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Ecuador - Bird Photography Tour

© Black-throated Brilliant by Adam Riley
Ecuador - Bird Photography Tour 2027

30 Apr 2027 - 12 May 2027 (13 days)

USD6,200 SPACES AVAILABLE

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Tour Leader: Alexander Alvarado

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Tour Price (Per person): USD6,200 (GBP4,753 * EUR5,458 * AUD9,459)

Pricing notes : *Prices are estimated, and dates may change*

Ecuador - Bird Photography Tour 2028

20 Jan 2028 - 01 Feb 2028 (13 days)

USD6,500 SPACES AVAILABLE

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Tour Leader: James Wade Lee

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Tour Price (Per person): USD6,500 (GBP4,983 * EUR5,722 * AUD9,917)

Pricing notes : *Prices are estimated, and dates may change*

Ecuador is fortuitously situated within the heart of a fantastically diverse habitat array, ranging from the high Andes to excellent lowland rainforest. Ecuador’s small size, good infrastructure, unsurpassable scenery, and friendly people make it one of the planet’s most delightful birding destinations. Our dedicated Bird Photo Tour seeks to enjoy an incredible selection of Ecuador’s avian wonders and the various lodges and accessible feeders that we will visit superbly augment our overall experience.

Highlights

  • Visit many of Ecuador’s most famous sites that include some stunningly scenic locations including Antisana and Pichincha Volcano’s and the incredible Papallacta Pass.
  • Feeders abound throughout our route which attract numerous species. These provide fantastic photo opportunities of many different species from stunning hummingbirds to flashy tanagers.
  • Comfortable accommodation, many of which are built to be specialist birding lodges.
  • Refugio Paz, one of the most amazing bird shows on earth where several extremely cryptic species can be coaxed into view.
  • Visit to an Oilbird roost cave, an iconic monotypic family species.
  • Short travel distances between lodges, extensive birding habitat throughout.
  • Opportunities for Giant Hummingbird, the largest hummingbird in the world.

Top Birds

Andean Cock-of-the-rock; Andean Condor; Rufous-bellied Seedsnipe; Orange-breasted & Scaled Fruiteaters; Golden-winged, White-bearded & Club-winged Manakins; Beautiful Jay; Black Solitaire; Oilbird; Glistening-green, Moss-backed, Grey-and-gold, Rufous-throated, Blue-whiskered, Scarlet-browed, Saffron-crowned, Beryl-spangled, Flame-faced, Black-capped, Grass-green, Golden-crowned, White-capped & Ochre-breasted Tanagers; Buff-breasted, Masked, Blue-winged and Scarlet-bellied Mountain Tanagers; Black-headed & Rufous-breasted Antthrushes; Giant, Moustached, Yellow-breasted, White-bellied, Peruvian, Slaty-crowned, Crescent-faced & Ochre-breasted Antpittas; Dark-backed Wood Quail; Golden-headed Quetzal; Chocó Trogon; Toucan Barbet; Pale-mandibled Aracari; Plate-billed Mountain & Chocó Toucans; Ecuadorian, White-tailed & Green-backed Hillstars; Black-tailed Trainbearer; Great Sapphirewing; Purple-backed, Black-mantled, Blue-mantled, Purple-mantled & Rainbow-bearded Thornbills; Shining Sunbeam; Giant, Speckled, Many-spotted, Violet-headed & Sword-billed Hummingbirds; Collared & Bronzy Incas; Long-tailed & Violet-tailed Sylphs; Tourmaline Sunangel; Chestnut-breasted, Velvet-purple & Buff-tailed Coronets; Mountain Avocetbill; Tyrian & Viridian Metaltails; White-bellied, Purple-throated & Gorgeted Woodstars; Glowing, Sapphire-vented, Black-breasted, Hoary & Golden-breasted Pufflegs; Violet-fronted, Black-throated, Empress, Green-crowned & Fawn-breasted Brilliants; White-booted & Peruvian Racket-tails; Geoffrey’s Wedgebill; Brown Violetear; Bronzy & Brown Incas; Green & Sparkling Violetears; Gould’s Jewelfront; Golden-tailed Sapphire; Napo Sabrewing; Rufous-vented & Purple-bibbed Whitetips; Golden-tailed Sapphire; Blue-fronted Lancebill; Wire-crested & Green Thorntails; Fork-tailed & Crowned Woodnymphs; Green & White-whiskered Hermits; Ecuadorian Piedtail; White-tipped Sicklebill; Buff-winged Starfrontlet; White-necked Jacobin; Andean Emerald.

Top Mammals

White-tailed Deer; Andean Fox; Mountain Tapir (rare); Olingito; Tayra; Spectacled Bear (rare)

Habitats Covered

temperate tree line forest, subtropical cloud-forest, tropical foothill forest and tropical lowland forest all in the Chocó bioregion, paramo grasslands and highland lakes, polylepis forest, temperate cloud-forest, upper and lower subtropical cloud-forest

Expected Climate

chilly to hot and humid (very pleasant temperatures on most days)

Max Group Size

8 with 1 Rockjumper leader & local birding leader

Tour Pace & Walking

UNDEMANDING: This tour is ideal for birders and wildlife enthusiasts of all experience levels. It’s suitable for most mobility levels and offers a relaxed pace, ensuring an enjoyable experience for everyone.

