Birding Colombia

Today's post is my trip report from our three-week visit in March to the Colombian Andes. I've omitted the bird list which is big; I personally saw well over 400 species of birds, 65 of which occur only in these mountains (endemics or near-endemics) and 119 of which were life birds. If you want a copy of the bird list (with or without a few pictures) let me know.

March 2-March 22, 2012

Introduction

Most birders know that Colombia has the most diverse avifauna of any country in the world but until recently, hardly anyone dared to go there (and things did not always turn out well for the few that did go).

Colombia sits in the northwest corner of South America astride the northern Andes, attached to Central America via Panama (which, before the Canal, used to belong to Colombia). It has both Caribbean and Atlantic coasts, a large area of llanos (which is shares with Venezuela) and an even larger area in the Amazon basin (shared with Venezuela, Brazil, Peru and Ecuador). But the great centers of endemicism in Colombia are in the Andes.

How many species of birds are there in Colombia? The count keeps rising as new species are discovered or split off from old ones. The total also depends on who you listen to. A fairly conservative number (following the well-known Clements list, maintained by Cornell) is 1870+; the International Ornithological Committee (IOC) list, which I use, would be even higher; either way, Colombia is well ahead of its closest competitors, Peru and Brazil. The total includes an astonishing 70+ endemics (i.e. birds known only from Colombia) to which can be added several dozen more that are classified as ‘near-endemics’ or ‘restricted range’ species with distributions extending only somewhat into neighboring countries (not surprisingly, the distribution of living things depends on habitat not political boundaries). With such small ranges – sometimes restricted to a single forest or mountaintop – many of these birds are inevitably vulnerable, threatened or critically endangered by forest clearance, climate change, hunting (for the pot or the cage bird trade), and other causes. At least one Colombian species has apparently already crossed the line into extinction and others hover on the brink.

Fortunately, a major Colombian organization, ProAves, was founded almost fifteen years ago, in partnership with many local, national and international organizations in order to protect species through research, education and, above all, land protection. ProAves now operates an expanding series of preserves that, along with the Colombian National Park system and some watershed reserves, is protecting habitat for many key species, including many only recently discovered or re-discovered.

In spite of all this, birders (as well as other potential tourists) have stayed away from Colombia in droves. This is not surprising considering that Colombia has a long and violent history of internal conflict, exacerbated by political and drug wars. For years much of the countryside, including some of the best birding areas, was controlled by the FARC or Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, an organization that may have started out with political aims but eventually descended into drug trafficking and kidnapping as a way of life. The wisdom of staying away from Colombia was notably demonstrated in 1998 when four American birders, two of them birding mates of ours, decided to go and look for the Cundinamarca Antbird (Grallaria kaestneri, discovered by and named for the American world birder Peter Kaestner, then the U.S. consul in Bogotá). The four got off the plane in Bogotá, rented a car and were driving to the area where the bird had been found a few years earlier when they ran into an armed contingent of FARC guerillas who held them for more than a month before they were released (at the time we gave interviews and produced photographs for the Colombian media to show that they really were birders and not CIA agents). Since then, however, a change in the Colombian government and vigorous political, police and military actions have cleared out or disarmed the FARC from all but the remote fringes and potentially opened up the country to tourism, eco- and otherwise.

In spite of its dark past, Colombia is now one of the most attractive destinations in Latin America. It is a lively, thriving place and, for the moment at least, quite non-touristy (hardly any English is spoken). In spite of this, it is a welcoming and relatively comfortable place to visit. Although there is certainly poverty, it is not as gritty as many developing countries; there are no beggars on the street and no crowds of small children following foreigners around. In fact, visitors are made to feel comfortable by the casual acceptance of the few (generally obvious) tourists that do turn up and by the fact that Colombians are very friendly people. They particularly like Americans since American money helped defeat the FARC, because there is a high level of American investment in the country, and because American conservation organizations have helped them buy up critical habitat and build lodges for birders and other ecotourists. Many of the leading bird tour companies are now sponsoring trips to find Colombian endemics. Most of these are organized by EcoTurs, a Colombian organization that teams with ProAves. For various reasons, we elected to go with Manu Expeditions led by Barry Walker. Manu was one of the first outside companies to return to Colombia and Barry led the first part of the trip himself with his associate, Fabrice Schmitt, taking over midway.

Exactly why the slopes of the Andes in Colombia (as well as in Ecuador and Peru) are so rich in species remains one of the great mysteries of ornithology. The number of restricted-area species, many limited to a single valley or small forest, is very high and is a major factor in making South American the ‘bird continent’, holding almost a third of the world’s birds (Colombia itself comes close to harboring a fifth of the world’s species).

