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Ecuador - Bird Photography Tour

© Black-throated Brilliant by Adam Riley
Ecuador - Bird Photography Tour 2025

01 Dec 2025 - 13 Dec 2025 (13 days)

USD5,695 - Spaces Available

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Tour Leader: Alexander Alvarado

Tour price (Per person): USD5,995 * GBP4,855 * EUR5,756 * AUD9,542USD5,695 * GBP4,612 * EUR5,468 * AUD9,065

Single Supplement: USD660 * GBP534 * EUR634 * AUD1,051

Ecuador - Bird Photography Tour 2026

16 Feb 2026 - 28 Feb 2026 (13 days)

USD5,995 - Spaces Available

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Tour Leader: Robert Williams

Tour price (Per person): USD5,995 * GBP4,855 * EUR5,756 * AUD9,542

Single Supplement: USD720 * GBP583 * EUR691 * AUD1,146

Ecuador is fortuitously situated within the heart of a fantastically diverse habitat array, ranging from the high Andes to excellent lowland rainforest. Ecuador’s small size, good infrastructure, unsurpassable scenery, and friendly people make it one of the planet’s most delightful birding destinations. Our dedicated Bird Photo Tour seeks to enjoy an incredible selection of Ecuador’s avian wonders and the various lodges and accessible feeders that we will visit superbly augment our overall experience.

Highlights

  • Visit many of Ecuador’s most famous sites that include some stunningly scenic locations including Antisana and Pichincha Volcano’s and the incredible Papallacta Pass.
  • Feeders abound throughout our route which attract numerous species. These provide fantastic photo opportunities of many different species from stunning hummingbirds to flashy tanagers.
  • Comfortable accommodation, many of which are built to be specialist birding lodges.
  • Refugio Paz, one of the most amazing bird shows on earth where several extremely cryptic species can be coaxed into view.
  • Visit to an Oilbird roost cave, an iconic monotypic family species.
  • Short travel distances between lodges, extensive birding habitat throughout.
  • Opportunities for Giant Hummingbird, the largest hummingbird in the world.

Top Birds

Andean Cock-of-the-rock; Andean Condor; Rufous-bellied Seedsnipe; Orange-breasted & Scaled Fruiteaters; Golden-winged, White-bearded & Club-winged Manakins; Beautiful Jay; Black Solitaire; Oilbird; Glistening-green, Moss-backed, Grey-and-gold, Rufous-throated, Blue-whiskered, Scarlet-browed, Saffron-crowned, Beryl-spangled, Flame-faced, Black-capped, Grass-green, Golden-crowned, White-capped & Ochre-breasted Tanagers; Buff-breasted, Masked, Blue-winged and Scarlet-bellied Mountain Tanagers; Black-headed & Rufous-breasted Antthrushes; Giant, Moustached, Yellow-breasted, White-bellied, Peruvian, Slaty-crowned, Crescent-faced & Ochre-breasted Antpittas; Dark-backed Wood Quail; Golden-headed Quetzal; Chocó Trogon; Toucan Barbet; Pale-mandibled Aracari; Plate-billed Mountain & Chocó Toucans; Ecuadorian, White-tailed & Green-backed Hillstars; Black-tailed Trainbearer; Great Sapphirewing; Purple-backed, Black-mantled, Blue-mantled, Purple-mantled & Rainbow-bearded Thornbills; Shining Sunbeam; Giant, Speckled, Many-spotted, Violet-headed & Sword-billed Hummingbirds; Collared & Bronzy Incas; Long-tailed & Violet-tailed Sylphs; Tourmaline Sunangel; Chestnut-breasted, Velvet-purple & Buff-tailed Coronets; Mountain Avocetbill; Tyrian & Viridian Metaltails; White-bellied, Purple-throated & Gorgeted Woodstars; Glowing, Sapphire-vented, Black-breasted, Hoary & Golden-breasted Pufflegs; Violet-fronted, Black-throated, Empress, Green-crowned & Fawn-breasted Brilliants; White-booted & Peruvian Racket-tails; Geoffrey’s Wedgebill; Brown Violetear; Bronzy & Brown Incas; Green & Sparkling Violetears; Gould’s Jewelfront; Golden-tailed Sapphire; Napo Sabrewing; Rufous-vented & Purple-bibbed Whitetips; Golden-tailed Sapphire; Blue-fronted Lancebill; Wire-crested & Green Thorntails; Fork-tailed & Crowned Woodnymphs; Green & White-whiskered Hermits; Ecuadorian Piedtail; White-tipped Sicklebill; Buff-winged Starfrontlet; White-necked Jacobin; Andean Emerald.

Top Mammals

White-tailed Deer; Andean Fox; Mountain Tapir (rare); Olingito; Tayra; Spectacled Bear (rare)

Habitats Covered

temperate tree line forest, subtropical cloud-forest, tropical foothill forest and tropical lowland forest all in the Chocó bioregion, paramo grasslands and highland lakes, polylepis forest, temperate cloud-forest, upper and lower subtropical cloud-forest

Expected Climate

chilly to hot and humid (very pleasant temperatures on most days)

Max Group Size

8 with 1 Rockjumper leader & local birding leader

Tour Pace & Walking

UNDEMANDING: This tour is ideal for birders and wildlife enthusiasts of all experience levels. It’s suitable for most mobility levels and offers a relaxed pace, ensuring an enjoyable experience for everyone.

