Searching for the Plate-billed Mountain Toucan at Balcon Tumpiki

Our final day of the trip happened to fall on New Year’s Eve. The plan was to break up the drive back to Quito with a stop at Balcon Tumpiki, where we might be able to see a plate-billed mountain toucan.

We had been told the road was in good condition, so we made the attempt in the van. Like everywhere else, it started as smooth tarmac before turning onto a steep, winding dirt road for about 20 minutes. At one point it became steep enough that we all had to shift our weight into the back of the vehicle to help with traction.

Hummingbirds and Bees at Balcon Tumpiki

Balcon Tumpiki had the most hummingbirds we had seen on the entire trip.

The garden was literally swarming with hummingbirds.

And bees. So many bees.

There were birds everywhere, constantly moving between feeders and flowers and creating that now-familiar sense of complete sensory overload. In addition to the hummingbirds, we saw Crimson-rumped toucanet, Golden tanager, masked trogon, and Toucan barbet.

Waiting for a Plate-billed Mountain Toucan

We were here for one particular bird though – the plate-billed mountain toucan. The owner said the toucan typically appears in the mornings and again around midday.

So we waited.

And waited.

We had spent the past few days waiting for long-tailed sylphs and booted racket-tails. Now we were surrounded by both, barely paying attention to them because we were waiting for something else.

Morning came and went and there was no sign of the bird. At one point we started considering leaving. It wasn’t even noon yet, but the trip had already been such a success that staying longer somehow felt like pushing our luck. For some reason, we were also thinking about traffic, even though we were spending the night in Quito and didn’t actually need to rush.

Then, we heard it.

The plate-billed mountain toucan was behind the house. We managed to spot it, but the angles weren’t ideal.

Andy went upstairs to the second level of the building to try for a better view, with our guide holding onto him as he leaned out the window.

By the time he got in position, the bird moved. Though it was deep in the dark forest, it was definitely a better view.

And then, the bird moved again. Except this time it flew down and landed on a perch right in front of where we had been waiting most of the morning.

It was a pretty special sighting, considering that the plate-billed mountain toucan is a range-restricted Chocó-Andean species found only in western Ecuador and southwestern Colombia.

New Year’s Eve in Quito

With that, the bird photography portion of the trip felt complete.

We packed up and started the drive back to Quito, which turned out to be far more eventful than expected. Traffic was chaotic, largely because of Ecuador’s New Year’s Eve tradition of the “New Year’s widows.” Men dressed as women in exaggerated clothing, wigs and high heels stood in the streets, stopping traffic and asking drivers for money. It turned what should have been a straightforward drive back to Quito into a much longer one.

Eventually, we made it back to the Holiday Inn and checked into, yep, the exact same room we had stayed in before.

The hotel was hosting a large New Year’s Eve gala, so almost everyone was dressed in their absolute finest.

We did not blend.

By this point, we were ready for a break. The trip had been incredible, but it had also been full-on. The next and final phase of the journey would be slower, giving us a chance to reset before heading home.