The Colombian Andes divide into three ranges or cordilleras, separated by the valleys of the Magdalena and Cauca rivers. All three ranges attract moisture which forms clouds and cloud forests, and also produces heavy rainfall; the forests of the western cordillera in Colombia and northern Ecuador, known as the Chocó, are some of the wettest in the world. A very high percentage of the endless succession of streams and rivers eventually reach the Caribbean, most of them via the Magdalena River, one of the great waterways of South America and formerly a route for the Spanish connecting Nueva Granada (as Colombia was originally called) to Europe.

There are fifteen volcanoes in these mountains, some of them currently active. The slopes of the central and eastern Cordilleras go up to 18,000 feet and there is snow and ice in the upper reaches. Below that is the cold zone known as páramo which is vegetated and has many unique species. The zone between 15,500 and 6,500 feet is where most of the major towns and cities are located (Bogotá at 8,600 feet is one of the highest capital cities in the world) but also where most of the major forests are (or were) located. Clouds often sit on these slopes producing some of the most productive cloud forests in the world – at least where they have not been cleared for cattle or urban development. Coming down still further is the subtropical zone (6,500 down to 3,000 feet), also extensively cleared but with remnant rain forests. Below 3000 feet is the tierra caliente, the tropical lowlands through which the big rivers flow.

With the exception of the highest, we passed through and birded in all of these zones. Even though we had three weeks to reconnoiter, a great deal of time was spent merely getting from place to place, often on rough, curvy, semi- or un-paved mountain roads, sometimes in jeeps or other 4-wheel drive vehicles. Mostly we stayed in lodges (impeccably clean, generally comfortable with reasonably good food), sometimes in local hotels, almost always of decent quality.

Can this trip be done as do-it-yourself? It’s possible but you would need to rent a 4-wheel drive. Experience with bad mountain roads would be highly desirable and basic Spanish would be a necessity. Even so, a local guide or guides would be almost indispensable and you should probably start out by trying to arrange things with EcoTurs – just as almost all the bird tour companies do.



The Itinerary

Friday, March 2 & Saturday, March 3:

We flew non-stop from Newark, NJ, to Bogotá, on a 5½ hour Continental/United flight over the Caribbean. Bogotá is in the Eastern Cordillera some c. 8,600 above sea level; it is in the same time zone as New York and we arrived the same evening, staying in a hotel in the northern (and upscale) suburbs. We spent the next day in old Bogotá, visiting some of the striking colonial churches and various museums of local art and history, picking up a few typical city birds on the way (flocks of Brown-bellied Swallows were notable).

That evening we were joined at the hotel by Barry Walker, founder of Manu Expeditions, co-owner of the Manu Wildlife Center, and British Consul in Cuzco. The rest of our crew were birders from California and Florida. The group included Julian and Kathy Donahue; Julian is the former curator of Lepidoptera at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles and a secretary of The Lepidopterists’ Society as well as a birder with experience on several continents collecting insects and watching birds.

Sunday, March 4:

Morning in Chingaza National Park northeast of Bogotá in the Eastern Cordillera (unlike most of the Colombia Andes, most of this watershed runs east into the Orinoco Basin). The main access road was closed so we had to use a secondary road, reaching an elevation of c. 10,000 feet – essentially just the beginning of the páramo. In the afternoon, we visited lower elevations at La Calera (with a reservoir which provides much of Bogotá’s water) and the old gravel pits at Guasco which hold the endemic and endangered Bogotá Rail.

Monday, March 5:

Morning at La Florida Park on the outskirts of Bogotá. After lunch, we flew to the once notorious, bustling city of Medellin (former home base of Pablo Escobar) in the Central Cordillera where we were picked up by Yovanni and the Mercedes-Benz bus that accompanied us for most of the rest of our visit. A long drive on curvy mountain roads (the first of many) took us up the valley of the Rio Porce (a north-flowing tributary of the Cauca) to the Reserve of the Arrierito Antioqueño or Chestnut-capped Piha (the Spanish name, ‘Antioquenian Muleteer’, derives from the call of the bird which is said to resemble the muledriver’s whistle). Two nights at the lodge

Tuesday, March 6:

The Chestnut-capped Piha and Parker’s Antbird (named for the famous ornithologist, Ted Parker) are two recently described endemics found in this reserve along with many other birds. The lodge at this reserve has active feeders that attract many hummingbirds and tanagers. In contrast, the up-and-down forest trails here provide tough (but ultimately rewarding) birding.

