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Thursday 5 January to Monday 16 January 2012 with Gavin Bieber as leader
Cost: £2230 plus about £980 for flights (2012) Single room supplement: £290 Please click here for details and an explanation of the price breakdown Please note single occupancy is limited at La Selva Lodge and may not be available. Maximum group size: 8 with 1 leader. |
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The Amazonian lowlands of eastern Ecuador have proven in recent years to be among the most diverse areas in the world for birds, comparable to parts of eastern and southeastern Peru in both richness and beauty. La Selva Lodge, two-and-a-half hours by boat down the Napo River from the Amazonian town of Coca, is situated on an oxbow lake in the heart of the Amazon rainforest and offers us excellent access to the region’s extraordinary diversity. More than 500 species of birds are known from this single locality including five species of macaw, 10 puffbirds, seven toucans and more than 40 antbirds and it is possible to see here some of the rarest and least known Amazonian species such as Zigzag Heron, Black-banded Owl, White-browed Purpletuft, Banded Antbird, Orange-crowned Manakin and the recently rediscovered Cocha Antshrike. The addition of a 100-foot tower, easily accessible by stairs, has brought a new dimension to Amazonian birdwatching, giving us the ability to observe many of the rarely seen canopy species, such as Lanceolated Monklet, and a wide array of canopy tanagers and flycatchers. The lodge itself is rustic yet offers a degree of comfort seldom seen among Amazonian lodges with excellent meals, service and private bungalows, each with a private bathroom, complete with electricity and hot water. Although most trips to La Selva are for three to four days, our longer stay at the lodge will allow us to experience more fully the area’s extraordinary diversity. Day 1: The tour begins in London with a flight to Quito, with an introductory meeting at 18.00. Night in Quito. Day 2: Our first day will be spent birding around Quito, getting to know many of the commoner birds of the country. We’ll spend the entire day exploring the upland Polylepis forest of Yanacocha and the road to Tandayapa and Mindo. This road exits Quito to the northwest and descends through lush temperate and subtropical Andean forest. The variety of hummingbirds, flycatchers, warblers and tanagers here is remarkable, and we’ll search for such special birds as Plate-billed Mountain-Toucan, Golden-headed Quetzal, Toucan Barbet, White-capped Dipper and a variety of tanagers including the very gaudy Grass-green. A highlight of the day will be a visit to a set of hummingbird feeders near Tandayapa where we have seen as many as 23 species of hummingbirds in a single hour. We’ll travel the Tandayapa Road as long as time permits before returning to Quito. Night in Quito. Day 3: We’ll fly this morning over the Andes to the Amazonian town of Coca and board our boat for the two-and-a-half hour ride down the Napo River to La Selva Lodge. As the lodge itself is located on an oxbow lake, not the main river, we’ll walk on a developed trail to the lake and transfer to small dugout canoes for the tranquil 15 minute paddle to our accommodation for the next seven nights. After a welcome drink and lunch we’ll make our first of many excursions to the newly constructed 100-foot tower, a 15-minute walk from the lodge. The tower, reached via a sturdy staircase that wraps around a gargantuan tree, allows us access to the least-known habitats in the tropical rainforest, the canopy. Some of the many possibilities we may see from the tower are Blue-throated Piping-Guan, Great Potoo, Chestnut-fronted and Blue-and-yellow Macaws, Spangled, Plum-throated and Purple-throated Cotingas, White-browed Purpletuft, Paradise, Green-and-gold, Turquoise and Yellow-bellied Tanagers. Each visit to the tower brings something unexpected. Night at La Selva. Days 4-9: Six full days at La Selva will enable us ample time to explore and re-explore the many different habitats accessible from the lodge. A highlight of any trip to La Selva is a visit to an easily-reached parrot clay lick. Literally hundreds of parrots come early in the morning to replenish their mineral supply by licking and pecking at exposed rocky areas. If we are fortunate we may see as many as four or five species using the lick at the same time including hundreds of Mealy and Blue-headed Parrots, and the sublime Orange-cheeked Parrot. La Selva Lodge’s excellent trail system will enable us to explore superb primary varzea and terra firma rainforest on both sides of the Napo River. The list of species found in this vanishing habitat is seemingly endless, and we’ll concentrate on observing mixed-species flocks of various woodcreepers, antbirds, ovenbirds, flycatchers and tanagers. Among the more beautiful birds that we’ll search for in the upland forest are Purplish Jacamar, Many-banded and Lettered Aracaris, Golden-collared Toucanet, Collared Puffbird, Scale-breasted,Ringed and Rufous-headed Woodpeckers, Undulated Antshrike, White-plumed Antbird, Wire-tailed, Striped, Blue-crowned and Golden-headed Manakins and Fulvous Shrike-Tanager. At night we’ll look for Black-banded, Crested and Spectacled Owls, and Tawny-bellied and Tropical Screech-Owls as well as Great, Common, and Long-tailed Potoos, and Short-tailed Nighthawk. One of the most appealing aspects of our stay at La Selva will be the leisurely canoe rides around Garzacocha, the serene lake on which our lodge is located. We’ll be watched by the prehistoric-looking Hoatzins as we paddle around the edge in search of species found only in flooded forest and along the lake edges, including specialities such as White-chinned Jacamar, Dot-backed and Silvered Antbirds, Cinnamon Attila, Black-capped Donacobious, Buff-breasted Wren and Masked Crimson Tanager. Our main goal, however, will be to snatch a glimpse of the rare and elusive Zigzag Heron, a species that has proven to be regular around the lake at La Selva. The boardwalk between the Napo River and Garzacocha traverses excellent semiflooded forest and we’ll look for the entirely yellow Cream-colored Woodpecker as well as Plumbeous and White-shouldered Antbirds and the extremely rare Orange-crested Manakin. One afternoon, we’ll canoe a small stream in search of the recently rediscovered Cocha Antshrike, a species that until the autumn of 1990 was known to science from a single female specimen. Another morning will be devoted to visiting islands in the Napo River where a completely different assortment of species can be found, some of which are so specialized in their unique habitats that they have never been recorded on the mainland. We’ll look particularly for White-bellied Spinetail, Castelnau’s Antshrike, Black-and-white Antbird, Lesser Wagtail-Tyrant, River Tyrannulet, Mottle-backed Elaenia and Orange-headed Tanager. Along the river itself we can expect to see Collared Plover, Pied Lapwing, Large-billed and Yellow-billed Terns, and possibly roosting Ladder-tailed Nightjars that frequent the sandbars. Nights at La Selva. Day 10: We’ll depart the lodge in the predawn hours for our boat ride back to Coca and our morning flight back to Quito, arriving at our hotelby early afternoon. Night in Quito. Day 11: We have the morning to rest before transferring to the airport just after lunch for an overnight flight back to London where the tour ends on Day 12.
The ground arrangements for this tour are organised by our American associates WINGS.
E-mail or phone +44 (0)1767 262522 for availability.
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Photos by Gary Rosenberg
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