Birding the Nono-Mindo Road June 14

Altitude:  5,800-5,120 feet a.s.l
Ecoregions:   Temperate and Subtropical Forest
New Hummingbird Species Seen:  Speckled Hummingbird, Mountain Velvetbreast, Collared Inca, Green-tailed Trainbearer

The road has pristine areas and others that are patch-worked with agriculture.

We loaded the van to bird the famous Nono-Mindo Road to the Tandayapa Valley.  I saw my first puffleg hummingbird today.  They look like they are wearing white leg warmers!  Pedro was driving, Jorge Sr. was our bird guide and we were joined by our new friend Nadia – a writer for CNN BackStory.  This is a narrow dirt road leading from Quito to the birding capital of Ecuador – Mindo.  The road passes along the Alambi River and has been designated an “Ecoruta”  - what we would call a Birding Trail in the United States.  The Ecuadorian name for this ecoroute is “Paseo del Quinde”.  Paseo means excursion or stroll and Quinde is the Quechua term for hummingbird.  The goal is to make this route a staple of nature tourism and to encourage the local people to value the habitat they share with the species the tourists come to see.

At the Artichoke Farm, home of the Burrowing Owl

 Along our way, we visited an artichoke farmer who was learning the value of sharing his land with birds the tourists want to see.  He had a burrowing owl living on his farm and would walk birders back to the patch of trees where it roosted.  This is a win/win for everyone.  The owl gains space from the farmer, the farmer can make some income by protecting the owl, and the birders get easy access to a very cool bird!

Scarlet-bellied Mountain-Tanager

Birding along a road is where the big cameras come in.  I saw some wonderful hummingbirds with my binoculars and the spotting scope.  But, there was no hope of capturing a photo with my pitiful camera.  They are either moving too fast or perching too high.  Today I saw one of the “mixed flocks” I had heard so much about.  The tanagers are breathtaking. I especially liked seeing the Scarlet-bellied Mountain-Tanager and the Blue-winged Mountain-Tanager.  Many of the trees are full of fruit, flowers and insects and thus attractive to these flocks of tanagers, flycatchers and warblers that are foraging through the area. 

Andean Cock-of-the-Rock (female)

The river has some tenuous bridges for folks to get across.  One was just a steel cable to balance on.  Luckily we did not need to use them as we scouted the banks for birds.  Our river scouting yielded a good look at a White-capped Dipper as it hopped from rock to rock and a female Andean Cock-of-the-rock on a nest under a bridge.

The best birds of the day were Jays.  We saw the fairly common Turquoise Jay and the scarce and much sought after Beautiful Jay.  Our road trip ended at the San Jorge Tandayapa Lodge.  A mule carried our bags up the steep slope to the lodge while we huffed and puffed up the switchbacks to our destination.  The altitude makes hiking especially difficult for flatlanders like me.

This young fellow carried our bags up to the Lodge.