A Reflections of the Natural World Blog Post Series by Jim Gain
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.
DAY 4 – Afternoon
- My Ecuador Species Count including the visit to El Retiro and San Roque jumps up to: 185 (130 lifers)
- Primary eBird Public Hotspots: San Roque
It took me a second to understand what Liron was pointing at. The river was wide and restless, its surface broken by drifting mats of vegetation and the occasional stranded island of sand and roots. My eyes skimmed across the chaos, expecting some Amazonian specialty — a heron, a jacana, maybe another tern. But then the shape resolved itself, and my brain stalled. A BURROWING OWL, standing bolt‑upright on a half‑drowned island in the middle of the Napo River.
For a moment I genuinely thought I was hallucinating. This was a bird I associate with the dry, open spaces of home — the sun‑blasted grasslands of the San Joaquin Valley, the desert scrub of Arizona, the wide cattle pastures of the Southwest. And yet here it was, perched like a tiny sentinel above the swirling Napo, its sandy plumage glowing warm against the cool greens of the drifting hyacinth. It looked impossibly out of place, like someone had cut a piece of the Great Basin and pasted it onto a river that drains the Andes.
The owl didn’t seem bothered by the absurdity of the moment. It stood tall and alert, bright yellow eyes fixed on us with that mixture of curiosity and disdain Burrowing Owls have perfected. The wind ruffled its feathers, and for a heartbeat it looked almost heroic — a lone desert wanderer refusing to yield to the river’s slow, relentless push. I felt a strange, almost childlike delight rising in me, the kind that comes when the world suddenly breaks its own rules.
Seeing such a familiar bird in such an alien setting made the Amazon feel even more dreamlike, as if the boundaries between ecosystems had briefly dissolved. It was a reminder that nature is full of wanderers, misfits, and surprises — and that even in one of the most biodiverse places on Earth, the unexpected can still stop you cold.
NEXT UP: EB#32 “Afternoon Birds, Bats, Butterflies and a Really Cool Pair of Owls at Sani Lodge“
Previous Ecuador Birding Blog Posts:
- EB51 – Back to the Feeders: New Colors in the Gardens of Guango Lodge
The lower gardens at Guango Lodge offered a gentle, intimate finale to the morning, where warblers, tanagers, thrushes, and a trio of hummingbirds created a quiet tapestry of color and motion. This blog series chronicles Jim Gain’s experiences with a birding tour in Ecuador. - 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.
>>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.
**Unless otherwise indicated in the image caption, all photographs (>99%) are mine.
Reflections of the Natural World 
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