Green Sea Urchin (Lytechinus semituberdulatus), Galapagos Islands, Ecuador

Here's a cool shell found in the Galapagos Islands of Ecuador. It's the shell of an endemic, or locally found, green sea urchin ( Lytechinus semituberculatus ), I think, because of the green coloring. The coloring could be caused by other reasons, I guess. We saw the living green sea urchins below water, too. 

Fawn-Breasted Brilliant (Helidoxa rubinoides) | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Fawn-Breasted Brilliant (Helidoxa rubinoides) | Flickr - Photo Sharing! This is just one of the birds we spotted on our ecotour led by San Jorge Lodges. See more on my Ecuador Birds set. We spent about 10 days with San Jorge Lodges and by the end of our trip had spotted over 100 birds, some in the Galapagos Islands.

Violet-tailed Sylph

While bird watching in the mountains of Ecuador near Quito at the San Jorge Tandayapa Lodge, we spotted this Violet-tailed Sylph (Aglaiocercus coelestis). A male, his tail is quite conspicuous. The bronze on his shoulder, the matching violet at throat, and the straight black bill help to make the identification. He's also found in the mountains between 800 meters and 1950 meters.

The lodge hangs feeders where bird watchers are likely to spy dozens of different hummingbird varieties. When bird watching in Ecuador, it is helpful to have a GPS or altimeter to check where you are at since many species are only found in a given range.