Toucans are some of the most iconic birds of the Nootropics, if not in the whole world of birds. Their likeness has been used to promote ecotourism in the tropics as well as selling Irish stout in adverts. But nothing beats seeing a wild toucan in the “feather”.

There are 43 species of toucan in 5 genera that only occur in Central and South America. The five genera are: Aulacorhyachus, green toucanets (11 species), Pteroglossus, aracaris (14 species), Selenidera, dichromatic toucanets (6 species), Andigena, mountain toucans (4 species), and Ramphastos, typical toucans (8 species).

The Americas have cornered the market of these colorful, big-billed birds and on this trip to Northwest Ecuador, I have three species on my wishlist: crimson-rumped toucanet, Choco toucan, and plate-billed mountain-toucan. Out of all 1,600 birds that occur in Ecuador only one graces the cover of the seminal field guide, Birds of Ecuador. This was the bird that looks like it should be advertising sugar coated cereal to the youth of North America; this is the plate-billed mountain-toucan.

The crimson-rumped toucanet proved to be an easy bird to add to the list because it is a regular visitor to fruit feeders and we saw our first pair at the feeders of San Tadeo.

Out first sighting of the endemic, Choco toucan was in the lowlands at Rio Selache. Our views were far off and the toucan was backlit leaving me wanting better views.

A few days later at the fruit feeders of two Choco toucans flew in to have some banana. This time the toucan was 15 feet away!

A few days later, while heading up the dirt road to Bellavista, we heard the distant call of the plate-billed mountain-toucan. This was not a very satisfying view of this colorful toucan and we hoped to have better views as we headed up the road but we didn’t.

It wasn’t until we were heading back in the afternoon that two mountain-toucans crossed our path! We stopped the bus and got the birds in our bins as they foraged in the top canopy. This, the poster bird of The Birds of Ecuador was finally ours!

July 3, 2018

In the early hours of dawn we threaded through the sprawling outskirts of the capital city of Quito, climbing up from the Andean plateau to the highlands. Outside the bus, people where coming to life, taking advantage of the year round 12 hours of daylight. We were taking advantage of the early light to add some birds to our Ecuador list.

In the morning we had breakfasted at the Puembo Birding Garden (22 minutes from the airport), and were now on route to Yanacocha Reserva at 11,000 feet above sea level. This would be one of our highest birding locations on our nine day tour.

After an hour and a half drive, the last part of which was ascending a rutted dirt road that looked scarcely wide enough to accept the width of our bus, we pulled into the parking lot of the reserve. The bus doors opened and we stepped out into the chilly mountain, morning air.

Yanacocha was established as a private reserve in 2001 by Fundación Jocotoco and now encompasses 1,200 hectacres. On the sign to the reserve was the silhouette of one of the key hummingbirds to see an Yanacocha and we were 10 yards down the trail to the hummingbird and banana feeders when our guide, Luke, spotted our target bird, silhouetted agains the high Andean air, perched up in a bush.

“Sword-billed!”

The sword-billed hummingbird (Ensifera ensifera) is a unique member of the hummingbird family, in fact it is the only member of it’s genus. The sword-billed has the longest bill length compared to body size than any other bird in the world. Their bills can be 10 cm long, making it impossible to preen itself but making pollen gathering possible from flowers with longer long corollas, in accessible to other hummingbirds.

The sword-billed is ours!

When we approached the feeders, three Andean guans were in attendance. This would be the first of 11 birds with “Andean” in it’s common English name that I added to my world birdlist.

After watching the feeders we proceeded down the level trail to the hummingbird feeders that were about a mile from the entrance. We observed more Andean gems, including more sword-bills.

We then headed further down trail to see if we could find the owl that had been observed a few weeks before, hunting hummingbirds at the feeders. Luke played a call and within second there were three white-throated screech-owls above our heads. One landed on a branch eight feet directly above my head. A raise my camera to to eye and took the following photography. It lingered long enough to do a quick sketch but in the moment my pencil and sketckbook stayed in my pocket.

Why bird Ecuador?

A few numbers and comparisons can help answer this simple question.

At 109,484 square miles, the country of Ecuador is roughly the size of the state of Nevada. In fact there are six states in the United States that have a greater area than Ecuador, including my home state of California.

