Tour Description

Maximum group size: 10
Guide: Morris Gevirtz

There are few more comfortable and more “bird rich” places in the world than The La Selva Jungle Lodge. More than 500 birds can be seen on La Selva Lodge property alone. The guest-birder at the lodge will enter every micro-climb and habitat in the area and see many of the birds that have adapted to each niche in the Amazon Basin.

Some days are spent hiking in the cool forest floor, listening quietly for 14 species of Manakins and 58 species of Antbirds. Other days we will canoe in quiet lagoons looking for an Azure Gallinule, 11 species of Puffbirds, a Sand-colored Nighthawk or a Ladder-tailed Nightjar. Then at least one day, we’ll climb the staircase to the top of La Selva’s 135 foot canopy tower, where we’ll see –at arm’s length– canopy feeding birds: Tanagers, Toucans, Woodpeckers, Treecreepers, and Flycatchers –a mere 68 species of flycatchers. While at the tower, –if we’re lucky– we might catch sight of a Harpy Eagle or some other raptor or high canopy roosting owl or Potoo. Certainly we’ll hear and see many species of monkeys in the trees around us, and below us. Then, if that weren’t enough, some days we will “patrol” the Napo river banks looking for riparian species like the Yellow-browed Sparrow and the Gray-breasted Crake. We will visit the Yasuní National Park and its famous salt licks and see seven or eight species of parrots.

But of course, after a hard day of birding we will enjoy wonderful meals at the Lodge dining room and maybe watch the stars from the lagoon pier, while sipping on a cool drink and listening to the owls and nightjars. I can think of no better way to spend a week of my life than birding at the La Selva Jungle Lodge.