Tandayapa Bird Lodge

Tandayapa Bird Lodge is a long-running, birder-built lodge perched in the Tandayapa Valley on the Choco-Andean western slope, about 90 minutes northwest of Quito. The lodge is closely associated with Tropical Birding Tours and serves as the base for many of that company's Andes Introtour and Northwest Ecuador departures, but it also hosts independent birders and supplies its own resident guides for tailored day and multi-day trips along the Nono-Mindo road and into the surrounding Choco foothills. The lodge garden's hummingbird feeders are a well-documented draw, regularly producing species such as Velvet-purple Coronet, Empress Brilliant, and Booted Racket-tail, while nearby trails and reserves give access to Plate-billed Mountain-Toucan, Toucan Barbet, Tanager Finch, and Andean Cock-of-the-Rock leks.