ECUADOR

With a diverse combination of habitats and a mouth-watering list of specialties it is no surprise that the southern Ecuador circuit has become very popular in recent years.

This tour will take in everything from lowland marshes to high elevation paramos while offering the chance to see some of the rarest birds in the world.

Species we will target will include the recently re-discovered Pale- headed Brush-Finch, the incredibly rare El Oro Parakeet and the iconic Jocotoco Antpitta.

We will also concentrate on the tumbesian endemics, those species only found in the dry tumbes forests that cover southern Ecuador and northern Peru.

The tour begins in the humid marshes that surround the city of Guayaquil, where we look for the ungainly Horned Screamer, before quickly moving on to the cloud forests of the Buenaventura Reserve. The verdant hillsides here represent one of the most southerly outposts of the great Choco bioregion that covers much of western Colombia and Ecuador. They offer a unique opportunity to see Choco specialties such as Long-wattled Umbreallbird and Club-winged Manakin, alongside Tumbesian specialities such as Rufous-headed Chachalaca.

We then strike south into the dry forests that so characterise the Tumbes region where we spend several days. Following this we head up into the cool temperate highlands of Cerro Toledo and the Tapichalaca reserve where we can search out a small suite of rare and exciting species including Jocotoco Antpitta, Neblina Metaltail and Masked Mountain-Tanager.

The last few days see us drop down to the edge of the Amazon for some foothill birding around the very pleasant Copalinga Lodge, before once again ascending to the wild and windswept paramos of El Cajas National Park.

We also find time to squeeze in a visit to the small Yungillas reserve situated in an arid inter-Andean valley and finish the tour with a final visit to a dry scrub reserve right on the edge of Guayaquil where we can hope to enjoy our final few hours, once again enjoying some of the Tumbesian specialties.

This will be Ornitholidays fourth tour with this itinerary.

22 October to 5 November 2018 (land)

Leader: Marco Valentini e local guide

2018 Cost 4.960 euro - single room suppl. €340

(GBP around £4.440)

Tumbesian & Andean Specialities

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