Ecuador:Bird watching in Mindo

Birding in Mindo is excellent.  No. That’s a huge understatement, it’s unbelievable, it’s overwhelming. There are about 1,700 documented bird species in Ecuador alone. Birding Mindo, Ecuador is some of the best in the world.

North American birder, ask your guide how many birds they have seen just in northern Ecuador.  One my guides, Angel, has 900+ species. That’s about twice as may bird species that occur in North America. While Angel and I walked through the cloud forest we discussed the sense of nature that comes from knowing your birds but even more by knowing their songs.

As we walked he would point and tell me what I was hearing and we would then set off to see it. Identification by song is the most common way of bird identification for scientist and professional birders.  Why?  Because it’s hard to see them.  Think about it. When you are in the jungle in that dense canopy and understory, its hard to see anything but green. For birders and wildlife viewers in general, focus must shift toward the sense of hearing. When you walk in the wilderness knowing bird songs it give you another sense of what is around you. It’s a sense I cherish where I live and I anxiously await the returns of migrants in the spring to have them pique my senses when they sing.

So I chase sounds with my binoculars, desperate to get a good look at what is making them.  I don’t even try to get photos because of the possibly that I might miss another bird observation while waiting for the model bird to pose.  Unlike ExploreDreamDiscover guide, David Shaw, who is an excellent birder and patient, professional photographer. David manages that balance and its shows in his work.

Even though I said I don’t photograph birds, ExploreDreamDiscover guides  in Ecuador, Angel and Sandra, will help you photograph with your point and shoot camera and a scope. Enjoy the pictures below of a handful of birds we saw on a recent birdwatching tour in North and Central, Ecuador.

Aricari toucan

 A break in the clouds brightens the landscape.

Masked tatyrae

Red headed barbet

Chestnut-mandibled toucan

Angel focuses on the barbet.

Swallow tanager

A typical day in the cloud forest

Roadside hawk

Immaculate Antbird

Rufus mot mot

Common potu

Swallow-tailed kite

Thanks for taking a walk in the cloud forest with me.

Interested in birding Ecuador or know someone who is?

To learn more about Ecuador travel…

click here.

Do me a favor, please, like or share this on Facebook,  Tweet it,or Your Circles. Word of mouth is the best way to let the people you know about your experience.

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you did not do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover …”

-Mark Twain