Ecuador East and West Slopes Birding Tour EcoRuta

After a quick lunch we departed from Yanacocha and descended through the old Nono-Mindo road.  We stopped at Nono for some sweet corn, fresh cheese and faba beans.   This typical Andean food tastes best near small towns where the produce is fresh and sometimes organic. 

This road was constructed many years ago to provide access to the Mindo area.  There are historical records that indicate that this road was constructed following existing trails that were used by the indigenous people of the area called the Yumbos.  These trails were also used by the invading Incas in search of local tribes to conquer; later the spanish used these same trails to search for the hidden Inca treasure and later to gain access to the western forest and beaches in Esmeraldas where there were stories that large emeralds had been found.  This amazing road drops from 3300 meters down to 1800 meters and presents some amazing opportunities to see a wide range of birds from the comfort of the car.  Since this is a public road one must always be careful of aproaching traffic.

        Crimson-mantled-Woodpecker - Piculus-rivolii

This historical road is very picturesque and provides an interesting apreciation of how the andean slopes which have been deforested for many years give way to a small piece of untouched primary forests on the western slopes.  This area still has primary forest due to the ruggeness of the terrain; the steep walls have trees with roots like cat-claws that allows them to stay erect on the almost vertical walls.  This area has also become prime ground for sprouting private reserves in an effort to find a way to keep these forest preserved.

         Roadside Hawk - Buteo magnirostris

Unfortunately these primary forests have also been put at risk by the OCP pipeline that cut through the forest crossing the andes from the Amazon to the port of Esmeraldas.  This pipeline was  installed with huge flying caterpilars that hung from the clifs while they buried this large pipe in a straight line whithout taking into consideration the biodiversity of this region.   The current major risk to the area come from land slides or ground movements that can break the pipeline spilling oil on the land and rivers.   The OCP must maintain acess trails along the burriend pipeline so we took one of these trails in search of the local Black-billed Mountain-Toucan (Andigena laminirostris).  This pipeline access trails enter one of the private reserves owned by Mindo Cloudforest Foundadion where saw this beautiful Toucan,

          Mountain-Toucan - Andigena laminirostris

We found other birds like the Andean Guan - Penelope montagnii and the Red-billed Parrot - Pionus sordidus.

          Andean Guan - Penelope montagnii

          Red-billed Parrot - Pionus sordidus

Another spot near the town of Tandayapa produced a nice mixed flock and took some good picutres of the Dusky-capped Flycatcher, Red-headed Barber, Squirrel Cuckoo, Streak-necked Flycatcher, and a large flock of Red-billed-Parrots.

         Dusky-capped-Flycatcher - Myiarchus-tuberculifer 

        Red-headed Barber (female) - Eubucco bourcierii

              Squirrel-Cuckoo - Piaya-cayana

      Streak-necked-Flycatcher - Mionectes-striaticollis

          Red-billed-Parrots - Pionus-sordidus

The Ecoruta, also known as the Paseo del Quinde, is a road that always brings out great variety of birds as one travels through its windy road descending though the western slope. 

Here is what Mike Bergin has t o say on his blog http://10000birds.com/riding-the-ecoroute.htm about this route:

"What makes Ecuador one of the best countries for birdwatching in the world, bar none? Obviously, the highest species diversity per square mile doesn’t hurt. But Ecuador goes above and beyond in the service of sensational wildlife watching.  How many countries do you know that have a road dedicated to birding?"

On this first day of birding we were bombarded from the highlands to the sub-tropical forest and survived for an evening rest at our ecolodge inside the Puluahua Volcano.