Ecuador is a birdwatcher's paradise with around 1600 species registered and some new ones are still added to the list.
22 avian orders of the 27 worldwide
{see birds list} with 82 families are represented in the country.
As there are 3000 species in the whole continent of South America, therefore more than half can be already observed in this small country. Furthermore, if you consider that in all of North America or Europe are less than 800 species found, the diversity of Ecuador's bird world becomes the more amazing.
Ecuador is home to a wide range of birds, many with interesting features and behavioral characteristics and I try here to bring some of them closer to your understanding, explaining their habits, where to find them and exhibiting photos. Sometimes a specie by itself will be discussed, other times the whole bird family.
The one bird, which inspired already people many centuries ago and still commands awe today is the mighty
andean condor, considered the largest flying bird in the world with a wingspan of over 3 meters. The condor is part of the
New World Vultures, which includes the royal
king vulture.
At the other physical extreme, we have the tiny and acrobatic flying machines called
hummingbirds, with some of them only measuring a few centimeters and weighing a few grams. Other well known birds are the colorful
macaws and the huge billed
toucans, which are found in the tropical regions of the country. In the Amazon Lowlands you may encounter the rare
king vulture with its colorful head and the bizarre looking and behaving
hoatzin, a very strange bird indeed.
Others of our avian friends introduced here are the
caracara falcons and the bright red
cock-of-the-rock of the
cloud forest region.
On Galapagos, which is considered by ornithologists a separate and distinct bird region, are encountered only 58 species of birds but with 28 of them endemic. The most amazing thing on the islands is that the birds did not develop any fear of humans and therefore you might walk among colonies of boobies without them flying off.
There you also find the famous
finches, which gave
Charles Darwin his new idea of evolution. It is believed that those
Darwin finches had one common ancestor, which arrived at the islands but evolved then in 13 species with their own characteristics and feeding habits. One of them, the woodpecker finch uses a twig to probe in holes of trees to catch some grub, which otherwise it would unable to reach with its beak.