Undemanding. Suitable for all birding / wildlife interest levels. Our Bird Photo Tours are a hybrid between our Classic birding tours and dedicated photographic tours. You don’t have to be a professional photographer or have the biggest lens; this is for everyone with an interest in photography and birding. Whether you’re using a bridge camera or the latest body and prime lens, our aims are the same. • These tours are not aimed at seeing the most species possible on the route, rather taking time to photograph key targets and any other interesting species we may find. Naturally, the overall species list will be lower than a comparable birding focused tour. • Whilst we may use blinds, feeders and hide setups on some of these tours, we will not be spending an entire day nor even several hours fixed in one spot. • These tours are suitable for photographers who prefer opportunistic photography over entire days in a hide. • Our leaders will assist in helping everyone secure good photographic opportunities and advise as much as they can on camera setup. However, they are not professional photographic tour leaders.

Accommodation

Comfortable.

Ease of Birding

Mostly undemanding. Birding is primarily at lodge feeders & trails, roadside or in parks/preserves.

Photographic Opportunities

Good to very good, numerous feeders.

What our clients say about us

Dušan Brinkhuizen
JG - Ecuador 2024

Our tour leader, Dusan Brinkhuizen was top-notch. Very knowledgeable, super pleasant, friendly and attentive. Couldn’t ask for better. Our driver, Hector, was also excellent, getting us around. Knew what he was about and what he was doing. Added to the experiences. They kept us on the move to enhance our Ecuador experience--quite the place—past my expectations. Every day was an outstanding array of experiences and adventure. We all got our exercise, but it was quite manageable. Facilities and meals were very good—enjoyed the Ecuadorian cuisine. The group was also most pleasant. Fun and interesting to be with. Would very highly recommend the tour, Duson and Hector. All smiles.

Adam Walleyn
DL, Ecuador - Northern: Ultimate Amazon II 2025

I just completed the Ecuador - Northern II: Choco Cloud Forest; Eastern Andes (Paramo and Cloud Forest); and the Ultimate Amazon: Sumaco Foothills & Rio Napo for a total of 21 days. Adam Walleyn was our head guide and he did a fantasic job. He cleary knew all the birds in the region by both sight and sound and worked extremely hard to get everyone on the tours to see every bird. He was very clear in describing what the agenda was for the day, and what we we'd be doing relative to hiking, terrain, hiking difficulties, etc. He was very well organized and very friendly, a perfect guide. Adam also filled out ebird trip reports for every spot we visited over the 21 days and sent them to all tour members every night, so we could easily keep track of the species seen and immediately accept the reports into our individual ebird accounts. Not including birds only heard and not seen, I had 570 species for the trip. I'd also like to praise Rockjumper's local guide on this entire trip, Marcello. He was very friendly, energetic and man did he know the birds of Ecuador and how to find them. His hearing was absolutely acute and very tuned into the birds. Both guides carried scopes and instantly got birds into scope view for everyone. Very happy with the guides and the overall trip.

Dušan Brinkhuizen
JM, Ecuador 2018

I was particularly impressed by Dušan Brinkhuizen. His knowledge of Ecuadorian birds, both visual and auditory, was amazing. He showed an unflagging energy and was sensitive to the myriad of special interests of our participants.

Dušan Brinkhuizen
DD, Ecuador 2018

[To Dušan Brinkhuizen] Truly, it was the very best birding trip I have ever been on, including several other Rockjumper trips which have all been great. As I think back on it, I can only marvel at your amazing ability to hear and identify the "chips" and "tsits" of birds calling or singing from deep in the understorey or high in the canopy of mature cloud forest while walking with a noisy group of folks or, even more unbelievable, from a moving vehicle.  And if this wasn't amazing enough, you would then expertly call the desired individual bird into view and, with incredible calm and patience, succeed in making sure that everyone of us on the tour got a crippling look (and maybe even a spectacular photo) of the target bird -- that as often as not -- was not only beautiful but also both rare and furtive.  And to further blow our minds, you often would pull out your vegetation clippers and create a setting and stage on which the bird would perform for us -- even sometimes, like some magician, telling us on which perch it would sit!!  As a measure of your expertise as a trip leader, let me tell you that on the two back-to-back trips with you I "got" 110 life birds (101 seen and 9 heard) and only missed 1 species that would have been a life bird for me (Blue-mantled Thornbill).  Never on any trip before in my life had I experienced such a high rate of success!! But above and beyond all of the uncanny skill and expertise that you exhibited, was the kindness, friendship, and humanity that you showed to each us.  For this I am so very grateful. Thank you!!!  Moreover, I'm sure everyone on the trip felt this way and I'm sure it created a safe and happy feeling among all of us that made the trip even more enjoyable.  I truly hope that I can go with you on another trip sometime. And finally thank you also for the wonderfully detailed and beautifully illustrated trip report you sent.  I remain amazed at how you could remember so clearly all the details of the trip.

Dušan Brinkhuizen
CM, Ecuador 2018

The tour was very good and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Dušan Brinkhuizen is an excellent guide, a superb birder whose enthusiasm is infectious. We had members of our group with differing levels of birding skills, fitness and expectations. Dušan showed a high level of professionalism and went out of his way to meet everyone's expectations of the trip.

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