The Sani Lodge built a canopy Tower  (Kapok Tower) in the jungle in order for their guests to get a different perspective of the Amazon biodiversity.    Looking across the rainforest canopy was incredible.  In order to get to the tower, we canoed along the river before landing and hiking through the forest.    The platform is 37m (100 ft)  high and in order to get to the platform, you had to climb up 202 steps.   Fortunately for me, the guides were very wiling to carry all of my camera equipment.  I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't have made it up the tower without their help(at least not in time to actually photograph).  We went on this excursion twice which was a lot of fun.  The second time I was more prepared for some landscape shots having brought my wide-angle lens. We arrived at the platform before sunrise, however I am starting with some shots taken on the way back to the canoes to give you an idea of what the canopy looked like from the bottom.

20150118_Ecuador_0021 This first shot shows the steps on the left and the enormous Kapok tree with the platform  built on top.  

20150118_Ecuador_0022 A clearer view of the steps that we actually had to climb.  I wasn't kidding when I said there were about 202 steps.  

20150118_Portfolio Photos_0100 Kind of a neat view looking up into the massive trees, tower and platform.

20150118_Ecuador_0024 The people  are distorted because of the  wide angle lens but the  photo gives you an idea of just how high up the canopy tower was.  

20150116_Ecuador_0002 On the first trip to the tower, I used my iPhone to take a few shots.  This shot was taken just as the sun was coming up.  

20150118_Ecuador_0012 I was clearly out of my league in this type of  bird photography.  These were the trees that we were looking for birds in.  Out of all of the places in Ecuador,  I found that this area was particularly challenging.  Without a really long lens, I pretty much just took shots of the birds that were close and even then they were heavily cropped.  At times I just had to enjoy seeing what the birds looked like (with the help of binoculars) and watching them fly off in the distance.   We saw a lot of parrots flying over the area.

20150118_Ecuador_0011 I also spent some time doing some landscape shots as the scenery was very interesting from this height.  This was still pretty early so there was lots of fog.  A few of the birds would come to the near-by trees so these were the ones I got photographs of.  

20150116_Ecuador_0001 This was the first bird that I saw on the tower.  The Common Potoo was actually roosting in trees just beside the platform- how lucky was that.  The bird was totally undisturbed by all of us.  At this point he was awake.  The bird is actually camouflaged to look like a log as you can see.  The bird wasn't actually that easy to spot until I was told exactly where it was. 

20150116_Ecuador_0003 A Yellow-browed Tody-flycatcher.

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20150116_Ecuador_0001 This shot of the Potoo was actually taken a couple of hours later as the lighting was slightly better and now the bird had its eyes shut.  Amazing that with all of us constantly moving tripods and gear around the platform that it had not moved.    When we came back a couple of days later, the bird looked like it hadn't moved at all.  During the day the bird perches upright on the tree stump and is almost invisible looking like part of the stump because it stays so completely still as it perches.  

20150116_Ecuador_0002 A Cinnamon Attila.

20150116_Ecuador_0001 This bird is a species of bird in the Tyrannize family, the tyrant flycatchers.  The birds are found in the range centered on the Amazon Basin.  I really liked its colour.  

20150116_Ecuador_0008 A far away photo of a Tourquoise Tanager.  I wasn't able to ever get a close  shot of him with the trees in the background instead of the sky. This tanager is restricted to areas with a humid forest with its primary residence being the Amazon.  The adults are 14cm long and weigh around 20 grams.  These are fairly social birds found in groups.

20150116_Ecuador_0009 This Scale-breasted Woodpecker actually stayed in the one area for quite some time- he was in the trees far below the platform so this is a heavily cropped image.  This bird prefers tropical, moist lowland forests. 

20150118_Ecuador_0016 One of the more colourful birds that approached the Canopy.  

20150118_Ecuador_0015 The Many-banded Aracari.  It was about this time when I could not get the camera to focus properly.  Both Glenn and Ross tried to figure it out but I ended up having to manually focus for a while, until the issue seemed to resolve itself.   

20150118_Ecuador_0018 This Black-headed Parrot was spotted way below feeding on some kind of fruit.  

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This is pretty much a 100% crop which gives you an idea just how small the bird was in the frame.  

20150116_Ecuador_0010 A far away photo of a Paradise Tanager.  

20150118_Ecuador_0019 A Green Honeycreeper all fluffed up.

20150118_Ecuador_0020 The Green Honeycreeper is a small bird in the tanager family.   

20150118_Ecuador_0001 Walking back through the forest to the canoes.