Buenaventura is a lush rainforest filled with epiphyte-clad trees now owned by the Jocotoco Foundation. It is home to some of Ecuador's most threatened species because this forest remnant is one of the few protected forest patches remaining intact in southwestern Ecuador. The reserve consistently offers some of the best birding in Ecuador and is noted for the unusually high number of endemic species residing there. The upper part of the forest is home to the endangered El Oro Parakeet a species only discovered in 1980 and found only here. It is also the only known home of the endangered El Oro Tapaculo. The lower part of the reserve is home to the elusive Long-wattled Umbrellabird. The Speckled Tanager is found only here in all of Ecuador and may actually represent a separate species from the forms found elsewhere in the Neotropics. Feeders in the reserve attract a good variety of hummingbirds, including Emerald-bellied Woodnymph, Violet-bellied Hummingbird, Purple-bibbed Whitetip, White-tipped Sicklebill, White-vented Plumeleteer, and Brown-billed Scythebill.
