More of Ecuador's hummingbirds!

It is not a secret that the trochilidae (hummingbirds) is one of my favorite families, second only after the tanagers... and Ecuador definitively is hummingbirds' heaven... there are so many and so easy to see!!!  Rafael Cortes, Chema, Washington and your blogger host were descending from the Yanacocha Reserve, taking the Eco-ruta del Quinde (the old Quito-Nono-Mindo road), stopping at some sites with hummingbird feeders that simply blow your mind.  Take a look at the hummingbirds we saw at Tony Nunnery's place... after paying the entrance fee, we entered a completely unreal world... even common species like this Buff-tailed Coronet looked superb!

The Fawn-breasted Brilliant is also common and widespread... not always you get in the photo the attractive rose feathers of its throat.

Another widespread species, but always nice to see, is the Collared Inca.  This male is simply beautiful!

The Speckled Hummingbird was very shy... this shot is the only one I got of it at a feeder (compare with my hummingbirds gallery from Colombia).

The fabulous Booted Racket-tail was the only life hummingbird for me at that moment... here, represented by its western andean slope form (with white "boots").  Even the female is an adorable little creature!

The White-tailed Hillstar was also represented by a western andean slope form (with orange malar).  This individual stayed under the building for several minutes.

Even more impressive... many Choco specialties were simply very easy to see at these feeders (I only got quick views of most of them in my previous trip to Colombia).  One of the most impressive was the Violet-tailed Sylph... what can I say?

These two shots of a male Purple-bibbed Whitetip show quite well why it is called that way.

Even those with such a boring name like Brown Inca demonstrated that they can be colorful as well!

It is always nice to see woodstars... but the Purple-throated Woodstar is restricted to the Choco region (although it reaches eastern Panama).  If you want to see its purple gorget... watch the last photo.

Crazy don't you think... and I still have to show you the most spectacular hummingbird of the trip... in another post, so keep tuned!