The wildlife images in this gallery (mostly birds) were taken during a month long trip to Ecuador, 17 December 2008 - 14 January 2009. Photos have been arranged into five areas;

1) Pichincha: 17-23 December 2008 with local birdguide Marcelo Arias Murcia (marceloguideofbirds@yahoo.com). Birding areas visited here include Yanacocha, Bellavista, Refugio Paz de las Aves, Septimo Paraiso, Mindo, Rio Silanche and Mangaloma. All are on the west slope of the Andes and western foothills/lowlands. During this time I stayed at Rubby Hostal in Mindo, which is run by Marcelo and his wife Norma. A very nice place to stay!

2) Manabí: 29-30 December 2008. Birding along the coast at Puerto Lopez and Isla de la Plata.

3) Azuay: 2-4 January 2009. Birding in El Cajas National Park (highland forest and paramo) and in the beautiful city of Cuenca.

4) Sucumbío: 5-9 January 2009. All the birding was made at and near the Sani Lodge by the Rio Napo in the Amazon, with local birdguide Domingo.

5) Napo: 10-12 January 2009. These images are from the east slope of the Andes, from the paramo at Papallacta Pass to the cloud forest of San Isidro Lodge.

Many thanks to the local guides, Marcelo (and his brother!) and Domingo, for their excellent guiding in this amazing birding country as well as Derek Kverno ( http://birdingecuador.blogspot.com/) for helping me out prior to the trip. Cannot thank enough the Santacruz family in Cuenca for their hospitality as well as the Nystrom Santacruz family in St. Paul!

The english and latin names of birds follow Clements 2007 (The Clements Checklist of the Birds of the World, 6th ed. + updates) while french names are mostly from a list published in 2003 by the Commission Internationale des noms français des oiseaux (CINFO).

Hope you enjoy these, despite the big amount of 'record shots'!

Yann

PS1: some landscapes and a few more birds might be added in the coming week (new additions will be at the end of each gallery).
PS2: Notice the shortcuts in the upper right corner to move back or forward to the next photo, once you've opened a photo.