Birding Ecuador
 

I am doing some pre-planning for a birding excursion in the highlands of Ecuador. I do not want to include Galapagos.
Does anyone have a tour company that you would recommend. We are both fit people and can hike in rugged terrain
with a guide. We are from Colorado so mountain climbing is a norm for us. I am thinking a departure date in early Dec. 2025.
Much appreciated.
K.B.

I think December will be difficult with what I call a "proper" birding company. However look at Road Scholar, they are starting back up with their overseas birding tours, there is one in early December on their calendar. They are staying in Sachatamaia for the first section. It's quite a nice lodging. So perhaps you could start with that and then add on some independent days. I'll just caution you that RS cancelled a trip on me due to lack of enrollment and they are not really go=go birding early in the day when that is the best action. There are some local guides around Mindo which is near Sachatmaia.

Alternatively you can look at some of the lodges (Sachatamaia, Bellavista, Tandayapa, San Isidro and Guango). They can often arrange individual packages with guides and meals. A few of them, such as Guango allow day visits to their feeders. There are some local guides around Mindo which is near Sachatmaia.

If you can go in November 2025 or January 2026 you may find room with the following companies:

PIBird (you want Lelis Navarette)

Field Guides

Wings

Also see if Holbrook has any trips available to join, but I don't see any for December 2025.

Just adding on a little to mlgb s great info.

We went to Ecuador way back in 2008 mostly for birding. We arranged it all ourselves - mostly Mindo and the Napo River. Roberto Cedeno was our guide on the Napo. He was excellent - deep knowledge of birds and the environment (and we’re saying that as folks who have had some really great guides round the world). We have a trip report under my user name and Ecuador. We used guides provided by the lodges we chose and found them to be good as well.

shared transport
 

I see the advantages of a tour such as PI Bird since all your transportation is organized for you. I am wondering if there are suggestions for
shared van transport vehicles from Quito to lodges near Mindo in case I chose to do it on my own.
I value your input.
K.B.

Don’t know about shared van transport. Reading my trip report, it looks like we hired a driver, probably through our Quito lodging. Looking at the “Rome2Rio” site for Quito- Mindo, looks like taxi or other driver would be around 60-70 dollars these days. Buses are listed there but sound very circuitous. Someone posted an extensive Ecuador report on TripAdvisor very recently. You might go there and put out question as it looks to be more active….

Look into booking a transfer through a birding lodge if your primary focus is birding. Quito is not convenient unless you want to see Quito. There are some nice hacienda stays near the airport (Puembo general area) where you can bird the grounds or neighborhood if you need an intermediate hotel night. There are some good hotspots between the airport and what ever lodge you visit first. Many of the lodge drivers are also fairly knowledgeable.

Back in 2019 we used Marcelo Ariad as a birding guide in Mindo, and we were very happy with him and his driver.
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Good luck!

Thanks for the detailed info! I’ll definitely look into Road Scholar and the lodges you mentioned. November or January might end up being a better fit. Appreciate the tips!

Birding was secondary for us but Ecuador is beautiful. Many lodges will arrange transportation for you from Quito (and thus it would make sense from another lodge as well, so if you know where you would like to go that part should be easy). It has been a while but we loved Bellavista. We met the owner Richard in 2005 -- he led a natural history group in the Galapagos and about 5 years later we went to Bellavista -- there you can use a guide or you can hike on your own. On another more recent trip we stayed at Santa Lucia -- much quieter and we loved it. They have a couple birding itineraries. We were not doing a full birding itinerary but our guide was fantastic (bird wise & all aspects) -- he grew up on the land and had a fascinating back story. All this to say, if you do not find a tour to your liking, time, etc. it is pretty easy to organize your own birding tour and going to the same/equivalent/better places that a tour would go. You could be using a guide or not, or have a mix of days.