If I wanted to design the perfect country for birding what features would I include? Well I would give it two separate coastlines on different major oceans. Then throw in a dramatic narrowing choke point for migration between two continents. It would need to have a portion of the largest rainforest (and richest ecosystem) on earth. Oh and a high mountain range to maximise the range of habitats and then to be greedy split it into three so that the resulting valleys can host a range of unique species. Am I missing anything? If so comment below.
There is of course no need to design this country in your imagination as it already exists and is called Colombia! What are you waiting for?
In this post we continue our journey through the Central Andes with the wonderful team at Adventures Colombia. We have already shared about visiting Cloud Forest and High Paramo, in this post we go to lower and warmer habitats.
Day 4 – Tinamu
After an early start we visited Tinamu Birding Lodge and its grounds. Here the habitat was Humid Sub-Andean Forest. This meant it was hotter than previous days and we were grateful to have the shade of the lodge to retreat to during the day. As well as a lot of birds we had seen elsewhere we also had a lot of new birds such as Rusty-Margined Flycatcher, the endemic Colombian Chachalaca, Grey-Headed Dove, lovely views of Golden Collared Manakin at a Lek site along with Green Hermit.
Walking in the trails from the hotel we added many new birds with the highlights for me being great views of the Moustached Puffbird, Speckle-Breasted Wren, Spot-Breasted Woodpecker and Bar-Crested Antshrike (which I had heard before but never seen).
But perhaps the best event of the day was seeing several hummingbirds attacking a Parrot Snake. Clearly the snake was attempting a sneak attack on one of the birds when they all joined in together to see the snake retreat away. It was only the second snake we had seen on this trip.
Our only regret from this day is that being on a long backpacking trip we didn’t have the budget to stay in this hotel for a few days.
Day 5 – Guásimo
For our last day birding in this region we visited the Tropical Dry Forest around Guásimo. Again here we saw many birds that we were already familiar with but a steady stream of new lifers too. As well as the Ruddy-Breasted Seedeater and Thick-Billed Seedfinch we were delighted to see two new species of Cuckoo first great views of the Dwarf Cuckoo and then more distant views of the Striped Cuckoo which we had heard the day before. A Chestnut-Fronted Macaw put in a surprise appearance (first for this site?) and after a lot of hidden singing a Pale-Breasted Spintetail appeared to relent and provided numerous close views.
We also heard several Crested Bobwhites which we didn’t see but also several White-Throated Crakes which thanks to the persistence of our guides we did briefly see. We also added Plain-Breasted Ground Dove from the car.
Our time birding in this region was coming to an end as we had a flight to catch but Luz our guide was really hoping to end with a special endemic – the Apical Flycatcher. She took us to a place she has seen it before and after 20 minutes of looking in vane it was looking unlikely. We were about to leave when we agreed to give it five more minutes and Luz instead heard another endemic – the Greyish Piculet. This tiny woodpecker offered fine views and an excellent stand-in for the flycatcher. Turning to leave again we actually got in the car and began to turn around when this time the Apical Flycatcher called to us. We all got out the car and had excellent views. Two endemics for the price of one! A fantastic way to end 5 wonderful days of birding.
Altogether over these 5 days in the Central Andes we saw 241 species of birds of which 149 were lifers and 103 were photographed for the first time. We have seen more birds with Luz and Pablo (of Adventures Colombia) than any other guide on this trip which speaks to their quality as guides and the fantastic range of birds here. Our trip total for Colombia is 333 so we have only really scratched the surface of this incredible birding country – many reasons to come back again.
Our year to date total has grown to 876 of which 45 have been heard only. Next up, we visit Ecuador as we continue this wonderful birding adventure.
Wild Scot 
Great experiences and great birds! If you need any advice for Chile then I am happy to let you know mine and Miranda’s experiences in Chile and Argentinian Patagonia from our round the world trip two winters ago.
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Fantastic sightings and images!
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