Despite being a relatively small country, planning a birding trip to Ecuador can sometimes feel overwhelming, especially when it's your first time visiting the country. At Ecuador Bird Photo Tour with over 1600 bird species spanning several major biomes, including the Galápagos, it's tempting to try to see everything in one go. That's because for most birding enthusiasts, it's simply not practical to make repeated trips to the same country. When receive inquiries from birders regarding which sites they should visit in a ten to fourteen day period, I always point them towards Northstern Ecuador. In no other region is there better infrastructure or higher endemic species concentration than in the Chocó Region. Starting from Quito, you can easily spend a ek working your way down the stern slope of the Andes, visiting multiple sites, such as Yanacocha, Tandayapa, Refugio Paz de las Aves, Mindo, and Milpe, even including a full day in the stern lowlands at Rio Silanche. Throw in a day trip to Antisana National Park for a chance at seeing Andean Condor and then another day touring Quito, one of South America's greatest colonial gems, and you have an excellent first trip to Ecuador.
For those birders who have a bit more time on their hands, I ask whether they've birded the Amazon before. If not, then I encourage them to spend three to five days along the Rio Napo at one of several excellent ecolodges, such as La Selva, Sacha, or Sani Lodge. Although Peru and Brazil obviously include a wider swath of the Amazon region within their borders, birding the Amazon in Ecuador is relatively cheap and easy. Otherwise, I recommend that they make a similar journey down the northeastern slope of the Andes, starting from the Papallacta region and working their way down to the Loreto Road, with the excellent Cabañas San Isidro and Wild Sumaco Lodge being the most obvious places for birders to stay. Of course, birders on a tighter budget can see the same birds, albeit with a bit more time and for considerably less money, if they stay in cheaper accommodation in small towns instead, such as Papallacta, Baeza, Pacto Sumaco, Archidona, and Tena. Either way, two eks exploring both slopes on the Andes, as ll as a day in the highlands, could yield hundreds of species to your life list. Based temporarily in the U.S. and with a few eks of vacation, I've decided to have another go at a few regions, specifically targeting regional endemic species that I previously missed. Using lists of regional endemics, I identified the areas in which I was most likely to see lifers and then figured out how to arrange logistics as economically as possible. While most Ecuadorians travel around the country by bus, this can be constraining and time consuming for birders, who would rather travel outside birding hours and explore areas in beten cities or off the beaten path. Thus, renting a car is almost a necessity, if you want to explore remote Northern or Southstern Ecuador. To make matters worse, in these regions road quality deteriorates, and the costs or renting a high clearance vehicle are ev
