Heading to Ecuador

 October 11, 2021 

And we are off for a week-long birding trip in Ecuador!   Today we fly to Quito, which is the capital city closest to the equator (hence “Ecuador”!).  It is also the 2^nd highest capital city, at 9450 ft, and sits on the eastern slope of Pichincha, an active volcano.  Because of its location, the temperatures (both high and low) vary only by about 5 degrees across the entire year, there are 12 hours of sunlight every day (although it also rains a lot), and when the sun is out, it has one of the highest UV indexes in the world. People have lived in the Quito area since at least 8000 BC.  Quito has one of the least disturbed historic districts in South America, and was the site of Ecuador’s independence, led by Simon Bolivar, in 1810.

Our trip will involve going to many different climate zones / biomes over the course of the week, including cloud forests (some up to 11,000 ft), moderate forest, grasslands and tropical rain forests (some down to 1150 ft). We’ll be peeling and adding layers every day, and rain gear will be our constant companions – but so will the birds!  The avifauna of Ecuador has 1653 confirmed species, of which nine are endemic to the mainland and 31 are endemic to the Galápagos, 73 are rare or vagrants and of course not all are found on the west of the Andes where we will be... but still, there's a lot to potentially see!  Our itinerary suggests we’ll be on our feet at least 8 hours a day, although birding is often at a rather slow pace.  More when we actually start doing!