Wednesday, March 7:

Back on the trails at Arrierito Antioqueño in the morning. Afterwards a long drive back along the Rio Porce Road, back through Medellin, then south and east into the Cauca Valley, across the River Cauca into the Western Cordillera, through the town of Bolivar and the small municipality of El Carmen del Atrato. The truck stop of El Cieto just beyond El Carmen marks the beginning of a rough road to the Pacific coast and we have to abandon the bus and switch to jeeps to negotiate it. The ProAves Reserve of Las Tangaras protects part of the watershed of the Rio Atrato, the major river of the Chocó (curiously enough, this north-flowing river does not go into the Pacific but hits the Caribbean at the Gulf of Darien right near northern border with Panama). Chocó is the name both of the province and the wet forest of the Western Cordillera, extending south to Ecuador, the very rainy bioregion that has one of the highest counts of endemics anywhere. The Las Tangaras Reserve was set up to preserve the habitat of several of these birds including the two endemic Bangsia tanagers – the Golden-ringed and the Black-and-Gold – as well as the Chocó Vireo and various other bird-watcher goodies such as the spectacular Toucan Barbet. Overnight in the Reserve lodge.

Thursday, March 8:

A successful morning on the trails in the Las Tangaras snares several of the endemics (including all of the above-named species) in a clamber over rocks and a waterfall that was highlighted by the surprise appearance of a large and noisy flock of Yellow-eared Parrots, yet another endangered endemic. We also tried hard for the Crested Ant Tanager but it never showed. You don’t win ‘em all.

In the afternoon, we drove back down through Ciudad Bolivar and, after a stop on a side road in the valley (to look, unsuccessfully, for two more endemics), we crossed from the Department of Chocó back into Antioquia and through a smiling mountain countryside to the charming old town of Jardin. Overnight at a small hotel right on the Central Plaza.

Friday, March 9:

The Yellow-eared Parrot Reserve (Reserva de Loro Orejiamarillo), above Jardin, is reached by jeep from the town. This reserve, perhaps the first to be purchased by ProAves (which uses a stylized representation of the parrot as its logo), protects one of the few remaining nesting areas for these critically endangered birds. The problem for these big parrots (they have long tails like macaws) has been the decimation of their unique nesting site, the Ceroxylon quindiuense or wax palm, which has been systematically cut down over the centuries for its leaves which are used in the traditional Palm Sunday celebrations of the Catholic populations in Colombia and Ecuador. ProAves has, with the cooperation of local political and ecclesiastical authorities, initiated major educational programs to change this tradition, protecting the palms and the birds as well. The habitat is cloud forest and, typically, a cloud was perched on the mountain during the time we were there. We saw palms and nest holes but only a single bird perched in the mist and fog (compared with the flock of two dozen seen the day before). There were active hummingbird feeders at the ranger station and one of the local rangers attempted (unsuccessfully) to lure out a calling Moustached Antipitta to his worm-feeding station. On the subsequent stroll down the hill, I got good look at a calling Chestnut-crowned Antpitta by lingering back from the group.

A morning rainstorm and a detour on the road to Concordia (a landslide, common in these mountains, closed the road) delayed us somewhat. Eventually we arrived at the town of Pereira in Colombia’s major coffee-growing region and then up to the Otun Quimbaya Reserve, arriving after dark. As we pulled in, the lights went out (electric lines down due to the storm perhaps) and we had to move to our rooms and sit down to dinner by candlelight; before long, however, the lodge generators kicked in and the lights came back on again.

Saturday, March 10:

Otun Quimbaya in the Central Cordillera is the site of the rediscovery of the Cauca Guan, previously thought to be extinct. These birds turned out to be easy to see in the forest here along with the many Red-rumped Fruitcrows that enlivened our morning walk. The forest here had singing Andean Solitaire and Chestnut-breasted Wren, two of the great songsters of the tropics. After lunch, to the bustling town of Manizales, considered the capital of this coffee-growing region. Our afternoon stop was an obscure place on the outskirts of town known as the Ecoparque Regionale Alcazares-Arenillo which was hard to find and turned out to be closed. Nevertheless, we are able to walk down an adjacent road whose slopes proved one of the birdiest locales of the entire trip. Here we find such endemic goodies as the goofy Bar-crested Antshrike and the tiny woodpecker known as the Grayish Piculet. Afterwards, back to Manizales for two nights in the Hotel Camelia.

