We sketch piranhas in a canoe while blue and yellow macaws fly overhead. Red howler monkeys roar and prehistoric-looking hoatzin birds watch us drift by. You already have three types of toucans and four species of shimmering kingfishers on today’s nature journal page. And this is just one of the locations we will visit on the Andes to Amazon Nature Journaling Adventure 2025.
If this sounds like something you want to do check out the signup page and get more info here. The trip is already about half full so signup soon if you want to go.
Deadline for signups is January 10th 2025.
Want to get a free sample of this nature journaling trip? Come on the virtual field trip this weekend on my YouTube channel. Using videos and photos we sketch along as if we were actually there together.
Did someone say hot springs?
Does relaxing in hot springs surrounded by mountains, weird plants, and hummingbirds sound like a good way to end the trip? That is exactly what we will be doing on the last days of the Andes to Amazon Nature Journaling Adventure. You can see me nature journaling in the hot springs in the video below. This is also the location where saw the most sword-billed hummingbirds!! They have the longest beak to body ratio of any bird on earth!
Look at these really cool beetles we also saw near the hot springs! Good thing we have an entomologist on the trip to help us learn about the amazing insects of Ecuador.
In addition to sword billed hummingbirds, trogons, glittering beetles, and hot springs you can also get a massage in the relaxing spa at this location in world famous Papallacta.
Are you ready to join the team at this point?
See the trip signup page here.
Deadline for signups is January 10th 2025.
Andes to Amazon 2024 Bird List
We observed and were able to identify at least 84 species of birds on our trip! This is not a perfectly accurate count or list but pretty close and is based on my Ebird lists that I kept on the trip. The list for each location is not complete because it doesn’t show a lot of the repeats. Join the 2025 trip and help us beat last year’s record!
Jerusalem Dry Forest
Scrub Tanager Stilpnia vitriolina
Pichincha Volcano
Andean Condor Vultur gryphus
Black-chested Buzzard-Eagle Geranoaetus melanoleucus
Plumbeous Sierra Finch Geospizopsis unicolor
Carunculated Caracara Daptrius carunculatus
Waita Lodge
Great Tinamou Tinamus major
Cinereous Tinamou Crypturellus cinereus
Undulated Tinamou Crypturellus undulatus
Speckled Chachalaca Ortalis guttata
Blue-throated Piping-Guan Pipile cumanensis
Plumbeous Pigeon Patagioenas plumbea
Gray-fronted Dove Leptotila rufaxilla
Common Pauraque Nyctidromus albicollis
Great Potoo Nyctibius grandis
Common Potoo Nyctibius griseus
Short-tailed Swift Chaetura brachyura
Lesser Swallow-tailed Swift Panyptila cayennensis
Black-throated Mango Anthracothorax nigricollis
Hoatzin Opisthocomus hoazin
Sungrebe Heliornis fulica
Rufescent Tiger-Heron Tigrisoma lineatum
Capped Heron Pilherodius pileatus
Striated Heron Butorides striata
Cocoi Heron Ardea cocoi
Crane Hawk Geranospiza caerulescens
Slate-colored Hawk Buteogallus schistaceus
Blue-crowned Trogon Trogon curucui
Ringed Kingfisher Megaceryle torquata
Amazon Kingfisher Chloroceryle amazona
American Pygmy Kingfisher Chloroceryle aenea
Green Kingfisher Chloroceryle americana
Green-and-rufous Kingfisher Chloroceryle inda
Black-fronted Nunbird Monasa nigrifrons
Gilded Barbet Capito auratus
Lettered Aracari Pteroglossus inscriptus
Channel-billed Toucan Ramphastos vitellinus
Yellow-tufted Woodpecker Melanerpes cruentatus
Crimson-crested Woodpecker Campephilus melanoleucos
Lineated Woodpecker Dryocopus lineatus
Ringed Woodpecker Celeus torquatus
Orange-cheeked Parrot Pyrilia barrabandi
Orange-winged Parrot Amazona amazonica
Black-headed Parrot Pionites melanocephalus
Red-bellied Macaw Orthopsittaca manilatus
Blue-and-yellow Macaw Ara ararauna
Chestnut-fronted Macaw Ara severus
Scarlet Macaw Ara macao
Cinnamon-throated Woodcreeper Dendrexetastes rufigula
Elegant Woodcreeper Xiphorhynchus elegans
Drab Water Tyrant Ochthornis littoralis
Lesser Kiskadee Philohydor lictor
Violaceous Jay Cyanocorax violaceus
House Wren Troglodytes aedon
Thrush-like Wren Campylorhynchus turdinus
Red-capped Cardinal Paroaria gularis
Canoe Ride on Aguarico River
Swallow-tailed Kite Elanoides forficatus
Yellow-headed Caracara Daptrius chimachima
Black Caracara Daptrius ater
Velvet-fronted Grackle Lampropsar tanagrinus
Guango Cloudforest
Tourmaline Sunangel Heliangelus exortis
Long-tailed Sylph Aglaiocercus kingii
Collared Inca Coeligena torquata
Buff-winged Starfrontlet Coeligena lutetiae
Sword-billed Hummingbird Ensifera ensifera
Buff-tailed Coronet Boissonneaua flavescens
Chestnut-breasted Coronet Boissonneaua matthewsii
White-bellied Woodstar Chaetocercus mulsant
Turquoise Jay Cyanolyca turcosa
Green Jay Cyanocorax yncas
Mountain Wren Troglodytes solstitialis
Great Thrush Turdus fuscater
Papallacta Hot Springs
Tyrian Metaltail Metallura tyrianthina
Shining Sunbeam Aglaeactis cupripennis
Sword-billed Hummingbird Ensifera ensifera
Masked Trogon Trogon personatus
Tawny Antpitta Grallaria quitensis
Pearled Treerunner Margarornis squamiger
White-throated Tyrannulet Mecocerculus leucophrys
Brown-bellied Swallow Orochelidon murina
Mountain Wren Troglodytes solstitialis
Grass Wren Cistothorus platensis
Great Thrush Turdus fuscater
Rufous-collared Sparrow Zonotrichia capensis
Spectacled Redstart Myioborus melanocephalus
Blue-backed Conebill Conirostrum sitticolor
Black Flowerpiercer Diglossa humeralis
Papallacta Antennas
Brown-backed Chat-Tyrant Ochthoeca fumicolor
