Binoculars in the Backcountry: Colombia

Multicolored Tanager

Colombia is a South American country with the largest bird list of any in the world at over 2000 species. That's 20% of all the species on earth, all in one country only only 2.5 times the size of California in land area. The amazing bird diversity of Colombia is due its location in the tropics, plus considerable variety of habitats, including mountains, deep river valleys, grasslands, and Amazon. Until recently it was missing from our list of travel places, but no more. Colombia is far too large and diverse to see all in one trip, so for 25 days from August 17 to September 10 we birded a select part of the country - the Andes mountains. In Colombia the Andes divide into three distinct mountain ranges - West, Central, and East, with huge river valleys between. Most of our time was spent in the West and Central ranges, and the Cauca Valley between. Towards the end of the trip we moved back to Bogota and spent 5 days looking for specialties in the East Andes. We were joined on this trip by our good friends from Wisconsin, Tim and Agnes. This was our first trip together since our Covid world shutdown near stranding in Bhutan over 2 years ago. It was wonderful to see and travel with them again.

As usual, the trip was far too long (and exciting!) for one blog post, so I'll divide it up into a number of posts. And as always, bird lists included in the posts are not all inclusive, but representative of a list or two for a location.

August 17, 2022. After a red-eye out of Los Angeles, we dropped in to Bogota at about 6:00 am and hit the ground running. On these trips we always live by the motto, "Sleep when you're dead!" Our driver for the trip, Erney, picked us up promptly for the short distance ride to the hotel. There we met our guide Alejandro Nagy and started our first day. The trip was arranged by Manakin Nature Tours, who did an outstanding job organizing this tour. I'll have more to say at the end, but both Erney and Alejandro were fantastic, among the best driver and guide we've ever had.

Not to make the first day too crazy, we visited some sites in Bogota. First up, and the highlight of the day, was iconic Sanctuary of Monserrate. There is a trail to the top of the mountain, but we took the tourist route up in a gondola. Perched high atop a hill on the edge of Bogota, the 500 year old sanctuary has stunning views of the city, and even a small birding trail where we got our first life bird for the trip - Blue-throated Starfrontlet.

eBird list - Monserrate

Looking toward the top of Monserrate

Our ride to the top

The sprawling city of Bogota

The Sanctuary atop Monserrate

Wide angle panorama of Bogota from Monserrate

The rest of the afternoon was spent eating and museum hopping in old town Bogota. We saw the fascinating Botero Art Museum, and world famous Gold Museum. It was a great start to the trip.

August 18, 2022. No rest for the weary, we were on a 6:10 am flight to Cali the next morning. Cali is at the south end of the Cauca Valley, between the West and Central Andes. From here over the next 19 days we would work our way north, bouncing back and forth between the two mountain ranges, ending in Medellin for another short flight back to Bogota. You might wonder how we used only one driver for the entire trip, and flew between major regions? Erney left after taking us around Bogota the day before, and drove most of the night to meet us in Cali. He was at the airport when we arrived just after 7:00 am ready to go! Amazing.

Our first destination was the small village of La Florida, and the feeders at Bosque de la Aves. This site is probably the most reliable for a difficult regional specialty, the stunning Multicolored Tanager. Although this species is regular in this part of the Andes, it is usually very difficult to see in the forest (before the trip was over, we would have two more excellent viewings of "wild" Multicolored Tanagers). The feeders didn't disappoint and we saw both male and female birds, among many others. After a couple hours enjoying some fantastic birding we took the short drive to La Minga for lunch and more feeder viewing.

eBird list - La Florida

eBird List - La Minga

Then it was time for a longer drive to our final destination for the evening, the lodge at Finca la Aruacana, arriving just early enough for a little birding before dark.

eBird List - Aruacana

The feeders at La Florida

Acorn Woodpecker. While technically the same species as ours, they look and sound quite different.

