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WINGS Birding Tours – Photo Gallery

Ecuador: The Amazon Lowlands 1

A Week at Sani Lodge

The trip will begin with a short flight from Quito to Coca where we’ll board our motorized canoe for the trip down the Rio Napo.
These boats are comfortable and well shaded for sun or rain during our 3 hour ride down the Rio Napo.
After a fifteen minute walk on a boardwalk then a fifteen minute canoe ride across a lake…
…we’ll reach Sani Lodge.
After a welcome drink in the lounge, we’ll be shown to our private cabins…
… which are comfortable and clean.
We then should have some time for birding around the lodge – comical Hoatzins are never too far…
…and tamarin monkeys can be heard and seen in the trees nearby, as well.
The open air dining area always has some birds around, so never eat without your bins.
Numerous forest trails provide access to interior of the primary rainforest.
The mind-boggling diversity around the lodge ranges from gaudy Green-and-gold Tanagers…
…to less gaudy Brown Nunlet…
…and colorful poison-dart frogs or… (gb)
…improbable Long-billed Woodcreeper…
…and equally odd Cream-colored Woodpecker.
The 200 steps up the canopy tower will give us a bird’s eye view…
…from a big sturdy platform…
…where we might spot a Purplish Jacamar…
…a hunting Ornate Hawk-Eagle… (gb)
…or a minute Yellow-browed Tody-Flycatcher.
Much of our birding will be done while being paddled around in canoes through the flooded forests along the Rio Napo…
…where a American Pygmy Kingfisher may be on the look-out…
…or perhaps the cryptic Zigzag Heron might be found on a night paddle hidden amongst streamside thickets.
Nighttime in the jungle can be productive for Black-banded Owl, several species of Potoo…
…and maybe even a huge amphibian, like this one pound behemoth, the Smoky Jungle-Frog. (gb)
Trips across to the south side of the river will turn up a wide array of different birds, like the striking Rufous-capped Antthrush…
…or iconic Blue-and-yellow Macaws…
…and the clay licks may be attended by a colorful (and deafening) swarm of parrots including these Cobalt-winged Parakeets.
No matter what we see, it’s always different, and simply being in the Amazon is an experience in itself.

 

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