Ecuador: Refugio Paz de las Aves – Hummingbirds

While the Refugio Paz de las Aves is most renowned for its Antpittas and the Cock-of-the-rock lek, it is famous for its hummingbird feeders and has a stunning variety of hummingbirds typical of the Choco cloud forest. You can sit in front of the rows of the feeders for hours or even days, memorized by the constant movement of tiny helicopters coming to feed – there are quite a few species here, some are in great numbers and hang around all the time, others are singular occurrences and are rare to spot on occasional visits. Among the species we saw were Velvet-purple Coronet: (deep purple with flashing white wing patches), Empress Brilliant (large with a shimmering green breast and violet throat), Long-tailed Sylph (males have incredibly long iridescent blue tail), Fawn-breasted Brilliant (green with greyish belly), Green-crowned Brilliant (all green), Brown Inca (brownish-bronze with a small white patch behind the eye), Buff-tailed Coronet (greenish with a yellow tail), Purple-bibbed Whitetip (tiny purple throat patch and white tips on its tail), Speckled Hummingbird (green brown with speckles), Andean Emerald (green-and-white), Fawn-breasted Brilliant (brown with bright purple neck patch), Rufus-tailed Hummingbird (red beach and red tail), and many more. I am sure there were tons of other species as well, absolutely surreal experience and hence the picture overload.