Trogon Photo Tours



ECUADOR

 October 12-22, 2020

Amazon Extension

October 22-27, 2020

Summary: This photo tour visits the best sites for bird photography, as well as the top lodge for reptile photography on the Western slope of Ecuador.  It includes 4 nights at Sachatamia Lodge, which has a great multi-flash hummingbird photography area and 2 blinds which attract a lot of forest birds as well as fruit feeders.  Sachatamia is the best lodge for photographing Violet-tailed Sylph and Booted Rackettail on the multi-flash.  While at Sachatamia we will take a day trip to a different lodge which is the best place to photograph the amazing Plate-billed Mountain Toucan, this lodge has reflecting pools where you can get stunning images.  We also spend 2 nights at Kapari Lodge in the Western lowlands.  Here, Javier will help you photograph some beautiful snakes and frogs in addition to doing multi-flash photography as well as bird photography at the fruit feeders.  We will spend 4 nights in the Quito area (mainly Zaysant Ecolodge as our base) on arrival and departure.  During this time we will also visit Antisana for photography of Andean Condors and other highland birds and the Yanacocha area where we will photograph Sword-billed Hummingbird and other species on the multi-flash. Also near Yanacocha we will spend time at fruit feeders where Scarlet-bellied Mountain Tanagers and other great species come in and a location which has 3 regular antpittas.

About Ecuador -  Ecuador is one of the richest countries in the world for birds and bird photography.  Over 1,550 species of birds have been recorded in Ecuador, the fourth highest total of any country in the world.  It has many excellent lodges, good roads, a stable government and is reachable from most of North America in 8 hours travel or less.
   
What to expect:  Many of the birds will be close up.  For example with the hummingbird photography I usually use my 300mm lens rather than my 500mm and intermediate to long zoom lenses are ideal for this type of photography (think 70-200 with 1.4 teleconverter, 70-300, 100-400 etc).  At the other locations and for the other birds a minimum of 300mm is recommended.   As far as the multi-flash setup is concerned you can use your own camera with an external flash which will fire all of my slave flashes automatically.  This makes it easy for participants to get lots of excellent hummingbird shots.  Everyone will get at least 10 sessions which last more than at least an hour each with the multi-flash, this is much more than most photography tours offer. The weather can vary from sunny to rainy but with the multi-flash hummingbird photography we are shooting from covered porches as well as some of the other locations where we are photographing fruit feeding birds coming in to feeders. 

Maximum Participants: 10 total, including a maximum of 6 photographers.  

Tour Leaders: Javier Zurita and Ken Archer.  Javier is from Quito, Ecuador, he is an excellent young photographer.  For his thesis, he studied building blinds for bird photography and he is the person who has constructed the blinds at Sachatamia and several other location in Ecuador.  He also enjoys working with snakes and frogs.  Ken is an award winning photographer who has co-led some of our Ecuador tours in the past. 

Spectacular species we should be able to photograph include:

Booted Rackettail                                      Plate-billed Mountain Toucan                       
Sword-billed Hummingbird
Long-tailed and Violet-tailed Sylphs
Blue-winged Mountain Tanager             Scarlet-bellied Moutain Tanager            Velvet-purple Coronet
Antpittas (up to 4 species)
Choco Toucan                                       Pale-mandibled Aracari                         Toucan Barbet - and many more species of beautiful tanagers and hummingbirds.  We photograph around 30 species of hummingbirds on most of our Ecuador tours.   

Cost: Photographer  $3,995 includes all lodging, meals, transportation within Ecuador, guiding, instruction, $400 single supplement.  Nonphotographer spouse or companion cost is $3,500.  It does not include airfare to and from Quito, Ecuador which is the beginning and ending point of the tour,  It also does not include personal expenses such as tips or drinks. To reserve your spot a deposit of $1,100 is required. The balance is due 90 days prior to the tour.

Amazon extension: Cost of the extension to Sani Lodge in the Ecuadorian Amazon is $2,595 with a $400 single supplement.  It includes flight to and from Coca, 4 nights lodging at Sani Lodge and 1 in Quito, meals, transportation and guiding.  We can also help you plan a few days in the Galapagos at the end of your main Ecuador tour.  This lodge is the best for bird photography in the Ecuadorian Amazon.  You should get great opportunities with Hoatzins, a variety of parrots, owls and many other species.  It's an enchanting location! 

 
Contact - Email us at nchappell@trogontours.net if you are interested in this tour or call Nate at
281-778-1486