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WELCOME TO MINDO BIRD TOURS
Dear Friends,
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 real 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 I established Mindo Bird Tours as the first birding company based in Mindo. We have been in business ever since and are still the only birding tour company based in Mindo and now also with an office in Quito. Beware of imitations - and there are many - who claim to be a birding tour company and even copy our name. We recommend that you ask for their credentials and official legal status.
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 14 years to establish the reserve, actively revegetating previously pastured areas, and protecting the primary forest. Our efforts have paid off – we now have regular observations of such rare species as Hoary Puffleg and Spectacled Bear 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 Europe 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 full-time staff of Ecuadorians and foreigners 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
ABOUT US
Staff Luncheon
  
Gabriel Bucheli Gabriel Bucheli is a native of Quito with a degree in Geography and Environmental Studies from the Catholic University of Ecuador. He is fluent in English, is a licensed national guide and has worked as a birding and naturalist guide with Mindo Bird Tours for almost 6 years and is a co-owner of Mindo Bird Tours. Gabriel is known for his easy-going manner and his ability to bird day and night without ever getting tired! He and his wife Karla have two young daughters and reside in Quito.
  
Marcelo Quipo
Marcelo is a native of the Cosanga area of eastern Ecuador and has worked as a birding guide for over 7 years. His keen hearing and ability to get great scope views of the birds is becoming legendary. Marcelo is a co-owner of Mindo Bird Tours and lives in Baeza with his wife and children.
Mauricio Ruano
Mauricio is from Tena in eastern Ecuador and has been a birding guide for over 6 years. He has also become an accomplished bird photographer and videographer. He is a co-owner of Mindo Bird Tours and lives near Quito with his wife and family.
Dr. Fabricio Cela
Dr. Fabricio Cela has worked with us for 12 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 12 years as one of our professional tour 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 parts of Ecuador and Peru – which is where birders like to go!
CPA Fernando Muñoz
CPA Fernando Muñoz is the MBT accountant. His 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 where she was especially involved in conservation efforts for the Golden-cheeked Warbler and Black-capped Vireo. After co-leading various birding tours to Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Ecuador and numerous personal birding trips to and field research in Brazil, Panama and Venezuela, Jane was ready to move to bird-rich South America. In 1993 she moved to Montevideo, Uruguay 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.
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