Day 1: Zuro Loma & Tandayapa Bird Lodge.

The tour will start with a 90 minute drive to Zuro Loma Reserve, to visit feeders there for Chestnut-naped Antpitta, Barred Fruiteater, and a swathe of Cold Wet Temperate Cloud Forest hummingbirds, including Sword-billed Hummingbird, Mountain Velvetbreast, Black-tailed Trainbearer and Sapphire-vented Puffleg. By late morning, we will be driving along the Old Nono-Mindo Road through scenic cloudforests to Tandayapa Bird Lodge, arriving there for lunch. The afternoon wil be spent around Tandayapa Bird Lodge, nestled within Cool, Moist Subtropical Cloud Forest, of a very different nature, and birds to those experienced during the morning. The feeders are World famous, and regularly hold hundreds of hummingbirds, including species like Violet-tailed Sylph, Booted Racket-tail, Purple-throated Woodstar and Purple-bibbed Whitetip. Tanagers and Toucan Barbets can be found in the surrounding forest too, along with a wealth of other Cloud Forest birds. You will spend one night within the cloudforest at the very comfortable Tandayapa Bird Lodge.

Day 2: Milpe & Rio Silanche Bird Sanctuaries.

This day will provide stark contrast to the other days, and so compliments them well, with a markedly different elevation (Milpe lies at 3610ft/1100m in the Andean Foothills and Silanche lower still at 1640ft/500m), and therefore bird list. Milpe is home to a good semi-seasonal display ground (or lek) of the Club-winged Manakin (usually most active in January-March, but active on and off year round). Other birds that frequent the area include Choco and Yellow-throated Toucans, Collared Arari, an assortment of tanagers, including Rufous-throated and Ochre-breasted, as well as Guayaquil Woodpecker and Blue-tailed Trogon. Silanche, lying lower, offers these and more other birds like Cinnamon Woodpecker, White-tailed Trogon, Scarlet-browed Tanager, Orange-fronted Barbet and both Rufous and Broad-billed Motmots too. The combination of these two sites in one day can sometimes lead to lists of over 100 species, purely from forest birding! The order in which the sanctuaries will be visited will be decided the night before; sometimes Rio Silanche is done first and other times in reverse order, with Milpe first. Breakfast will be at Tandayapa Bird Lodge, who will also provide a boxed lunch for this day to be taken in the field. Dinner will be at Tandayapa Bird Lodge too, after getting back to the lodge around 6:30pm.

Day 3: Tandayapa Bird Lodge & the Tandayapa Valley.

Tandayapa Bird Lodge lies at 5740ft (1750m) within the Lower Tandayapa Valley in the bird rich Choco bioregion of Northwest Ecuador. The highest point above the lodge (only around 25 minutes drive), in the Upper Tandayapa Valley, reaches 7545ft/2300m, and offers additonal species to those found immediately around the lodge.Within the wet,  bromeliad-laden cloudforest trees of the Upper Tandayapa Valley species like Plate-billed Mountain-Toucan, Beryl-spangled and Grass-green Tanagers and Crimson-mantled Woodpecker all occur. Therefore, even with a full day it will feel like barely enough, once you have covered the hummingbird and fruit feeders at the lodge, and birded both the Upper and Lower Tandayapa Valley, for the greatest variety of birds! On this day, breakfast and lunch will be taken at the lodge. In the afternoon, you will be transferred back to Quito via the fast route, a drive of around 90 minutes.