Colombia Birding - Request for Help (1 Viewer)

[Lisa Nazo]

I am a Harvard Extension student in Sustainability. As part of a project and prospective venture related to birding in Colombia, I was hoping to interview a few birders for 15 minutes to get your opinion on whether this might be a worthwhile venture.

By way of background, my mom is from Colombia, and I grew up going to Medellin (and its outskirts). I love Colombia, and about a year ago, I had the opportunity to read an essay a family member wrote about an aspiration to grow birdwatching in Colombia, and I felt something shift in me. Immediately, I wanted to help. My idea is to create a niche app for birdwatchers to find accommodations/tours in Colombia and compare their attributes, such as lodging type, availability of reliable transportation, bilingual and bird-focused guides, early breakfast, canopy towers, and silent boat tours. I am looking for feedback on whether this would be useful. If anyone is willing to speak with me for 15 minutes, I would appreciate it!

 

[Lisa W]

Hi, welcome to the forum. I can’t help with your question but am sure you will get some responses soon.

 

[Lisa Nazo]

Hi, welcome to the forum. I can’t help with your question but am sure you will get some responses soon.

Thanks so much for the words of encouragement, Lisa!

 

[simmojunior]

I am a Harvard Extension student in Sustainability. As part of a project and prospective venture related to birding in Colombia, I was hoping to interview a few birders for 15 minutes to get your opinion on whether this might be a worthwhile venture.

By way of background, my mom is from Colombia, and I grew up going to Medellin (and its outskirts). I love Colombia, and about a year ago, I had the opportunity to read an essay a family member wrote about an aspiration to grow birdwatching in Colombia, and I felt something shift in me. Immediately, I wanted to help. My idea is to create a niche app for birdwatchers to find accommodations/tours in Colombia and compare their attributes, such as lodging type, availability of reliable transportation, bilingual and bird-focused guides, early breakfast, canopy towers, and silent boat tours. I am looking for feedback on whether this would be useful. If anyone is willing to speak with me for 15 minutes, I would appreciate it!

I'm not sure this is required to be honest. Every week on the Facebook page Birding Travel, someone different advertises their idea to create a new app to connect birders with guides and they never seem to go anywhere as they carry little advantage over Google.

I think it is relatively easy to find the information you need on Birdforum and in trip reports on Cloudbirders. If you can bring all that information into one place, that is great but if it is just marketing, it will be of little benefit.

Good luck.

 

[mjh73]

I've had two trips to Colombia in 2020 and 2023. I live in Australia so doing a verbal Q&A might be tricky, because of timezones, but happy to try or can respond to questions you might like to email.

 

[Fortunata Udinesi]

I am a Harvard Extension student in Sustainability. As part of a project and prospective venture related to birding in Colombia, I was hoping to interview a few birders for 15 minutes to get your opinion on whether this might be a worthwhile venture.

By way of background, my mom is from Colombia, and I grew up going to Medellin (and its outskirts). I love Colombia, and about a year ago, I had the opportunity to read an essay a family member wrote about an aspiration to grow birdwatching in Colombia, and I felt something shift in me. Immediately, I wanted to help. My idea is to create a niche app for birdwatchers to find accommodations/tours in Colombia and compare their attributes, such as lodging type, availability of reliable transportation, bilingual and bird-focused guides, early breakfast, canopy towers, and silent boat tours. I am looking for feedback on whether this would be useful. If anyone is willing to speak with me for 15 minutes, I would appreciate it!

I just wanted to say I think your project sounds both thoughtful and timely.
Birding in Colombia has so much untapped potential, and your personal connection to Medellin gives it a layer of authenticity that tech-driven ventures often lack. As someone who’s done a fair bit of birding while traveling, I can tell you: finding the right mix of local knowledge, logistics, and nature-respectful accommodations is always a challenge. An app that actually focuses on birdwatcher-friendly attributes like early breakfast, quiet transport, canopy access, etc., would be incredibly helpful.
I also love that you’re not just jumping in cold — it’s clear you’re doing the homework and looking to listen. If you’re still looking for someone to chat with, feel free to DM me. I’d be happy to share a few thoughts.
And if you're interested in the more reflective side of birding, travel, or even writing project inspiration, you can get info here — there's a surprising amount of overlap between stories and sustainable ventures.
Best of luck — I hope this idea takes wing!

 

[kb57]

Hi Lisa, I visited Colombia for a short birding holiday in 2019, doing a mixture of solo birding and a couple of guided day trips. I'd be happy to answer your questions - if you DM me I can give you my email / phone contact details. I'm in UTC+1 timezone (Portugal / Ireland / UK). Scheduling may be an issue due to commitments I have over the next couple of weeks, but we can try and fit something in.

 

[temmie]

I am a Harvard Extension student in Sustainability. As part of a project and prospective venture related to birding in Colombia, I was hoping to interview a few birders for 15 minutes to get your opinion on whether this might be a worthwhile venture.

By way of background, my mom is from Colombia, and I grew up going to Medellin (and its outskirts). I love Colombia, and about a year ago, I had the opportunity to read an essay a family member wrote about an aspiration to grow birdwatching in Colombia, and I felt something shift in me. Immediately, I wanted to help. My idea is to create a niche app for birdwatchers to find accommodations/tours in Colombia and compare their attributes, such as lodging type, availability of reliable transportation, bilingual and bird-focused guides, early breakfast, canopy towers, and silent boat tours. I am looking for feedback on whether this would be useful. If anyone is willing to speak with me for 15 minutes, I would appreciate it!

Just a thought, as you could fill this in in quite a number of ways.

What you need, and who you need, is every single local bird guide in Colombia.

Contact ALL of them, ask how to get to their local patch (transport to village / town + extra transport to get to the birding place), what is the best place to stay, their contact details and their specialty birds + some idea about price range and accessibility of e.g. the birding area (roadside, muddy trails, etc) for those with limited movement...
Next, you plot all of that info on a Colombia map, so wherever someone travels, he can check where there is good birding to be done.

Next, you would need to update the app pretty much weekly or at least monthly, forever.

If you would do that, I'm sure you could even ask money for the app (even if that’s not your aim), but the complexity is, that keeping the info up-to-date could prove much more time consuming than the reward (financially) you’d get it of it, as the market isn’t probably very big.