A female Flame-rumped Tanager, hiding in the Cloud forest of Ecuador, peeks out from the leafy fronds shielding her.
2026—Peek-a-boo!
2026—Angry Bird
Angry bird! I love the expressions that birds make. One of my favorite birds that I met in Ecuador was the Pale Mandibled Araçari. They would arrive and take over the area feeding area, causing all of the smaller birds to fly away. This one seems to be daring down any of the birds that stayed, saying “mine, all mine.”
2026—That Tail
Some of the Hummingbirds in Ecuador are unbelievable. This Violet-tailed Sylph is one example. Its long, gorgeous tail makes it incredibly distinctive. I never managed to capture an image of it in flight but was thrilled to get it perched on a stem in the forest.
2026—Expression
It had just started to sprinkle on our last morning at Sachamatia Lodge in Ecuador when three Pale Mandibled Araçaris landed on the feeding perches, scaring off all of the other birds. This Araçari made me chuckle both because of its perplexed look and the raindrops on the top of its head.
2026—A Masked Pair
The Masked Trogon is commonly found in Ecuador’s Cloud Forest, especially in the Mindo Valley. We found a pair on a couple of different days as we watched from the hide down the road from the Sachamatia Lodge. They are dimorphic meaning that the males and females look different from each other. While the males feature iridescent green heads and backs, red bellies, and a distinct black face mask, the females are brown with red bellies and a black face mask. They are both equally stunning to look at, something that I admired about many of the bird species in Ecuador as the females were often as colorful and gorgeous to look at as the males.
2026—Chocolate in the Air
One of the denizens of Ecuador’s Cloud Forest is the Brown Inca. This hummingbird is a deep, rich, chocolate brown color, reminiscent of Ecuador’s artisanal chocolate, world renowned for its high-quality Arriba Nacional cacao. Seeing and photographing this beautiful chocolate brown Hummingbird was almost as delicious as tasting its culinary counterpart.
2026—Rain Bird
It’s the wet season in Ecuador and it rained every day we were there. While there were some gully washers and thunderstorms, most of the time the rain was light and brief. The hummers, like this Brown Violetear, took advantage of the rain to bathe.
2026—Araçari
Yesterday was our last day in Ecuador. We started the day off early overlooking the cloud forest and photographing the birds that came into the area in search of bananas to feast on. The Pale-mandibled Araçari arrived en force. Three of them descended at once onto the perches where the bananas are strategically placed, frightening all of the other birds away as they grabbed huge chunks of banana, flipped back their heads with the impossibly unwieldy beaks and swallowed the fruit in a single gulp. The Pale-mandibled Araçari is one of the larger and most entertaining of the birds was saw this past week here. Their expressive faces and colorful feathers are always a welcome sight.