Sunday, March 11:

Morning drive from Manizales to the Rio Blanco Watershed Preserve where we spend the day at elevations over 8000 feet. This mountain forest was preserved to protect the city water supply, but it is a wonderland of rare and difficult birds. There is a small lodge with terraces on two sides overlooking a flowery garden with hummingbird and banana feeders that attract many birds. In the forest, there are three ‘feeding stations’ for antpittas where worms are put out for these skulking birds. Until an Ecuadorian landowner named Angel Paz discovered that these birds could be attracted to worms, they were among the most difficult of forest birds to see! Thanks to the worm-feeding we saw no less than five species as well as other birds of the forest floor.

Monday, March 12:

Left Manizales to drive to the entrance of Los Nevados (or Nevado del Ruiz) National Park at close to 13,500 feet (the highest point of the trip) in very misty conditions. As we have ample opportunity to observe, clouds often sit on the Colombian mountain-tops and, in the highest areas, a unique flora and fauna has developed that is dependent on these conditions. The target bird here was the Bearded Helmetcrest, a striking hummer that is almost entirely restricted to areas of frailejon, a curious species of espeletia that is like a cross between a giant cactus and a daisy and found only in páramo. After a long search, a single female was found feeding behind the park buildings at the entrance. Tawny Antpittas were surprisingly tame here in the scrub vegetation along with mountain tanagers and other high altitude birds. Afterwards we drove over the Central Cordillera to the town of Libano where we stay in a strangely elegant hotel in its own compound with Blue-and-white Swallows drinking from the swimming pool, Rufous-tailed Hummingbirds and Saffron Finches in the gardens, a band playing Colombian music and no other visible guests. What is a hotel like this doing in a town like Libano? Hmmmmm.

Tuesday, March 13:

Morning in the fragmented forests above Libano; there are many good birds holding on in these remnant forests. A heavy rainstorm reminds us why the local vegetation is so lush. Surprisingly, it was the only time during the trip that our birdwatching was seriously impeded by the weather.

After lunch we drove down to the heat of the Magdalena Valley and on to something called El Palmar, Finca Agroturistica, off the main valley road. The parking area and main buildings of this strange establishment are full of birds – ducks, flamingos and even Laughing Gulls, all, alas, uncountable! We then climbed down a steep stone staircase to a more-or-less wooded gully dotted with weird statues of witches, sprites, mountain men and various mythological creatures, ending at yet another good-sized Colombian river whose name no one seemed to know. And, yes, there were excellent birds: Dwarf Cuckoo, Black-bellied Wren, the endemic Apical Flycatcher. What we could not find was the rare and endemic Velvet-fronted Euphonia but, as we climbed back up to the parking lot, our driver shows us a photograph that he had just taken of the bird! It is singing right in the vicinity of the parking lot and the call, duly recorded and played back, pulls in the male right to the sound of its own voice – and the female as well. The easiest and one of the best-seen birds of the trip!

The drive back up the highway goes past the smoking Nevada del Ruiz Volcano on the far side of the Los Nevados National Park. Our stop for the night is a faded, run-down hotel at Mariquita, the most tropical stop on our route.

Wednesday, March 14:

Morning is back up in the cooler mountains near La Victoria at the Bellavista Watershed Preserve at 3,000+ feet. The town, also known as Bojayá, was the site of one of the worst battles between the FARC and the illegal anti-insurgent paramilitaries formed to oppose them. During our little walk in the woods we find Sooty Ant-Tanager, Western Slaty Antshrike, and Citron-throated Toucans. We are also shown the place where the bodies of the dead insurgents (or was it the dead paramilitaries?) were buried. All this took place only ten years ago when this whole region was occupied by the FARC. Peaceful enough now.

Lunch at Puerto Boyaca overlooking the Magdelena River and then a drive to Puerto Pinzon through a strange area of low rounded hills separated by extensive wetlands (Northern Screamer, White-throated Crake). At Puerto Pinzon, we clamber onto the back of a truck for the bone-jarring quarter-of-an-hour ride to the El Paujil Reserve where we will spend two nights.

Thursday, March 15 & Friday, March 16

El Paujil is the Spanish name for the Blue-billed (sometimes called Blue-knobbed) Curassow and this reserve was created to protect one of the last populations of this critically endangered bird. We were told that we would have little chance of seeing one in the wild but, in fact, we saw a bird almost as soon as we crossed the river and got on the trail on the other side. As is the case with almost all the reserves that were created to protect endangered species, many other birds have benefitted as well including Gartered Trogon, four species of hermit hummingbirds, Barred Puffbird, Citron-throated Toucan, Black-billed Flycatcher, Southern Bentbill, and many others. This is also one of the few places where we find non-avian wildlife including three species of monkey, paca, iguana and basilisk.

