17-Day Southern Ecuador Birding Journey with Mauricio Ruano

Travel south from Guayaquil to the Manglares Churute Ecological Reserve, where mangroves and estuarine habitats support resident and migratory birds. Continue toward Buenaventura with roadside birding and an evening arrival at the reserve.

Explore the reserve around the lower and middle elevations, combining forest trails and productive feeding areas for regional cloud-forest specialties, including the Long-wattled Umbrellabird area.

Spend a full day in the upper reserve and hummingbird garden, focusing on the El Oro Parakeet and other specialties of the western Andean foothills.

Bird south through changing Tumbesian habitats, with planned stops near Catacocha and along the route before reaching Jorupe for the night.

Use the lodge feeders and reserve trails for the distinctive birds of the Tumbesian forest, followed by an afternoon walk and an optional evening search for owls.

Travel toward the Peruvian border for dry-forest birding around Zapotillo and La Ceiba, then return through additional Tumbesian habitat before overnighting again near Jorupe.

Visit Utuana for humid montane forest and hummingbird feeders, then continue to Vilcabamba with additional afternoon birding.

Climb from the Vilcabamba area toward the high-elevation habitats of Cerro Toledo, then continue birding downslope toward Tapichalaca.

Explore the montane forest of Tapichalaca, with an early start for the Jocotoco Antpitta area and a later session in the reserve's lower elevations.

Bird the old road between Loja and Zamora across eastern Andean forest and rushing streams, then continue to the next overnight area in Zamora-Chinchipe.

Enter the remote Cordillera del Condor landscape for cloud-forest birding at El Zarza before continuing toward the Maycu area.

Spend the day in the lower Cordillera del Condor forests of Maycu, a key area for the Orange-throated Tanager and other regional specialties.

Begin with another morning session at Maycu, then travel toward Copalinga with afternoon birding after arrival.

Visit the Bombuscaro sector of Podocarpus National Park before continuing toward Saraguro, with a planned birding stop around Cerro Acanana.

Explore the high-elevation rocky landscape and paramo of Cerro de Arcos, then return toward Saraguro for the night.

Bird the Acanana area in the morning and continue toward the Yunguilla region for the final southern-Andes section of the journey.

Visit Yunguilla for its threatened endemic brushfinch, then continue to Cajas National Park before the afternoon transfer to a Guayaquil hotel or airport.