Tandayapa

 October 17, 2021

We spent today at Tandayapa, in the cloud forest on the western slopes of the Andes. It was a beautiful morning. We started the morning birding at the restaurant which is outdoors and overlooks the canopy on two sides.  There are several cecropia trees, the fruit of which is a favorite of many bird species. After a brief but intense viewing, we headed to a moth feeder area -  this is not a place where they feed moths, but where lights and a white screen are set up at night to attract moths, with the consequence that many species of birds drop by early in the morning for some fast food. By breakfast time we had already seen 40 species.

Today was particularly good for tanagers (we saw 12 different kinds!) and hummingbirds (11 kinds) although in both cases some were species we had seen before.  We also got better views of some spectacular birds ( the Red-headed Barbet and Pale-mandibled Aracari are examples pictured below). As often happens, we spent time trying to get a good look at a particular bird, only to then “see it everywhere we went”.   A rain storm delayed our after lunch outing but it did not deter the birds. Some of the hummingbirds took the opportunity to take a shower.  We did get in a short afternoon walk and then headed back to Quito.  Quito sits in a dry valley between the two ridges of the Andes, so a hard rain can cause the city to fill up like a bowl. We got to see that in action tonight. It had clearly rained even harder in Quito than in Tandayapa... much, much more than the storm drains could handle.  We saw some pretty amazing flooding on the main roads, so that it felt a bit like swimming upstream to get back to the lodge!

And for the mammal lovers: today we saw tracks of deer and armadillos (the armadillos had been digging along the trails for worms).  Later we heard and almost saw a nine-banded armadillo in the forest, and right before we had to leave, we actually saw an agouti.

Pictured: Pale-mandibled Aracari, Red-headed Barbet (female and male), White-lined Tanager with moth breakfast