Tandayapa Hummers...ECUADOR (12-13 June)

Tandayapa Lodge was surprisingly quiet for hummers at the weekend. They are the thing that Tandayapa Bird Lodge is perhaps most famous for (I mean it boasts a list of more than 30 species!), and I personally have experienced the very best of this in the past with 21 species in a whirlwind hour one lunchtime on tour! Well things were very different last weekend. The bruisers or minders of the bunch, the Buff-tailed Coronets had got a hold of the feeders, often vigorously defending them to good effect, stopping many others from getting a look in. Of course a bad day at Tandayapa still meant ten species were seen and triple figures of hummers, just not the more expected 15 species that is usually common place there. The list of hummingbirds that I personally racked up in just an hour or so at the feeders included Buff-tailed Coronet, Green Violet-ear, Sparkling Violet-ear, Brown Violet-ear, Andean Emerald, Purple-throated Woodstar, Violet-tailed Sylph, Booted Racket-tail (that always vies for title of cutest hummer on the planet), and Fawn-breasted Brilliant. Not bad for a "bad" hummingbird day....

Behind the feeders a Smoky-brown Woodpecker crept up a trunk silently too.

Another update from northwest Ecuador to come soon...