Ecuador Birding – Where Every Feather Tells a Story

From October 26, 2025 through November 8, 2025 I joined 5 other adventurers and an outstanding photographer and birding guide (Liron Gertsman) with Eagle-Eye Tours to Ecuador. This blog series highlights the animals (mostly birds), people and locations we encountered over the 14 full days in this beautiful land.
*Unless otherwise indicated in the image caption, all photographs (>99%) are mine.
**Best when viewed on full computer screen**

Ecuador Birding: Blog Post #8
“The Critically Endangered Black-breasted Puffleg”

A Reflections of the Natural World Blog Post Series by Jim Gain

Day 1 – Mid-Morning

• My Ecuador Species Count including Zuro Loma jumps up to: 38 (30 lifers)
• Primary eBird Hotspot: Reserva Zuro Loma

We had been jumping from one feeder to the next at Zuro Loma when the caretaker hurried over and commented that the Black‑breasted Puffleg had just been seen down the trail. My heart jumped. We followed him quickly down a narrow path toward a cluster of flowering bushes. I expected the bird to be at the feeders ahead, but he stopped abruptly and said, “Look very slowly over your right shoulder. It’s perched about two meters away.” I turned carefully—and there it was.

The critically endangered BLACK-BREASTED PUFFLEG, glowing in perfect sunlight, perched so close I could hardly believe it. I stepped aside to get a better angle and fired off several shots before it lifted and disappeared into the trees. I stood there stunned, realizing how extraordinarily lucky I had been to see it at all, let alone at such close range. It is claimed to be in the top 50 rarist birds to see on the entire planet!

It is claimed to be in the top 50 rarist birds to see on the entire planet!

The Black‑breasted Puffleg, one of Ecuador’s most elusive hummingbirds, survives today on the knife‑edge of extinction. Its entire global range is restricted to a tiny band of humid elfin forest on the northwestern slopes of Volcán Pichincha—habitat that has been steadily chipped away by agriculture, cattle grazing, road building, and the expansion of communication towers along the ridgelines. Much of the remaining forest is fragmented into isolated patches, making it difficult for this high‑elevation specialist to move, feed, or find mates.

Climate change adds yet another pressure, pushing suitable habitat higher up the mountain where less and less forest remains. With such a narrow ecological niche and so few safe refuges left, the Black‑breasted Puffleg has become one of the most critically endangered hummingbirds on Earth, a species whose survival now depends on the protection and restoration of the last remnants of its cloud‑shrouded home.

Searching for the Black‑breasted Puffleg at Zuro Loma carried a kind of emotional gravity that is hard to put into words. Every step along the moss‑draped trail felt charged with possibility, as if the very air held its breath. Knowing that only a handful of these hummingbirds survive in the wild made the forest feel sacred—each patch of elfin vegetation a potential sanctuary for a creature on the brink. The silence between the calls of tanagers and brushfinches seemed deeper, more deliberate, as though the mountain itself understood the rarity of what we sought. With every distant wing‑whirr or flash of iridescence, my heart leapt, torn between hope and the quiet acceptance that some species are now so scarce that even a glimpse is a privilege.

The search became more than a quest for a lifer; it felt like a pilgrimage, a moment to honor a bird whose existence hangs by a thread and whose survival depends on the fragile persistence of this cloud‑shrouded world.

NEXT UP: EB#9 “A Missed Antpitta, More Sword-billeds and a Scarlet-bellied Success“

Additional Photographs

Previous Ecuador Birding Blog Posts:

• 
  EB50 – Called From the Mist: Gray‑breasted Mountain‑Toucan at Guango
  A steep climb above Guango Lodge led to an unforgettable encounter with Gray‑breasted Mountain‑Toucans and Pale‑naped Brushfinches. This blog series chronicles Jim Gain’s experiences with a birding tour in Ecuador.
• 
  EB49 – Turquoise Jay: The Andean Jewel of Ecuador
  At Guango Lodge, the Turquoise Jay’s explosive burst of color and the challenge of photographing its shifting blues transformed a rich morning of cloudforest birding into a defining moment that propelled us up the trail in search of the next Andean treasure. This blog series chronicles Jim Gain’s experiences with a birding tour in Ecuador.
• 
  EB48 – Moth Lights and Mountain Birds: A New Chapter Begins at Guango Lodge
  Arriving at Guango Lodge felt like entering a cooler, quieter Andean world where dawn birds and the forest’s layered rhythms created a timeless, living welcome woven from mist, movement, and the murmur of the Río Papallacta. This blog series chronicles Jim Gain’s experiences with a birding tour in Ecuador.
• 
  EB47 – Ascending Into Mist and Mountain Air at Río Quijos EcoLodge
  Climbing from El Quetzal toward Río Quijos, the day unfolded as a seamless blend of roadside surprises, river‑edge targets, and cloudforest color, each stop adding new species and renewed momentum as the journey pressed on toward Guango Lodge. This blog series chronicles Jim Gain’s experiences with a birding tour in Ecuador.
• 
  EB46 – El Quetzal Bosque Protegido: Songbirds of the Afternoon
  An afternoon walk through El Quetzal revealed a calmer, more contemplative side of the forest, where understated songbirds and familiar species offered quiet beauty and character before the journey carried us onward toward new habitats and fresh surprises. This blog series chronicles Jim Gain’s experiences with a birding tour in Ecuador.
• 
  EB45 – Midday Birding Adventures in the El Quetzal Protected Forest
  El Quetzal Bosque Protegido unfolded as a lush, hummingbird‑filled sanctuary where the cloudforest’s color, motion, and quiet magic set the stage for a vibrant midday interlude before the forest shifted toward an entirely new cast of characters. This blog series chronicles Jim Gain’s experiences with a birding tour in Ecuador.

>>Ecuador Birding Blog Home Page Link https://reflectionsofthenaturalworld.com/ecuador-birding/

*This Ecuador Birding blog post was shaped and polished with the assistance of Microsoft Copilot, helping bring clarity and a consistent flow to my field notes and dictated memories.