Utuana Reserve

Current size: 148 acres (60 ha)

Fundación Jocotoco's Utuana reserve is the only known location in Ecuador of the Black-crested Tit-Tyrant. This reserve is currently not supported by WLT funding.

The forest of the Utuana Reserve © Nigel Simpson

Utuana is a small reserve close to the Peruvian border and protects an unusual type of high altitude, epiphyte rich montane forest which is transitional between evergreen and the deciduous Tumbesian forest.

It is managed jointly by Fundación Jocotoco and the Loja based conservation foundation, Arcoiris and it contains many endemic and threatened bird species.

Wildlife at Utuana

Globally threatened bird species include:

Black-crested Tit-Tyrant. Utuana is the only location in Ecuador for this Maranon valley endemic. Photo © nigel Simpson

• Ochre-bellied Dove (Leptotila ochraceiventris)
• Grey-headed Antbird (Myrmeciza griseiceps)
• Ochraceous Attila (Attila torridus)
• Piura Hemispingus (Hemispingus piurae)
• Rufous-necked Foliage-Gleaner (Syndactyla ruficollis)

15 near threatened and restricted range species, including:

• West Peruvian Screech-owl (Megascops roboratus)
• Pacific Pygmy-owl (Glaucidium peruanum)
• Watkins’s Antpitta (Grallaria watkinsi)
• Loja Tyrannulet
• Rufous-winged Tyrannulet (Mecocerculus calopterus)
• Black-crested Tit-tyrant (Anairetes nigrocristatus)
• White-winged Brush-finch (Atlapetes leucopterus)
• Bay-crowned Brush-finch (Atlapetes seebohmi)

Fundación Jocotoco reserves:

| Buenaventura | Jorupe | Narupa | Río Canandé | Tapichalaca | Utuana | Yanacocha | Yunguilla |

« Back to Jocotoco Reserves page

More Information on the Tropical Forest Project

To learn more about the Ecuador project visit the main project page: Help Save the Rainforests.