The Cloud Forest - Before It Is All Gone | A nature documentary (kinkajou, toucan, quetzal, birding)

In this episode of Before It Is All Gone free documentary series filmed in 4K, we visit the different cloud forests of Ecuador. This forest is an incredible wildlife habitat, where visitors can see some iconic species of South America. And some of the best birding in the world.

This nature documentary series brings to you incredible footage of wild animals, predators, and prey from this incredible natural habitat in Ecuador.

Here you can find iconic animal species like the Andean cock of the rock, the Plate-billed mountain toucan, potoo, quetzal, aracaris, and toucanets among dozens of different hummingbird species. But there are more than only the incredible birds in this habitat. Some of the famous mammals you might find here are the kinkajou, olingo, tayra, and of course the spectacled bear. And if this would not be enough, on a good night, you can find endless different and incredible insects, frogs, and reptiles.

At Bellavista Cloud Forest Lodge and Reserve you will really feel being in the clouds. Most days it is super humid here and often rains. In exchange the place is like a fairytale, everything is covered with moss, air plants, bromeliads, and ferns are everywhere and the forest is the deepest green all around you. Usually, everything is wet, it is either cold or fresh thanks to the high altitude. And there is life all around you. There are hummingbird feeders around the lodge, but even inside the forest, you will be constantly surrounded by these little beautiful creatures humming and buzzing around. There are trogons and mountain toucans around as well. But for me, the mammals take the show here. In the daytime, you can see squirrels, and also tayras regularly visit the lodge. The Tayra is a big-sized mammal of the weasel family, with the tail it can grow up to a meter long. They eat anything and everything, they are opportunistic and very successful predators. They are hardly seen by humans, so it is super special to have them visit the lodge on a regular basis.
In the evenings still, mammals are the protagonists of the nature show. Kinkajou and a newly discovered olingo species visit the lodge regularly, so if you stay there a few nights and are willing to stay up till late, you can almost surely see at least one of them. The kinkajou is an arboreal and nocturnal mammal from Central and South America with a fully prehensile tail. The olingo is related to kinkajou and looks very similar, but without the prehensile tail. Both animals are incredible and make super cool wildlife encounters.
And on a good night, if you walk around in the forest with a flashlight, you can find myriads of insects, moths, frogs, and some cool reptiles too.

The Birdwatchers House is very close to Bellavista, and it is specialized to birdwatching. They successfully managed to have feeders for the mountain toucans and have so many hummingbirds around that it would be impossible to count the species. I visited this place a second time, specifically to see the toucans, and although I had to wait this second time, I managed to get a good look at them on both occasions. For sure worth the visit!

Angel Paz is the real birders paradise! They did things nobody could ever do. They have toucans, the famous Andean cock of the rock, quetzal, potoo, humming birds and so much more! And of course the antpitas, the most famous species of all, which they managed to habituate, so the birds appear when Angel calls them. Maria, Shakira are just two of the antpitas which come out of the jungle, when their name is called. This habituation process takes years, but the result is a birding experience as nowhere else in the world. And I even managed to see a potoo here last time I visited! Best day ever!

If you would like to save this bird paradise, you can donate to Angel, to be able to buy out the siblings, who want to sell the land, which would effectively mean the end of this amazing place:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/save-the-a...

In this free documentary, I want to share the natural wonders of the cloud forest with everybody interested in nature and wildlife. The aim of Before It Is All Gone is to share the unique animal species and amazing wildlife habitats (which I have the luck to visit regularly) with the widest audience possible. I hope you will enjoy this high-definition free wildlife documentary. If you do so, please don't forget to subscribe to the channel, and watch my other wildlife videos as well from all around the world.

Everything was recorded in 4K quality, to get the best possible quality wildlife experience for you.

00:00 Intro
01:48 Birds at Bellavista
02:29 Mammals of Bellavista (Tayra)
03:18 Night walk
04: 52 Kinkajou
06:27 Mountain Toucan
08:58 Angel Paz (conservation)
12:00 Potoo

#birding #documentary #wildlife #nature #Ecuador #cloudforest #naturedocumentary #wildlifedocumentary #freedocumentary #4K #birds