While Ecuador is a small South American country (it ranks ninth out of the twelve countries by area), it has a astonishingly high 1, 600 bird species that have been recorded within it’s borders. Six species are endemic to the mainland and the Galapagos Islands has a massive 30 endemics.

Just to give some perspective,  Ecuador has twice as many bird species than the United States and Canada combined; Twice as many species as the Europe.

In this small country 132 species of hummingbird have been recorded in Ecuador.

And it is not just the sheer number of birds that makes Ecuador such an enticing destination for a world birder, there are the superlatives!

One can start with the National Bird of Ecuador, the largest flying bird in the world, rare the Andean Condor. You can also find the largest hummingbird in the world, the giant hummingbird at the feeders of the Andes and the hummingbird with the largest beak in the world.

The giant hummingbird, Patagonia gigas.

So as my Copa flight was on final approach to to Andean city of Quito, I was looking forward to the incredible mega diversity of this diminutive South American nation. Buenos dias Ecuador!

When my childhood home was put on the market, my brother and I went through the house to see what we would save, what would be donated, and was was destined for the landfill. This was a bittersweet and laborious process, both physically and mentally.

Under my parent’s bed was an oblong cardboard box. I pulled the box from underneath the bed and opened the lid, expecting to find sweaters from the late ’70s, early ’80s and other winter clothes. But instead I found much, much more!

In the box was a collection of report cards, drawings, writing samples, a battery of assessments about me, and other paperwork from the academic careers of the Perry brothers that my mother had collected and saved over our time in school and kept in the oblong box under the bed that had been accumulating a thick patina of dust.

I was seeing much of this for the first time and I was seeing my report cards and work samples and independent assessments through the eyes of an educator. As if this was someone else entirely. How would this boy do in my class? I wondered. I really looked like quite a student! (Insert irony here!)

The discovery revealed much about myself at the time I was in elementary school, which at the time was kindergarten through 6th grade.

One discovery that made a deep impact on me and my teaching was a single piece of paper that was neither a report card, assessment, or sample but a neatly handwritten note from my 6th grade teacher, Mrs. Noether.

I had no memory of this note, which I received close to 30 years before. I was astonished by its openness and candor. It was a message to a student, from a teacher. One sentence had a deep resonance with me. Mrs. Noether writes, “It took me a while to get to know you this year but to know you is to appreciate you and your special talents.” I’m not sure what “special talents” she was alluding to, it certainly wasn’t math but I bet it was my artist talents.

Since I discovered that personal note, written by my sixth grade teacher, I decided to write a letter to each of my 30 students in my first year teaching fourth grade.

I bought note cards and began the daunting writing process. These notes were not report card comments or anything about their academic progress, they were notes from the heart; a message from a teacher to their student. On one card I did a quick sketch. I couldn’t help it. I paused. I just couldn’t leave it at that, I had to add some watercolor, even though the card stock was not the best paper for watercolor. Now here I found myself in a bit of a quandary. Do I stop and restart the card without an illustration or do I illustrate all 30 cards? The choice was clear, I illustrated all the cards with a unique illustration that was related to each individual student. That was five years ago and I have done it every year since.

I start the process in early May and I had trouble starting this year. It can be hard to start a large undertaking and this year I needed a kick start to put the process in motion.

That kickstart came in the form of a former student, now in 6th grade, who was volunteering in my room for her community service hours. Just when my motivation was down and I found it hard to take that first step forward, she mentioned that, not only had she saved the card that I have written and illustrated to her, the image was now framed and hanging in her room. This was all I needed to get me started!

Educators strive to make an impact, to reach all of our students, to connect. Most of the time you don’t know that you reached a student and made that impact. Sometimes teaching can be a thankless profession but there are those times when you are aware that you have make that connection and created that impression. This is what keeps you going, this is the fire that fuels an educator.

The feature image is a selection from the 28 cards I wrote and illustrated to my class this year. From roller derby to Winnie-The-Pooh, burrowing owl to keel-billed toucan, Shirley Temple to Cristiano Ronaldo. These images are as diverse as my students.

I can only hope that, 30 years from now, they too will find one of my cards and reflect and remember their time in my class as I did from finding a handwritten note, from a sixth grade teacher to her student.