Our PIB birding group ate a leisurely breakfast in the garden of Hotel El Auca here in Coca. And we were joined by some of the friendly natives.
Note macaw climbing winve to left of the table. one nmacaw managed an entire beakful of breakfast butter before being 86-ed from the table top.
Our large rodent friend was about the size of a raccoon, and didn’t try to join us at table.
Two PIB partners and three members of our host council are on a scouting trip to Ecuador. We’re sampling locations for even better future birding trips for PIB clients. After three days, we have over 180 species. That includes three dozen hummers, thirty members of the tanager tribe and a couple of toucans. The birding is exciting and varied, our photography not realy up to the challenge. Here’s a sampling with some pics from Harry Fuller’s middling little camera:
This is a Collared Inca in flight, with his purple crown aglow.
This bright tanager tribe member is a Masked Flowerpiercer. He was hanging around Guango Ecolodge on the eastern slope of the Andes along the Papallachta River.
This is a Channel-billed Toucan, high above the Wild Sumaco Ecolodge, neighboring the Sumaco Biosphere Reserve.
Of course we’ve seen some familiar birds: Canada Warbler, Blackburnian Warbler, Wood-Pewees (some sounding very Western), Turkey and Black Vultures, Black Phoebe. Then there are those birds that clearly say, “Ecuador!”
Tiny Torrent Tyrannulet at the base of Hollin Waterfalls south of Guacamaya Pass on the eastern Andean slope.
That’s three of the PIB group standing before Hollin Falls, home of intrepid tyrannulets.
Partnership for International Birding 
