The bird that changed Ecuador: how a chance discovery of a rare species helped to save many more

A male Ecuadorian hillstar, a hummingbird native to the Andes, sitting on a chuquiragua, an Andean wildflower, in the Chakana nature reserve in Ecuador. Photograph: Javier Aznar González de Rueda

I have to confess that I rarely enjoy birding in montane cloud forests. The birds that live in these mountainous, cool and humid habitats are masters of disguise, usually passing themselves off as a leaf or other form of foliage. But if I want to see antpittas – elusive, ground-dwelling birds that rarely show themselves – then I have no choice.

So, on a cool, cloudy morning my guide, Juan Carlos Crespo, Fredy Ramón Castillo, a local ranger, and I are standing on a steep, muddy path close to Tapichalaca Lodge, 2,500 metres above sea level in the eastern Andes, waiting for the jocotoco antpitta to emerge from the undergrowth.