Long-wattled Umbrella bird (Cephalopterus penduliger) Photo By Hectonichus – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22003026 

Dear Readers, Ecuador is a very interesting country from a conservation point of view. Although the agricultural sector has been involved in decimating vast areas of rainforest, some of the poorest farmers are now realising that the forests, and in particular the birds that live in them, may have a greater value than the scratch-living that they might be able to achieve through cutting the trees down.

Ecuador has 1600 species of bird, more than the whole of Europe combined. I spent a very short period of time in the rainforest close to Quito many years ago, and I was stunned by the sheer variety of hummingbirds. There are many other fascinating species too – diminutive ant pittas (not an invertebrate-filled flatbread, in case you were about to ask), the bright orange cock-of-the-rock, and the enigmatic and  rare umbrella bird (pictured above). Birdwatchers flood to Ecuador to see them, and the locals are providing lodges, turning their farms into reserves, replanting trees and often finding themselves fascinated by the bird life that they were previously too busy trying to survive to appreciate. It’s a real win-win situation – the money from tourists can go directly to some of the poorest people in South America, and the tourists can see and photograph birds that we can only dream about here in the UK.

Andean Cock-of-the-rock (Photo By Devin Morris – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=110542923)

Chestnut-naped Antpitta (Photo By Charles J. Sharp – Own work, from Sharp Photography, sharpphotography.co.uk, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=136415915)

The Andean Emerald Hummingbird is endemic to one tiny corner of Ecuador, and can be found on the Mashpi Amagusa reserve. It’s worth clicking through to read the story of just one of the many reserves that are springing up.

Andean Emerald Hummingbird (Photo By Michael Woodruff from Spokane, Washington, USA – Andean Emerald, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5185236 )

The Rose-faced parrot is another Ecuadorian endemic that can be found in the reserves.

Rose-faced parrot (Photo By Bärbel Miemietz – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=121265417)

There have been government-run schemes to encourage subsistence farmers to preserve their rainforest, but it was somewhat hampered by paperwork and red tape. Instead, the ever-entrepreneurial farmers have been cutting out the middleman, clubbing together to find enough money to develop facilities for birdwatchers without destroying the very thing that they’ve come to see – the forest, and the birds that live there. Sounds like an encouraging win-win to me.

You can read the whole story (by Stephen Moss) here.

Beryl-spangled tanager (Photo By Charles J. Sharp – Own work, from Sharp Photography, sharpphotography.co.uk, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=137150897)