Saturday, March 17:

We leave El Paujil in the morning to return to Puerto Pinzon and rejoin our driver and bus for the drive back to Puerto Boyaca. At a place called El Hato we are met by three 4-wheel drive vehicles for a long and jarring ride on rough mountain roads. This drive ends, surprisingly, in the good-sized mountain town of San Vicente de Chucuri above which, on a stone track back up into the mountains, lie the chocolate and coffee plantations surrounding the Reinito Cielo Azul or Cerulean Warbler Reserve. This was set up to preserve the wintering grounds of this threatened North American bird, a species that we never did see. The rooms of the comfortable lodge back up on a terrace that overlooks the gardens of the Reserve where there are hummingbird and banana feeders with many good birds. The forest is, as we will discover, rather far away.

Sunday, March 18:

The Langerke Trail was established by a German landowner more than a century ago to transport coffee and chocolate over the mountains. More recently, birders have been using horses to cover the lower part of the trail (which is completely cut over). Alas, the horses have been sold and there is no choice but to hike up the trail to reach good cloud forest habitat. As if to add to the difficulties, the forest part of the trail is difficult – mostly because of the slippery moss growing on the stones -- and the feeder that has been set up to attract Gorgeted Wood-quail shows only quail doves. However there were hummingbird feeders rife with Black Inca and a lot of other hummers as well. The climb to the top was not only difficult but also not very productive and some of us turned back before that lofty summit was attained (but saw Pavonine Cuckoo and Ochre-breasted Antpitta on the way down). The lodge garden has its charms however with several of the endemic Turquoise Dacnis high in the trees.

Monday, March 19:

Stops on the way back down from the Reinito Cielo Azul Reserve to San Vicente produce Nicoforo’s Wren (critically endangered) and the Yellow-browed Shrike-Vireo but not the Chestnut-bellied Hummingbird, a bad miss. Then back across the mountains to the highway heading north to Ocaña and a bout of heavy thunderstorms and torrential rains. This was, I assumed, only par for the course but later I found out that this area and this season in Colombia has been marked in recent years by heavy flooding and landslides due to La Niña. We made it through the storms without incident however. Ocaña is another one of Colombia’s surprising old colonial mountain towns, this one at 4,500 feet. We stay at a pleasant hotel right off the main square which has the remarkable distinction of being the first locale in Colombia where I saw and heard House Sparrow! It is also adjacent to the Hormiguero de Torcoroma (or Recurve-billed Bushbird) Reserve which is only twenty minutes away.

Tuesday, March 20:

The Recurve-billed Bushbird is a black antbird (hormiguero) with a curious upturned bill. It is a bamboo specialist but because all the bamboo in the reserve has died (massive die-offs of bamboo are normal for most species), the local ranger advises us that the birds have been heard in a different place than where they are normally found. He takes us to the spot and the birds respond to tape playback, coming into the vegetation just off the trail. We spend the day birding the trails, the local roads and the feeders at the ranger’s house where there are a nice collection of hummingbirds and tanagers. One last night in Ocaña.

Wednesday, March 21:

The group now splits in two with some going on to the Santa Marta extension (the isolated Santa Marta Mountains in the north have many endemics) and rest of us flying from the city of Bucaramanga to Bogotá. The drive to Bucaramanga takes us down into the valley and back up into the mountains, crossing the Rio Sogomosa and its huge, disruptive dam project, on the way. The pattern is by now familiar: a long drive on bad roads to a surprisingly large mountain town – Bucaramanga is actually a big city with a major airport on a piece of level ground high above the city. When we get there we are told that our reservation was for a flight from Santa Marta to Bogotá and not from Bucaramanga and, in any case, the Bogotá flight is already full. Ouch! After a harrowing wait, the airline agent reaches someone from EcoTurs who corrects the mistake and put us on a later flight. We spent our extra time waiting on a terrace overlooking a garden and the airport grounds, managing to enliven our enforced wait by finding some two-dozen species in the gardens and trees visible from the terrace (nothing new but, hey, you don’t expect to find so many species at an airport). Ecoturs made good on their mistake by making arrangements for us to be picked up at the Bogotá airport and even to buy us dinner at our hotel (not included in the original deal).

Thursday, March 22: Flight back to Newark on Continental/United.

[Bird list on request.]