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One day tour out of Quito Ecuador (1 Viewer)

Mary Clare

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We are going to be in Quito before starting a Galapagos cruise. We would like to take a one day birding tour. So far we have three recommendations. Has anyone a comment on any of these three or can you recommend another site/tour company:

Mindo Cloud Forest -- Grayline tour

San Jorge Botanical Private Reserve or San Jorge de Tandeyapa Private Reserve -- offered by San Jorge Eco-Lodge and Botanical Reserves

Yanaccha Reserve and Verdecocha Reserve offered by Mindo Bird Tours

Any and all information that would help us make a decision would be welcome. Thanks.

Mary Clare
 
Dear Clare,

please try and contact Neblina Forest, that is local birding company (located in Quito), and very nice!!

http://www.neblinaforest.com/main.php

cheers,
Didier
|=)|


Mary Clare said:
We are going to be in Quito before starting a Galapagos cruise. We would like to take a one day birding tour. So far we have three recommendations. Has anyone a comment on any of these three or can you recommend another site/tour company:

Mindo Cloud Forest -- Grayline tour

San Jorge Botanical Private Reserve or San Jorge de Tandeyapa Private Reserve -- offered by San Jorge Eco-Lodge and Botanical Reserves

Yanaccha Reserve and Verdecocha Reserve offered by Mindo Bird Tours

Any and all information that would help us make a decision would be welcome. Thanks.

Mary Clare
 
Chris D said:
I second the neblina rec.

I would also recommend staying at Tandayapa Bird Lodge. Have a look at the website.

Contact 'Tropical Birding' and they'll sort it out for you. See if you can get 'Nick' as a guide.

If you have a whole day to spare, then I would recommend getting Nick to take you to either Los Bancos/Pedro Vicente for a dawn start followed by a lunch stop at Mindo Lindo, a quick stop at Mindo and then an afternoon at Belle Vista and the 'Ant-Pitta farm(!)'. Finish the day watching 20 species of hummer on the veranda at Tandayapa Bird Lodge.

Andy.
 
Neblina Forest has a good reputation and is Ecuador based, but that really is no different from Mindo Bird Tours. Tropical Birding can also be recommended and they too have guides that are based in this area. Can't comment on Grayline tours or tours by San Jorge Eco-Lodge (the lodge is nice, though), as I don't know anyone who've been on a guided birding tour with either.

Anyway, if you choose one of the well known birding companies the guides are likely to be good and the real choise would be based on exactly what they offer versus price. Remember that there are loads of localities in the region and they differ quite substantially - if you spend a week with full-time birding in the Mindo-Tandayapa-Quito region there would still be localities you hadn't visited & birds you hadn't seen when you were finished. Do you have any special "wish-birds" (Sword-billed Hummingbird, Velvet-purple Coronet, Andean Cock-of-the-Rock, Antpittas, Giant Conebill, Plate-billed Mountain-toucan, Tanager Finch or whatever) or would you just like a good sample? Very roughly the localities can be divided into (1) open areas and/or Polylepis woodland at or above the tree-limit, (2) high altitude forest just below the tree-limit, (3) subtropical humid forest and finally (4) tropical humid forest. Verdecocha & Yanacocha (I presume you meant this rather than "Yanaccha") range from 1 to upper levels of 3, San Jorge Botanical Private Reserve falls into 2 and upper levels of 3, the various reserves in Tandayapa fall into the mid- and upper levels of 3, Mindo falls into lower levels of 3 and finally Los Bancos/Pedro Vicente falls into 4.

Of course it also depends on how "hardcore" you want the tour to be: Would you rather spend a few additional hours enjoying the birds at a specific locality seeing a few less species in total or would you prefer doing each locality as fast as possible, but getting more species in total? It also depends on how bird-minded you are. E.g. you're likely to drive right past Mitad del Mindo (a monument at the Equator) and while some people find that interesting, it's pretty dead when it comes to birds. Likewise, the Pululahua Crater is in the vicinity: While this crater is is a beautiful sight and less dead than Mitad del Mundo in terms of birds, it's still pretty far from being a birding locality. So, it depends, are you strictly in it for the birds or would you like to include such "non-birding" localities too? Also note that many companies have "cloud forest" tours that cater to "ordinary" non-birding tourists and the guides are generally unlikely to know much more than a few of the most famous bird species. Of course this isn't an issue with actual birding companies such as Neblina Forest, Tropical Birding & Mindo Bird Tours, but that could be the case with e.g. Grayline tours (which I've never heard of, so I doubt it's a company that specilizes in birding tours to the Neotropics).

So, find out exactly what you want. At least the more specilized companies should be able to adjust their day tours to your wishes.

Finally, the reserves mentioned in the thread-starter can be visited easily independently (although it is anyones guess what locality would be visited on a tour to "Mindo Cloud Forest", which could be any humid forest on the Andean slopes in NW Ecuador), but if you only have one day (= no time to waste) and isn't too experiance in Neotropical birds, I'd certainly recommend going on a guided tour.

Good luck!
 
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Sounds like an exciting trip!!

When I visited Ecuador I stayed at the Tandayapa Lodge(Tropical Birding). They have an office in Quito. They will pick you up. If you opt to go to the lodge I can tell you this....In the first 2 hours there I saw 19 species of hummingbirds alone! Their back porch has dozens of feeders and hundreds of hummers.

Dennis
 
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