, just before the town of Los Bancos, is the Milpe road and a superb Mindo Cloudforest Foundation reserve. The road hosts good mixed flocks, and trails in the reserve allow access to the forest. A host of other tanagers call this area home, including Ochre-breasted, Rufous-throated, Lemon-rumped, and perhaps even the dazzling Glistening-green and smartGray-and-gold; over twenty species of this spectacular family are possible here in a day. Chocó Toucans and Pale-mandibled Araçarisare often seen in the more open areas. The highlight of the forest is the Club-winged Manakin lek, where during most of the year the males display on perches close to the trail. Don’t forget to look close to the ground for Esmeraldas Antbird and the elusive Olive Finch, or in the trees for Chocó Trogon, Chocó Warbler, and superb mixed flocks. The feeders attract Green-crowned Brilliant, Green Thorntail, White-whiskered Hermit, and Green-crowned Woodnymph. If the sun gets too intense, you can cool off with some fresh fruit juice at the Restaurante Mirador Río Blanco in Los Bancos where up to a dozen species of tanager come to feed on the bananas put out for them.

This is real lowland Chocó rainforest, one of the most endangered habitats in Ecuador. Thanks to a generous donation, Mindo Cloudforest Foundation acquired a 70 ha. reserve in the best area. There is a superb trail system allowing easy access to the forest, and a canopy tower allowing for eye-level views of tanagers and mixed species flocks. The birding here on a good day is incredible. One or two big mixed flocks circulate in the area, and if you run into one of these you can expect to have one of your most memorable days of birding. Picking out the specialties can require some concentration as over 40 species may pass by, but the gems to look out for include Scarlet-breasted andScarlet-thighed Dacnises, Emerald, Blue-whiskered, Rufous-winged, Golden-hooded, Gray-and-Gold, and Scarlet-browed Tanagers, Orange-fronted Barbet, and Griscom’s Antwren. Dusky Pigeon is regular, and after the mixed flock has passed you should look out for Pale-mandibled Araçari, Chocó and Chestnut-mandibled Toucans, Scarlet-rumped Cacique, Western Slaty-Antshrike, and White-tailed, Collared, and Chocó Trogons.

This small private reserve has become the latest birding sensation in the northwest and is sometimes affectionately referred to as “the antpitta farm”. Here Angel Paz, a local farmer, has gained the trust of some normally rare and shy forest species by offering them juicy worms. Yellow-breasted, Moustached, and Giant Antpittas are now regularly seen here (Yellow-breasted being the most reliable), and the local covey of Dark-backed Wood-Quail is seen on perhaps one out of three visits. Fruit feeders here can be mind-boggling withToucan Barbet, Black-chinned Mountain-Tanager, Crimson-rumped Toucanet, and Sickle-winged Guan coming to within arms reach. Other forest birds regularly encountered are Golden-headed Quetzal, Olivacoues Piha, and Scaled Fruiteater. Crested Quetzal can occasionally be found at fruiting trees. There is also a lek where gaudy Andean Cocks-of-the-rock display at dawn, and Angel and his brothers have constructed a viewing blind. If you leave ridiculously early and arrive before first light, you can witness this spectacle at close range.