After many years of working in bird conservation and with extensive experience as a tour leader as well as personal birding trips throughout the Americas, Europe and southern Africa, I decided to open a birding tour company based in Mindo, Ecuador.Why Mindo??Because it is considered a key site for endemism and it was where I had launched the first Important Bird Area (IBA) in the Americas while working as Head of the Americas Regional Office for BirdLife International. I had first visited Mindo in 1990 and had found it to be a beautiful, tranquil, bird-filled area.So, in 1996 when we were deciding to launch the first IBA, it was not hard to convince everyone that it should be in the Mindo area.
I had long ago decided that by the year 2000 I would be working in the field instead of a city office. So in May 1999 I quit my job, sold my home in Austin, Texas and moved from Quito to Mindo.As my birding friends and others began to want to come birding in Ecuador they contacted me for assistance.So I helped arrange birding tours and, one thing always leading to another, soon decided to formalize my efforts by establishing an actual tour company.In 1999 Mindo Bird Tours was established as the first birding company based in Mindo – although now there are dozens of companies and individuals who have tried to copy us in one way or another.
Since its inception Mindo Bird Tours has grown dramatically.We now offer regular set departure birding tours throughout Ecuador as well as Peru and Colombia and also arrange many custom tours in Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, Chile, Brazil and elsewhere in South America.We have very many repeat customers and pride ourselves on providing the best possible birding tour –with great birds, great guides, great drivers, comfortable lodging and safety.
Our philosophy of providing the best birding tours is coupled with our strong conservation ethic. As I plotted my move away from city life I began to purchase parcels of land for habitat conservation and potentially for a place to live.In 1998, with a purchase of 15 acres of mixed forest and farm, Reserva Las Gralarias was born (www.reservalasgralarias.com).It now encompasses 1063 acres of land within Mindo parish.With the help of many people we established the U.S.-based Las Gralarias Foundation (www.lasgralariasfoundation.org) for the protection in perpetuity of the reserve.We have worked hard for over 12 years to establish the reserve, actively revegetating previously pastured areas, and protecting the primary forest.Our efforts have paid off – we now have such rare species as Hoary Puffleg and Spectacled Bear regularly using our regenerated forest, not to mention the hundreds of other species that call Reserva Las Gralarias home.We also host numerous researchers from Ecuador, the U.S.and the U.K who are trying to unlock the mysteries of this Pacific slope Andean cloud forest in order to help us better conserve it.Our Las Gralarias Foundation has an amazing Board of Directors that does everything from fundraising, newsletter production, frog research, aquatic insect research, environmental education, tour leading - ETC ETC ETC!!! We also have a dedicated staff of local people without whom none of our efforts would have been possible.
So, when you sign up for a tour with Mindo Bird Tours you can rest assured that you will be receiving the highest quality birding tour and will also be helping conserve some amazing habitat for many wonderful birds and other cloud forest creatures. You will be providing meaningful employment to our full-time and contract staff and will be helping promote responsible ecotourism in one of the world´s most biodiverse regions.
We all thank you!
Jane A. Lyons, Ph.D.
Mindo Bird Tours Cia Ltda
Quito, Ecuador
Tel. 00-593-97-351297
Velvet-purple Coronet - Photo by Dusan Brinkhuizen
ABOUT US
Dušan M. Brinkhuizen
Dušan works as a full-time employee of Mindo Bird Tours and has guided many of our tours throughout Ecuador and Peru. He is quickly becoming known as one of the best birding guides in the neotropics.
Not only a keen birder, but with a Master´s of Science in Ornithology Dušan also has an in-depth understanding of birds. He has conducted ornithological field research in Holland, Sweden, Hungary, China, Ecuador and Australia. He has been birding since childhood throughout Europe and has been birding full time Ecuador since 2006. Known as a friendly enthusiastic person, Dušan enjoys helping others observe the amazing birds found in Ecuador and Peru. He has also added substantial records to Ecuadorian ornithology including the first Chocó Vireo found in Pichincha province (a significant range extension for this very rare species), the second record of Blue Grosbeak in Ecuador (first one was in 1964), the first Black Tinamou photographed in Ecuador, the first Red-throated Pipit for the continent of South America, and first photographs of Pearly-breasted Cuckoo in Ecuador.
