Seeing any Antpitta used to be an impossible task. They are very secretive and are often in the depths of the rain forest. If anything they are heard but not seen. Angel Paz, a farmer near Mindo, loved walking around his land and over the years started feeding worms he would find to some of the birds on his property. It turned out some of these birds are some of the most sought out by birders from around the world! When Vinicio Perez our guide took us to Angel's farm, we were amazed by the almost fluorescent Cock of the Rock Lek for which he had set up a blind. However the more serious birders with us on the tour were super excited about the Antpittas. This was back in 2006 when we didn't know much about birding in the tropics. Angel fed this Giant Anpitta who he had named Manuel and he pretty much walked right up to us. We didn't reallize what a big deal this was until we did some reading on antpittas. It turns out Manuel is one of the most legendary, shy and elusive birds in the tropical rainforests. It also turned out the other birder that was walking around with us was Ken Kaufman, the writer of many field guides! We had no idea. In fact, he even wrote about his experience in his own blog:   (Click). Angel's story gives some hope to the forests in Ecuador. He has transformed part of his farmland to trails and has restored the forest. It is now loaded with many rare species and should not be missed:   (Click) .

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