After the wildlife extravaganza of the Galapagos we have come on another nature trip. We are visiting the cloud forest or, to give it its proper title, pre-montane subtropical rain forest. Cloud forest exists between 900 and 2,500 metres on the steep western facing slopes of the Andes. As its name suggests for much of the time it is shrouded in mist and this makes for an area of high bio-diversity, second only to the tropical rain-forest (but without almost all of the nasties that live in the latter.). As the slopes of the Andes are very steep the land is difficult to exploit (although the Inca showed that a perpendicular geography is not necessarily a bar to a highly productive agriculture) which means there are still substantial areas of primary forest and, increasingly regenerating secondary forest as agriculture is becoming harder to sustain and is replaced by eco-tourism.

The forest is particularly good for birds and we have come to the Bella Vista private nature reserve which is near to the town of Mindo to watch them. Mindo claims to be one of the best places in the world to go birdwatching, a claim that is not without some substance based on the fact that it has topped the American Audobon Society's annual Christmas Bird Count no less than six time since 1995. This was achieved by people seeing over 400 species of birds within a small area in a 24-hour period.

Impressive enough but even more so considering how difficult it is to see birds here! If the Galapagos gave us wildlife on a plate here we have to hunt it down (metaphorically speaking. No birds have been harmed in the writing of this blog.) The cloud forest forms a dense wall of vegetation clothing the steep slopes of the mountains. Birds can be heard but seeing them clearly is a different matter, especially as they either fly high in the canopy or skulk in the undergrowth. They might be heard but often all that can be seen is a little brown blob on a high branch or the rustle of leaves as something moves around on the ground.

Fortunately we have a guide to help us. Freddy to start with and now Juan Carlos the Third (we have yet to come across Juan Carloses One and Two) can point their binoculars at that little brown blob and confidently tell us what it is. And who am I to doubt that when they say it is a Scaly-throated Foliage-gleaner? But when seen in good light or close up the little brown blobs often resolve into birds with spectacular colouring; a riot of reds, blues, golds, greens, purple. One bird, the Toucan Barbet, boasts no less than seven colours in its plumage. We have come at the end of the dry season, just about the worst time of the year for bird watching her, but even so we have seen 63 of the 263 birds regularly seen in the valley (we have only explored the upper part, many are specific to the lower slopes). Highlights so far have include that, the Plate-billed Mountain Toucan, Golden-headed Quetzal, Andean Cock-of-the Rock (female only, before some people get too jealous), Masked Trogon and Blue-winged Mountain Tanager to name just a few. I've even managed to get good photographs of a few of them. The whole area is something of a mecca for naturalists and there is a party of Chinese botanists staying here as well as several people sporting camera lenses which require a crane to lift them.

But the absolute prize goes to the hummingbirds. We have seen no less than 17 species of these amazing little birds which dart and hover and buzz around like demented avian drones. The high numbers are accounted for by the presence of feeding stations at the lodge and another place we visited which attract them with sugar feeders. This makes observing and photographing them relatively easy and I could sit and watch their aerial acrobatics (they can even fly backwards) for hours. Today's photograph is of one of my favourites, a tiny White-bellied Woodstar which is only 7 cm long (including its beak) and sounds just like a bee as it flies around. One of Nature's miracles and just as impressive as anything we saw in the Galapagos.