Hi all,
I have just got back from just over three weeks in Colombia with two friends (one of them for two weeks). We drove ourselves but mostly used local guides, meaning ground costs were less than a third of that charged by most tour companies. It was an eventful but hugely successful trip. I saw 662 species (heard only c25 more) of which 231 were new for me. Here is the ebird trip report:
https://ebird.org/tripreport/148830
I don't plan to do a full day by day trip report but will share some photos (I'm no good at editing them so they looked much better on the camera than they do now!). PM me for numbers or guide recommendations.
Some notes:
- If you want to see Yellow-eared Parrot and the Tolima endemics, I highly recommend contacting Diego Espitia based in Anaime, Tolima. The 4 endemics are in his parents' garden while the Yellow-eared Parrot is easy to see in nearby wax plantations.
- Nearby Giles Fuertesi is worth a visit and Diego can arrange transport for the bad road. We saw highly sought after species like Black-chested Mountain-Tanager, Chestnut-naped Antpitta, Indigo-winged Parrot and Black-headed Hemispingus there.
- Montezuma was fantastic though unseasonably dry. In our first full day there, excellent local guide, Fernando, helped us have a crazy day. Highlights for that day alone included Cloud Forest Pygmy Owl, Toucan Barbet, Ocellated Tapaculo, Yellow-breasted Antpitta, Gold-ringed Tanager, Black-and-gold Tanager, Tanager Finch, Chestnut-bellied Flowerpiercer, Tatama Tapaculo, Spillman's Tapaculo, Grass-Green Tanager (a nemesis bird for me for many years!) and Bicoloured Antvireo. Annoyingly, I could not get onto a Hooded Antpitta everyone else saw and we had no luck at the usual site of El Cedral.
- Another special day was our day at San Cipriano we arranged through Araucana Lodge. Staying overnight would be better but we were concerned we were not insured due to UK travel advice against travel to the Buenaventura municipality. Excellent local guide Neiver and Araucana guide Giancarlo helped us see Baudo Guan, Berlepsch's Tinamou (yes, see!), Choco Manakin, Five-coloured Barbet, Black-tipped Cotinga, Streak-chested Antpitta, Blue-whiskered Tanager, Rose-faced Parrot and Thicket Antpitta all in a single day! As we had all seen it in Panama, we did not target Sapayoa.
- The Las Brisas centre in Nevados is closed making Buffy Helmetcrest difficult. We got lucky with a showy female with help of cheery local guide, Luz. Rufous-fronted Parakeet is difficult at the moment and only I saw it.
- The feeders at Hacienda El Bosque are excellent with Crescent-faced Antpitta and Equatorial Antpitta coming in most days. They have also habituated Grey-breasted Mountain-Toucan and Yellow-bellied Chat-Tyrant.
- I recommend guide Daniel at Rio Blanco. We used him the first evening (where he helped us find Lyre-tailed Nightjar and White-throated Screech-Owl) and our second morning. On our full day, we used the standard guide who was much less good but did find Masked Saltator and the four antpitta species are such a treat.
- I'd advise against driving the northern route. We hired a car but on the second day, I scraped a bus in Barranquilla trying to get out the way of a truck. No one was hurt but an inconvenience we could do without. The driving in the north, particularly in Barranquilla and Santa Marta, is crazy even compared to the Andes. I'm seeking the c£500 back from my insurance. You can't self drive up to El Dorado / San Lorenzo anyway and we arranged this through Sylvana Travel.
- Km 4 near Barranquilla is worth a visit as we saw our only Turquoise-winged Parrotlet and Stripe-backed Wrens there despite arriving at 10.30 after the car incident, as well as a superb Dwarf Cuckoo. We were repeatedly advised the area is not safe. As we could not find an available guide, we arranged through a guide (Omar Palacios) for his brother to accompany us for safety.
- Note that Black-backed Thornbill is incredibly rarely seen outside January and February in San Lorenzo. However, we saw all other accessible Santa Marta endemics with Breiner Tarazona as guide apart from Santa Marta Bush Tyrant, which was heard only.
- Tayrona is not worth a visit for birding as we saw very little. On the other hand, the Guajira peninsula is well worth the diversion as we saw over 30 species we did not see elsewhere including all local specialities like Buffy Hummingbird, Tocuyo Sparrow and Vermillion Cardinal. Our trip there was delayed over 3 hours by a road block by furious villagers protesting about a power cut. There was a terrifying cut through available for cars that we eventually agreed to use with kids repeatedly demanding money to let us past.
