Come bird with us in style to a region known to be Earth’s undisputed champion of biodiversity, Ecuador’s Andes and Amazon Basin, which just happens to be our “backyard”! Birding starts in the highlands on the west slope in pristine temperate forest. We then work our way down through various elevations over several days, birding cloud-forests at key spots in the Tandayapa and Mindo areas. From here we head east through the central valley chaparral-dominated scrub near Quito. These habitats soon give way to the high, windswept paramo. Depending on the weather – which can be inclement – in the birding sense, we will just be getting warmed up. The Papallacta Pass – the continental divide – forms a gateway of sorts from which we will stage our next six days of birding, plunging 12,000 vertical feet through the temperate, subtropical and then foothill zones, basing ourselves at strategic and comfortable Guango and San Isidro Lodges, both surrounded by their own private cloud forest reserves. And as if all of this will not have been overwhelming enough, the final and most diverse life zone awaits us – in the heart of Ecuador’s pristine eastern lowlands – at the well-appointed Sacha Lodge where we will have the better part of four full days to sample an avifauna that might very well double our list from the higher country! Toucans, tanagers, hummers, and even antbirds are the order of the day on this fantastic itinerary, and this is just the warm-up!