The Mindo region of Ecuador! It’s world-renown for birds. We covered several hotspots in our previous post, so here’s some more. And another video, of course! These locations are more “off the beaten track” than the ones from the last post, requiring longer driving to get to and/or stretches of unsealed roads to cover. TheyContinue reading “Birding in the Mindo Region, Ecuador – part 2”
Author Archives: birdspots
Birding in the Mindo Region, Ecuador – part 1
After the heady delights of our Andes East Slope tour (chronicled in part 1 and part 2), it was time to head west of Quito. About an hour and a half’s drive lies the biodiverse Mindo region, renowned as an amazing place to see and photograph many glorious neotropical bird species. And it’s a regionContinue reading “Birding in the Mindo Region, Ecuador – part 1”
Birding at WildSumaco, Ecuador
As part of a 10-day Andes East Slope birding tour (see last post), I stayed six nights at WildSumaco Lodge, which sits at 1500m in elevation and is around 4.5 hours east of Quito by road. With 675 bird species over all time according to eBird, it is the top hotspot by that measure inContinue reading “Birding at WildSumaco, Ecuador”
Birding the Andes East Slope, Ecuador
You might go birding in the lush rainforests of Ecuador’s Andes eastern slopes and end up saying to yourself: “Wow, what just happened?!” It’s that fabulous. The Andes East Slope refers to the range of the Andes mountains to the east of Quito, Ecuador’s capital city. The Andes rises from Quito’s 2800m elevation to overContinue reading “Birding the Andes East Slope, Ecuador”
Birding at Isla Esteves, Lake Titicaca, Peru
In an ideal world this blog post would have been authoritatively called “Birding at Lake Titicaca”, as I would have canvassed a bunch of nature sites around the lake other than just Isla Esteves, where I spent four nights. Then I could have given a more comprehensive overview of the whole region. Alas, best laidContinue reading “Birding at Isla Esteves, Lake Titicaca, Peru”
Birding in the Lima Coastal Region, Peru
After birding in a few places in inland Peru, it was time to hit the coast… the capital Lima! I had nine days there, and managed to fit a few day trips in up and down the coastline to visit a few choice nature hotspots. This blog post covers the spots on the map: birdingContinue reading “Birding in the Lima Coastal Region, Peru”
Birding in the Colca Valley, Peru
The Colca Valley, and in particular the Colca Canyon, is on the tourist trail in Peru, though it doesn’t quite garner the kind of accolades of say, Macchu Pichu or other well-trodden historical/scenic Peruvian sites. The altitude here is about 3600m, and the region’s main population centre, Chivay, has about 5,000 residents. It’s about 3Continue reading “Birding in the Colca Valley, Peru”
Birding in the Eastern Galapagos, Ecuador
The Galapagos: the crucible for Darwin’s theory of evolution, isolated for millions of years and an equatorial home to a variety of birds and animals found nowhere else… it’s no wonder it’s on many people’s bucket lists of places to visit. We journeyed there in December 2025, taking an 8-day boat cruise on the easternContinue reading “Birding in the Eastern Galapagos, Ecuador”
Birding in the Sacred Valley, Peru
The Sacred Valley of the Incas is somewhere you might travel to because of that rather well-known historical site, Macchu Picchu. There are a bunch of other places worthy of your tourist attention in the valley too. But it also has some really, really good birding. This post covers a few key sites in theContinue reading “Birding in the Sacred Valley, Peru”
Birding at Manu Biolodge, Peru
After the twists and turns of upper Manu Rd, it is a relief to hit some flatter and straighter sections of road as you drop in elevation. This is lower Manu Rd, which keeps going a long way, all the way into the Amazon! Our tour only took us as far as Manu Biological Station,Continue reading “Birding at Manu Biolodge, Peru”
Bird Spots 