Geodyssey | Ecuador | Birdwatching

Ecuador | Birdwatching

Ecuador is one of the premier birding destinations in the world, not only for the sheer number and variety of its birds, but for the wonderful places where they can be seen and enjoyed with only a modest amount of time spent travelling.

Ecuador has the highest biodiversity of any country on Earth and is one of the richest in avifauna (15% of the world’s bird species in less than 0.2% of the planet’s surface). About 1,600 species have been recorded for the mainland and a further 38 are endemic to the Galápagos Islands. A high proportion (84%) are permanent residents rather than migratory. Remarkably, in the last 10 years nearly 200 species have been added to Ecuador’s list.

Ecuador is coming of age as a birding destination. An authoritative field guide has now been published (The Birds of Ecuador R.S. Ridgely and P.J. Greenfield, 2001). There are first rate ornithologist guides based permanently in the country, and there is a good selection of birder-oriented hotels and guest houses.

Ecuador can be divided into four birding areas:

Andes The Andes chain is a major contributor to Ecuador’s biodiversity. Species change on the descent through many life-zones: from snow-covered mountain peaks, high páramos and valleys, down through many gradations of temperate and subtropical forest habitats.

Amazon Ecuador’s eastern lowlands include a portion of the great forests of the Amazon basin, with their fabulously intense speciation.

Pacific The cold Humboldt current influences the southern coast’s Tumbesian bioregion of desert, arid scrub, thorn-forest, tropical dry forest, deciduous and semi-evergreen ceiba forests, through to lower montane cloud forest. The northern coast receives less of this influence and is characterised by wet forest. This is the Chocó bioregion. Both are regions of exceptional endemism.

Galápagos Islands An astonishing bird world of its own with a high proportion of land bird endemics

There is much diversity of habitat and micro habitat within each mainland region, sometimes creating ‘islands’ or centres of endemism that hold a tremendously high and unique speciation.

Geodyssey's birding credentials

Geodyssey specialises in independent and tailor-made birdwatching holidays in the neotropics.

We have run successful birdwatching trips for many years to Venezuela, Costa Rica and Trinidad & Tobago, with Cuba and Guyana as newer destinations for us.

We have been members of the Neotropical Bird Club since its first year and we have exhibited at the British Bird Fair every year since 1995.

We are trusted by several of the UK's leading neotropical expert ornithologist guides to organise the logistics of their private trips.

Birding with Geodyssey in Ecuador

The range of birding opportunities we can offer in Ecuador is very extensive, covering all the main sites and those of interest to the specialist. Because our expertise is in travel and logistics, backed by a good understanding what birders need and of current conditions for birders ‘on the ground’, we are able to design and support tailor-made birdwatching trips to suit a wide range of interests, styles and budgets.

The mainland tailor-made birdwatching holidays outlined here are based on itineraries prepared under the close supervision of Paul Greenfield, co-author of The Birds of Ecuador. A noted naturalist as well as an expert ornithologist, Mr Greenfield, who lives in Ecuador, is available on special request to lead tailor-made birdwatching tours for Geodyssey clients.

There are generally two ways in which your tailor-made tour could be arranged:

accompanied by a specialist ornithologist guide who is also your driver. This gives you the advantage of local birding knowledge for getting to exact sites at the right times (conditions permitting), and help with spotting the birds and identifying them if you wish.
accompanied by a local driver only, leaving you to identify your own birds or use lodge guides where available. The driver will know where the sites are, but not which particular places to look when you have got there. Lodge guides have generally competent or better (sometimes expert) birding skills.