Day 3: Mindo
We started early the next day in Mindo which consists of subtropical forest which is in between cloud forest and tropical rainforest in elevation. Vinicio took us near a bus stand and we just waited there. We were confused and were wondering when we would start hiking on a trail. It turned out there was a fruiting tree behind the bus stand and the birds ended up coming to us. This was our first experience with a fruiting tree in the tropics and it was quite amazing to watch mixed flocks moving through. This beautiful Masked Trogon arrived. We had never heard of Trogons at the time but they are one of the colorful iridescent birds found in the tropics. Vinicio was even able to mimic the call of this fellow getting him to come ever closer! One trogon species, the Elegant Trogon, makes it to southern Arizona and birders from all over the US come to try and find it. However, it turned out be very easy to see a Trogon in Mindo.
Next an Emerald Toucanet came to feast on the ripe berries. I was surprised how he stood out despite being green like the surround foliage. This fellow just glowed. He stuck around a long time and I could get quite close to get this shot.
Many tanagers also passed through but I couldn't get close up pictures of most of them. However, I did get a nice shot of this gorgeous Blue-winged Mountain tanager, one of the more common species in Mindo.
This interesting Squirrel Cuckoo also made an appearance.
The highlight of the morning was a close up shot of the Toucan Barbet. This beautiful bird is pretty rare but common in Mindo. He often stays in the canopy but can come down if there is a fruiting tree.
After spending a few hours checking out the mixed flocks that passed through, we went to have lunch. We got good vegetarian food at Vinicio's sisters place where she had a restaurant. We got rice, beans, pasta and for a drink we got tree tomato juice that was very tasty when we first tried it. Admittedly, after a few more days we ended up getting sick of it which may be why tree tomato juice hasn't made it big! Next, Vinicio took us to an aviary that was full of butterflies that exist in the rainforests of Ecuador. This Blue Morpho is one of the prettiest and is pretty common. We saw many in the forest as well but only got him perched in the aviary.
There were also many amazing flowers at the aviary and we could see the butterflies perched on them.
Next, Vinicio took us to a hotel with a great view of the subtropical forests around Mindo. They put out fruit to attract tanagers but unfortunately it rained so we didn't see much here. Although we did eat some delicious crepes.
Next we took a hike and saw this beautiful bromeliad. We'd seen some of these in nurseries back home but it was great to see them in their natural habitat.
We also saw this delicate orchid.
One bird we were hoping to see was one of the large toucans. While driving, Vinicio saw three pass over head. He said that he had a pretty good idea where they were heading. Amazingly he took us to the location where they had landed and we got this nice shot of the Choco toucan! We were amazed by all the things Vinicio had shown us. We definitely did not expect to see so much.
