Hummingbirds in Mindo


Well, as I have mentioned previously, returning to Mindo to retake my hummingbird photos, which were stolen, was high on my wish list. Now everything has been resorted and I have retaken my humming bird photos! The first day of this trip was put aside to go to Mindo and redo my hummingbird photos. Mindo is a small town in the cloud forest about 98 km from Quito. It is widely regarded as one of the best bird watching spots (the feathered type) in South America. There are a staggering 400 plus different species in the area. It is called the "cloud forest" as it is quite high up on the western slops of the Andes Mountain range and pretty much catches all of the clouds coming up from the Pacific. There is always mist in the cloud forest and it is pretty wet. This makes for a very beautify and green forest.
Mindo

Mindo is a small, quaint town with lots of foreigners living there. It is an adventurer's "hot spot". A person can do white water rafting, zip-line rides through the forest and there is a small cable car which goes high over a valley. It would be a really nice place to stay for a day or two. Of course there are also lots of places to do bird watching, as this is probably the main reason that most people come to Mindo.
Butterful which has just come out.



















The ride from Quito to Mindo is a beautiful drive through the mountains. For those of you who do not like mountain passes, Ecuador is probably not a good place for you. There is not much in the way of straight roads here. It is all very windy mountain passes.
The first stop in Mindo was the butterfly house called "Hosteria Mariposasas de Mindo". They have a very nice butterfly enclosure and they are actively breeding butterflies, some of which are releases into nature again. You can walk though the small enclose with lot and lots of butterflies. This was the spot that I took my hummingbird photos last time and when my drive wanted to leave I said that I wanted to stay. His English was not so good and may Spanish is even worse, but he was saying "muchas colibri", which means lots of hummingbirds. So off we went to the next place and there were "muchas, muchas colibris" there. This was a small house and the owners put out hummingbird feeders with sugar water in. This attaches the hummingbirds. Well, just about every hummingbird in the area must have been there.
Then the next mission was to try and photograph them. Weather conditions were not idea as there was cloud cover, so light was not optimal. Then the next mission, these little birds really move. Yes they do hover, but only for a second then they move off and hover in the next spot. Getting a good photo of a hummingbird in flight involves a truck load of luck! Set your camera to the fastest shutter speed you can get. Also try and get a large depth of field, to give yourself the best chance of getting one of the birds in focus. The wings beat incredibly fast, so the likely hood of
getting the wings in sharp focus is also very low. I like the effects of the moving wings on the photo. Fortuantely the hummingbirds do sit still some times. It is much easier to get a better photo of them when they sit still!
After visiting the hummingbirds and having a nice lunch in a local restaurant, the final visit was to a chocolate factory, were the whole process of making chocolate was explained. It was also possible to taste the fruit which surrounds the cocoa bean. It has a really very pleasant taste and is quite sweet. The fruit could be hit without the bean, but I guess the whole world loves the final product of the bean - chocolate.
All too soon it was time to head back to Quito. This is a great day trip for anyone in Quito
Humming birds on a feeder


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