Mindo Magic

It’s always a treat to visit new places. GVI Amazon staff training weekend at the end of March brought us up to the Mindo Cloud Forest area, approximately 1½ hours west of Quito, at an elevation of 2200m. While the GVI Amazon staff team may not have any volunteers in country to deal with, there's always something to keep us busy. We stayed at a beautiful birding lodge called Allpalluta, meaning “Land of the Birds”, which boasted friendly staff, tasty meals, a cosy fireplace for cool evenings, and an incredible abundance of birds right on the doorstep. Among the necessary work, there was ample time to check out the birdlife in the area. Ten species of hummingbirds visited feeders on the property. Cloud forest ecology and bird walks with our guide, Robert, brought the forest to life with sightings of Chestnut-crowned Antpitta (Grallaria ruficapilla), Blue-winged Mountain-Tanagers (Anisognathus somptuosus), and Masked and White-sided Flowerpiercers (Diglossopis cyanea and Diglossa albilatera), to name a few. We also saw evidence of the elusive Andean (Spectacled) Bear (Tremarctos ornatus)!

The highlight was a visit to an Andean Cock-of-the-Rock (Rupicola peruvianus) lek. An early morning hike to the lek got us there at 5:30 am, anxiously awaiting the arrival of the first male birds, which we were told would arrive at 6:05. And sure enough, at 6:05 am, we hear the first loud raucous call of a male Cock-of-the-Rock. Then a second, and a third and fourth. For about an hour, we watched up to 15 of these beautiful red birds strut their stuff in hopes to attract a female – at what is essentially, a bar scene. And then, a female showed up, and a full orchestra of calls, ten times louder than they were before, broke out. A truly incredible display by a very unique bird!

Jenn Sinasac - GVI Amazon Field Staff

Mindo Magic