Undemanding. Suitable for all birding / wildlife interest levels. Our Bird Photo Tours are a hybrid between our Classic birding tours and dedicated photographic tours. You don’t have to be a professional photographer or have the biggest lens; this is for everyone with an interest in photography and birding. Whether you’re using a bridge camera or the latest body and prime lens, our aims are the same. • These tours are not aimed at seeing the most species possible on the route, rather taking time to photograph key targets and any other interesting species we may find. Naturally, the overall species list will be lower than a comparable birding focused tour. • Whilst we may use blinds, feeders and hide setups on some of these tours, we will not be spending an entire day nor even several hours fixed in one spot. • These tours are suitable for photographers who prefer opportunistic photography over entire days in a hide. • Our leaders will assist in helping everyone secure good photographic opportunities and advise as much as they can on camera setup. However, they are not professional photographic tour leaders.

Accommodation

Comfortable.

Ease of Birding

Mostly undemanding. Birding is primarily at lodge feeders & trails, roadside or in parks/preserves.

Photographic Opportunities

Good to very good, numerous feeders.

What our clients say about us

Dušan Brinkhuizen
AG, Ecuador 2022

All the participants were nice and helpful in pointing out birds to others. Dusan was great and worked hard to get everyone on a bird. His expertise makes you realize how much you miss! But it also helps know what to try to find.

Dušan Brinkhuizen
JR, Ecuador 2022

The tour was excellent in all regards. And just as expected. The lodges excellent. The food as well and abundant. And of course the birds. Diverse and beautiful. And Ecuador has done such a wonderful job in attracting the birds, from hummingbirds to tanagers and even antpittas.

Dušan Brinkhuizen
DS, Ecuador 2018

It was a well-oiled machine. Dušan Brinkhuizen is an excellent guide. It goes without saying he knows his birds and he kept the whole adventure moving smoothly. I would hope Dušan would be the guide on my next Rockjumper tour.

Lev Frid
GS, Ecuador 2021

I had a great time on the two Ecuador tours. I have been wanting to bird with Lev Frid since I viewed his webinar on Mexico, and he was every bit as fun and as good a guide as I thought that he would be. Lev's cheerful energy and care for his tour members were always evident, and his bird finding and identifying skills were superb. He worked hard to make sure that everyone was able to see the birds whenever possible, and he dealt with the varying experience levels of the various tour members very well. The list of tour members changed from tour to tour, with a wide range of ages, birding agendas, and personalities. Lev took it all in stride and provided what I considered to be an excellent experience for all. He worked particularly well with the local guides, with whom he shared friendship and respect, and his ability in speaking Spanish was an excellent asset. The local guides were all excellent, and worked hard to give us the best birding experience possible. Our driver kept us safe on the road and got us where we needed to go. The lodges were all great, with comfortable accommodations and excellent food. I picked up several birds that I had missed on an earlier tour through the area, and got a good look at a Mountain Tapir, as a rare bonus mammal. All in all, it was an excellent trip, and I look forward to future trips with Rockjumper.

Dušan Brinkhuizen
DD, Ecuador 2018

[To Dušan Brinkhuizen] Truly, it was the very best birding trip I have ever been on, including several other Rockjumper trips which have all been great. As I think back on it, I can only marvel at your amazing ability to hear and identify the "chips" and "tsits" of birds calling or singing from deep in the understorey or high in the canopy of mature cloud forest while walking with a noisy group of folks or, even more unbelievable, from a moving vehicle.  And if this wasn't amazing enough, you would then expertly call the desired individual bird into view and, with incredible calm and patience, succeed in making sure that everyone of us on the tour got a crippling look (and maybe even a spectacular photo) of the target bird -- that as often as not -- was not only beautiful but also both rare and furtive.  And to further blow our minds, you often would pull out your vegetation clippers and create a setting and stage on which the bird would perform for us -- even sometimes, like some magician, telling us on which perch it would sit!!  As a measure of your expertise as a trip leader, let me tell you that on the two back-to-back trips with you I "got" 110 life birds (101 seen and 9 heard) and only missed 1 species that would have been a life bird for me (Blue-mantled Thornbill).  Never on any trip before in my life had I experienced such a high rate of success!! But above and beyond all of the uncanny skill and expertise that you exhibited, was the kindness, friendship, and humanity that you showed to each us.  For this I am so very grateful. Thank you!!!  Moreover, I'm sure everyone on the trip felt this way and I'm sure it created a safe and happy feeling among all of us that made the trip even more enjoyable.  I truly hope that I can go with you on another trip sometime. And finally thank you also for the wonderfully detailed and beautifully illustrated trip report you sent.  I remain amazed at how you could remember so clearly all the details of the trip.

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