[Posted by Chuck Almdale]

Femi Faminu, who frequently birds with (and without) us at Malibu Lagoon and elsewhere, recently returned from Ecuador where she birded (rain-birded, sometimes) on the upper and lower slopes of the Andes and in the northwestern Amazon basin. (Hint: you don’t have to be within 500 miles of the Amazon to be within the Amazon Basin.) One way to know this is where you are in case you get knocked on the head? You’re likely to see over forty species of flycatcher and thirty of tanager in a week, not to mention toucans and cotingas.

And – for the food aficionados – I don’t know what chicha is, but when the locals drink it, they drink vast quantities of it, and apparently expect that you will want to as well. Recalling the Amazonian basin heat and humidity of eastern Ecuador, it’s probably a Very Wise Thing To Do.

Enjoyable and colorful as always.

If you go here https://www.youtube.com/@femif9792 you can see her many other films.

La Selva Ecolodge & Retreat, where Femi stayed at least part of the time, is located in northeastern Ecuador, on Heron Lake near Rio Napo, downriver from the city of Coca and the town of Limoncocha. Yeah, there, just where you thought it was. (See below.)

Did you know there are bird species endemic to the sandy islands of Amazonian Basin rivers?