Dušan is an accomplished bird photographer, as his photos in this website attest to. He is also a very keen recordist and his collection of bird vocalizations is impressive. He is the founder and owner of www.avesecuador.com, the leading website on bird observations in Ecuador.
When they are not out birding in some remote corner of Ecuador, Dušan and his wife Lorena reside in Quito.
Diego Calderón-Franco
Diego is the guide for our Colombia tours. Born in the city of Medellin in 1980, he is a fervent birder, ornithologist and sound recordist since 2000 and an eager digiscoper since early 2010. Diego has birded and explored some places not visited by anyone before throughout the country of Colombia, including the border with Venezuela, Panama and Brasil, in the central, western and eastern Andes with their endemic-rich valleys, as well as in the Caribbean lowlands and the Chocó jungle. Diego holds a degree in Biology from the Universidad de Antioquia in Colombia and since 2007 he is dedicated to his own birding company COLOMBIA Birding. Any target bird you need, a special endemic you want to see, a specific Colombian habitat you want to bird in, and any level of birding you have - just let us know - we can arrange it! When not exploring the remotest corners of Colombia, Diego resides in Medellin with his wife Laura.
Dr. Fabricio Cela
Dr. Fabricio Cela has worked with us for seven years and is the current President of Mindo Bird Tours.A registered Ecuadorian attorney, Dr. Cela works in the business aspect of the company, including employment contracts, visas for foreign staff, business reports and any other legal or business issues.
Juan Carlos Cruz
Juan Carlos Cruz has worked for MBT for 10 years as one of our professionaltour and transfer drivers.During that time Juan Carlos has learned a bit of English and has found some birds as well, while maneuvering the sometimes challenging road conditions found in the more remote partsof Ecuador and Peru – which is where birders like to go!
Renata Arias
Renata has been our certified accountant since 2007. Her work involves a huge amount of paperwork and ensures that our employees, bills and taxes are all paid on time and according to the most recent regulations.
Jane A. Lyons
Jane became infected with birding as a child in Austin, Texas when her father showed her her first Ruby-throated Hummingbird.Years later she realized birds were her passion and, while gazing at her first saltator during a birding tour at Rancho El Cielito, Mexico, it dawned on her that the Neotropics were in fact birding-heaven-on-earth.She worked for 8 years as the Wildlife Coordinator at the Austin Nature Center and 5 years for National Audubon Society as the Regional Representative for Texas and Latin America. By 1991, after co-leading various birding tours to Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Ecuador and numerous personal birding trips to Brazil, Panama and Venezuela, Jane was looking for a way to move to bird-rich South America.In 1993 she went to work for the U.S. Department of State as Associate Director for Natural Resources Programs in Uruguay and Argentina – a job with the side benefit of over 3 years of birding time throughout southern South America.In 1996 she was offered a job in Quito, Ecuador as Head of the Americas Region of the Cambridge, UK-based BirdLife International.One of her main jobs at BirdLife was to launch the Important Bird Areas (IBA) Program in South America.This is what caused her to return to Mindo.In 1997 she as the representative of BirdLife along with the community of Mindo, the Ecuadorian Ministry of the Environment and local BirdLife Partner CECIA officially declared Mindo as South America´s first IBA.By May, 1999 Jane had sold her house in Austin and moved to Mindo.She is still enthralled with the amazing birdlife found among the cloud forests of the northwestern Andes and is still 100% committed to bird and habitat conservation.
Jane has a B.A. Magna Cum Laude and an M.A. in Spanish, ABD in Comparative Literature (Spanish, French and Portuguese), and a PhD in Biogeography from the University of Texas at Austin.She served for 7 years on the Board of Directors of Ecuador´s Jocotoco Foundation and for 3 years as a project reviewer for the Ecuadorian endangered species research program Biobecas.She currently runs Mindo Bird Tours and Reserva Las Gralarias, serves as Vice-President of the Board of the Las Gralarias Foundation, Inc. and also works as a consultant for birding tourism. Her favorite pastime is walking the trails at Reserva Las Gralarias where she is constantly delighted to observe new creatures large and small, new plants of all kinds and mind-boggling biodiversity.
Dušan M. Brinkhuizen
Diego Calderón-Franco
Dr. Fabricio Cela
Renata Arias
