Churute Mangroves Ecological Reserve is 25 miles southeast of Guayaquil, Ecuador and the only Pacific coast mangrove forest open to the public in South America. It covers 135 square miles which includes the mangroves as well as the Churute Mountain Range (up to 2,300 feet in height) and some lakes, including Lake El Canclon. We took a motorized canoe tour through the mangroves and visited a nearby cacao farm, located off a small river, where we actually saw more birdlife than in the mangroves.

In the mangroves we saw white ibis, roseate spoonbills, white egrets and cocoi herons along with Pacific mangrove ghost crabs. In the vicinity of the cacao farm we saw Pacific parrotlets, a white-tailed kite, tropical kingbirds, shiny cowbirds, a roadside hawk, pale-legged horneros, a boat-billed flycatcher and blue-gray tanagers.

Posted on June 18, 2022 04:07 PM by rwcannon57