If you are thinking about visiting the Amazon, and enjoying great birds, a bit of luxury, relaxation, and good food, then you should consider coming to Ecuador and gliding over the Napo River on the Manatee Amazon Explorer .  They offer multiple packages and we took a five day trip that took us right down [...]

The Puluahaua crater is a unique collapsed caldera formed about 2500 years ago.  It is unique in many ways including its bird life an it is part of our national reserves.  I am not a big fan of Owls because they require nocturnal searching and it is very difficult to find them.  In the three [...]

One of the admirable things about Montana is how it contains prime examples of not one, but two iconic North American landscapes. I’ve spent a lot of time in, and done a lot of writing about, the Rocky Mountains, their beauty, their climate moods, and the wildlife that lives here. But eastern Montana contains the [...]

I’ve just started a new job which has sucked out all of my time, so I was running late trying to dream up a post for this week. Fortunately the answer was just outside the window, so to speak.  I’ve mentioned before that I live in Highbury, a suburb high on a hill in the west of [...]

I am on a quick trip to the Lisbon area in Portugal and – I must admit – I was taken completely by surprise about how this conglomeration of people, water and nature are put togerther. In preparation for this trip I had spent some time with my friend the google machine and he (she? [...]

The most common owls in the world are also in the Galapagos Islands and are considered subspecies that only occur in Galapagos, so one could almost say they are endemic subspecies. The Barn Owl subspecies is the Tyto alba punctatissima and can be found on Isabela, Santa Cruz, Fernandida, Santiago, San Cristobal, Pinta, and maybe [...]

Kingfisher Park Birdwatchers Lodge is one of those birding destinations that leaves those about to go trembling with excitement and those merely reading about it green with envy. You have been warned! I decided to go to KPBL after my first day in Cairns and use the place as my base with which to explore [...]

“There is, perhaps, no better place in the world for birds than this country. Even in the tropics there are few birds that excel some of our own in elegance and beauty of plumage and we have an unusually large number of species considering the smallness of the area they inhabit.” (Woodward brothers, “Natal Birds”, [...]

Gareno Lodge made its claim to fame when they had a Harpy Eagle nest near their lodge.  The most amazing show lasted almost two years while the eagle parents prepared their new born for his first flight. I have visited Gareno in search of the mythical bird but failed to see it until my last [...]

The city of Cairns is a gateway for a lot of the top end of Queensland, both for those seeking the delights to be found in the Great barrier Reef and those looking to explore the patchwork of forest and savana that is tropical Australia. But for those seeking wildlife there is plenty to see [...]

Ethiopia, a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa, has firmly established itself as one of Africa’s top birding destinations. Only twenty years ago it was an out-of-bounds, desperately impoverished and war-torn ex-Marxist state. Tourism infrastructure didn’t exist then and development has been slow. Tours groups that I guided to Ethiopia ten years ago [...]

The closest site to Quito to reliably see the Umbrellabird is Recinto 23 de Junio covered by Corey here and also written by me: here and here.  Now the humble Ajila family has made a great effort and built a brand new small cabaña where you can stay the night before. I stayed there with six other [...]

If I have learned anything from living in the northern half of the United States is that in order to survive winter with my sanity in tact is that I need to eat a lot of kale, take a daily 20 minute walk (no matter how cold) and plan a trip some place warm even [...]

Contrary to what many people believe, Sydney is not the capital of Australia, and even calling it the premier city in the country might elicit angry complaints from the inhabitants of Melbourne. But it is the first and oldest city in Australia, and arguably the most scenic, sprawling (and it certainly does sprawl) around a [...]

The amazonian basin is a very important area for Ecuador since it produces 500,000 barrels of oil per day which is the main source of income for our economy.  Unfortunately only 63% of this oil is produced by state owned companies, and the 37% left is still fattening the profits of other companies that are [...]

Let me proudly introduce a new exotic bird that has been trained by the ambassador of hand feeding the most difficult skulking birds in Ecuador: the Ocellated Tapaculo. For those of you that have tried and failed to see this bird now you have a reason to visit Refugio Paz de las Aves where Angel [...]

As introductions to tropical Pacific birding go, you could do a lot worse than Fiji. Their combination of isolation and size makes them a great place to see lots of local and Pacific endemics. More importantly the airport in Nadi (pronounced Nandi) on the main island of Viti Levu is a major air hub and [...]

It is a very small antpitta that lives in Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela and Bolivia. This antpitta is found in southern Ecuador (near Peru) and curiously also inside the Puluahua Crater which is my residence near Quito in northern Ecuador. There has been no studies that explain why this bird only resides inside our homey [...]

I don’t think I’ve ever done a post on my home patch of Cape Town, South Africa. This place is such an epic birding location that one cannot possibly do the city and its surrounds justice in one post. So I’m going to feature one of my very favorite locations, just 45 minutes drive from [...]

Last week I was doing a birding tour of the east and west slopes of Ecuador and encountered some warblers that have already made it to Ecuador.  It is really amazing how far and how fast they can fly to improve the living conditions that assure their millenarian survival.  Here are a couple of pictures [...]