Ecuador is a birdwatcher's paradise with around 1600 species registered and some new ones are still added to the list every year. 22 avian orders of the 27 worldwide 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 that much more amazing and intriguing.

Mainland Ecuador with its many distinct geographical and biological regions and the Galapagos islands are home to a wide range of birds. Many of them show interesting features and behavioral characteristics and we try here to bring some of them closer to your understanding, explaining their life styles and habitats, where to find them in the country and exhibiting photos of them. We start with the one bird, which inspired already people many centuries ago and still commands awe today, the mighty Andean Condor, one of the largest flying bird in the world with a wingspan of over 3 meters. It belongs to the American Vultures family, which among others include the now rare King Vulture. In Raptors you find descriptions of eagles, hawks, kites and falcons, the large group of diurnal birds of prey, well represented worldwide and in the country. A special page is dedicated to the Caracaras, a sub-family of the falcons, only found in the Americas, interesting for their distinctive behavior. Owls, which are nocturnal predatory birds, are also well represented in the country and found in many habitats. Other well known birds with representative species encountered throughout the four major regions of Ecuador are Gulls and Pigeons & Doves. Not so common and thus of interest to some is the Cock-of-the-Rock, inhabiting the cloudforest regions of the Andes and where the bright-red males gather in leks. Other colorful birds found there are Motmots and Cuckoos & Anis, which are also found in the lower tropical regions. More of our avian friends introduced here are the well-known colorful Macaws and the huge billed Toucans also encountered in the tropical regions of the Amazon or coastal forests. There live also the Caciques & Oropendolas, which are experts in weaving nests suspended from branches of tall trees. A very special bird of the Amazon is the very distinct Hoatzin with its pre-historic look. Herons & Egrets can be observed wading along the river banks, Pacific beaches and marshes of the country. Another group of wading birds are the graceful Flamingos, which can be admired along the Pacific coast but mainly in the Galapagos islands. Those islands far out in the Pacific ocean are important breeding grounds for seabirds like the Boobies, Frigatebirds, Pelicans and Albatrosses. The flightless cormorant, endemic to Fernandina and Isabela islands, is unique among the Cormorants as it lost its ability to fly. Other flightless birds and which are usually associated with the cold Antarctic waters are the Penguins. Finally, as we started with the largest bird of Ecuador, we end it here with the smallest of all birds, the amazing flying acrobats called Hummingbirds, represented by many species, living from sea level right up to the high glaciers.

Mainland Ecuador only has 14 endemic bird species but its national territory boasts of some important and sensitive endemic bird areas (as established worldwide by BirdLife) which it shares with its neighboring countries. Those restricted ranges have a high number of endemic birds, ones only found in that limited area and which are therefore important to be protected as habitat destruction would eventually lead to extinctions of those range restricted birds. Two of the world's most important ones are found in the country, the Chocó area, comprising Western Colombia and Northwestern Ecuador, a mainly forested low- and highland region and the Tumbesian Region, comprising the montage and lower regions of southwestern Ecuador and northwestern Peru. Other significant regions are the Western Amazonian Lowlands, East Andes slopes and Inter-Andean valleys, all reaching also into parts of Colombia and a small part of the Rio Marañon region sharing endemic birds with northwestern Peru.

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, only found there and nowhere else. One of the most amazing things on the islands is that the birds did not develop any fear of humans and therefore you might walk among breeding colonies of seabirds without them flying off or a hawk might land only a few meters from you. There you also find the famous finches, which gave Charles Darwin thoughts for his new theory of evolution. It is believed that those Darwin finches had one common ancestor, which arrived at the islands by chance long time ago and evolved then by adaptive radiation in 13 distinct species with their own characteristics and feeding habits. One of them, the woodpecker finch uses a tool, rare among any animals, a twig to probe in holes of trees to catch some grub, which otherwise it would be unable to reach with its beak.