Black-capped Tanager

Blue-winged Mountain Tanager

Brown Violetear

Golden-naped Tanager

Long-tailed Sylph

Long-tailed Sylph

Multicolored Tanager

Red-headed Barbet pair

Western Emerald

August 19, 2022. This day will be engrained in our memories forever. Not only was the birding fantastic, but the cultural exposure and mode of transportation made for a very special day. We left the lodge very early for the long drive down the west slope of the West Andes, ending at the small village of Cordoba at near sea level along the Danubio River. From here we would take one of the most unique modes of transportation we've ever experience in the birding world, a motorcycle driven train cart. Known as a Brujia (little witch), this is the only way to reach the village and forest reserve of San Cipriano, our destination about 7 miles into the forest along the river. This village of about 500 is comprised almost entirely of Colombians of African descent (descendants of former slaves). The music in town was loud and the folks were having a grand time. We passed through the village on foot with a big smile on our faces, reaching the forest reserve of native sub-tropical humid forest. We met up with local guide Never and explored the forest. The birding was fantastic, even if the photography wasn't so productive. But the bird of the day, at least for Susan, was one of her most desired birds in the tropics - Lanceolated Monklet. We had tried numerous times in several countries in the tropics to see this tiny member of the puffbird family, with no success. But on this day the bird was ours. Almost immediately after reaching the forest, Never and Alejandro heard a Monklet calling. A short time later we had a pair in view. After exploring the forest for the morning, we had a traditional lunch of fish at a tiny village restaurant. A bit more birding remained before we were back on the brujia and off to the lodge for the evening. What a grand day.

eBird list San Cipriano

Our "chariots" await

We all jammed onto one car for a cozy ride

There's only one track, so if two brujia meet head-on, someone must give

Crossing the Rio Danubio

These things move right along!

Lunch time!

Guide Alejandro and local guide Never

Lanceolated Monklet

Rufous Motmot

August 20, 2022. An early departure from the lodge got us to our first birding destination for the morning along a road near El Queremal. Here a single streetlight burns all night and attracts moths, which in turn attracts moth eating birds at first light. We saw some great birds, but none better than the spectacular Crested Ant-Tanager. Any bird with "Ant" in the name is among the most difficult birds to see anywhere, so when you get a golden opportunity to see one in the open like this, it is special. Driver Erney also spotted a roosting Lyre-tailed Nightjar nearby in a roadside cliff that let us have excellent looks.

eBird list - Antigua via a Buenaventura

After a couple hours of birding the road we moved down to Doña Dora, a small restaurant and feeders owned by a local family. Here we would bird the road and watch the feeders, and of course eat a fantastic lunch! A heavy afternoon rain shower pinned us down to the feeders for a long while, but we weren't complaining.

eBird list - Doña Dora

Roadside viewing of Erney's Lyre-tailed Nightjar

Doña Dora's

The view from Doña Dora's deck

There are small feeders at the lunch table, so we had extra guests

I'm not going to attempt to identify most of the flowers we saw, just share

Crested Ant-Tanager

Lyre-tailed Nightjar

Black-chinned Mountain Tanager

Toucan Barbet

August 21, 2022. The next day was a long travel day, but not before a morning of birding in the lowlands of Laguna de Sonso. Here we would see the indescribable Horned Screamer and many other fantastic lowland species.

eBird list - Loboguerrero

eBird list - Laguna de Sonso

Horned Screamer

Horned Screamer pair

Jet Antbird

Spectacled Parrotlet

Common Potoo

After birding, and needing sustenance for the long afternoon drive, we stopped at a local "BBQ" spot that Alejandro picked at random just by the looks of it as we drove by. What a pick it was, as we had a serious carnivore feast on spit-roasted pork, beef, and chicken. All of us looked in amazement at the huge bowls of meat hunks and side dishes that were delivered, then proceeded to gorge ourselves into a food coma. It was a tough job, but we were up to the task!