Wild About Colombia blog

Why you should seriously consider a Santa Marta birding tour!

183:715239020 (Robin Smith) — Thu, 27 Sep 2018 00:19:01 GMT

As the country with the most recorded bird species in the world (over 1,900!), it is hardly surprising that Colombia has a wealth of incredible birding destinations where, as a visiting birder, you will be encountering new species after new species - lifer after lifer! However, with so many locations to choose from, it can be difficult to know where to head on your Colombia birding tour. That’s where the Wild About Colombia team come in – we’re going to be posting our top birding locations on this blog, so you can make an informed decision as to where to spend your time while birding over here in Colombia. First up, arguably the jewel in the crown of not only Colombia, but the entire 'bird continent' of South America - the endemic paradise that is the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta.

Santa Marta – birding gold!

The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (or simply Santa Marta as most birders know it) is arguably Colombia’s most spectacular and exciting birding destination. A towering snow-capped mountain range rising up as high as 5,700 metres (nearly 19,000 feet) above sea level overlooking sun-drenched beaches and sparkling Caribbean waters far below. Between lies a series of rich and varied habitats, from tropical coastal dry forests and saltwater lagoons, through to lower and mid-elevation cloud forests, all the way up to cool elfin forests, sub-páramo and páramo zones. At each of these different altitude ‘layers’ can be found a differing and mouth-watering suite of birds, with the jewels in the crown of Santa Marta being the 20+ Colombian endemic species – most of which can be seen during a short birding break here!

Why does Santa Marta harbour so many unique species?

The scenic Santa Marta mountain range is isolated from the northern limit of the Andes, effectively making it an island in the sky. It is this isolation, combined with the rich habitats that cloak the mountains and coastal zones, that has led to an extremely high degree of speciation and endemism. Good news for birders, as some 80 range-restricted and endemic bird species inhabit this relatively small area of northern South America, making it one of the world’s must-visit birding destinations!

How long do I need to bird the region?

One of the great things about Santa Marta is that it doesn’t take long to enjoy an action-packed birding break full of endemics and range-restricted species. As such it’s perfect if you have limited time but still want to enjoy a Colombian birding tour that offers scenic beauty as well as the guarantee of delivering a hat-full of new species for your life list!

What’s the best way to visit?

In addition to the option of a customized private tour, we also offer a short 8-day Santa Marta birding tour (departing on set dates – see below for details), which explores all the key sites. We call it ‘ Birding in Paradise ’.

We start in Bogotá - Colombia’s capital city and its main hub for international visitors – here we can pick up several Colombian endemics in a single morning’s birding including Bogotá Rail, Silvery-throated Spinetail and Apolinar’s Wren, before we make the short flight to the north. Here we will start exploring the tropical dry forests and lagoons of Colombia’s Caribbean coast where we go in search of such beauties as Vermillion Cardinal, White-whiskered Spinetail and Chestnut Piculet. Moving into the lush cloud forested slopes near the small village of Minca we’ll target the likes of Golden-winged Sparrow, Rosy-thrush Tanager, Northern Royal Flycatcher, Black-crowned Antshrike and Keel-billed Toucan. However, the highlight of this small group tour (which is limited to 8 guests) is a 3-night stay in the famous El Dorado lodge which is perfectly situated to go in search of Santa Marta’s most sough-after gems including Santa Marta Sabrewing, Santa Marta Parakeet, Santa Marta Antpitta, Santa Marta Foliage-gleaner, Santa Marta Screech-owl and Black-backed Thornbill – to name just a few! Having enjoyed the delights of El Dorado and surrounds, we make our way back down for a final night in Minca, and the chance to search out any species that may have eluded us. The tour ends with a flight back to Bogotá , for onward connections, or, should you wish, we can arrange additional birding! After all the endemic rich Magdalena Valley is just a few hours drive away, but we’ll cover that on another post!

Important information:

Prices for our Birding in Paradise tour start from $2,395 per person and include all domestic flights, suitable transport (we use 4x4s to access El Dorado lodge), 8 nights accommodation on twin/double share, all meals, daily drinking water/snacks, and an expert bilingual Wild About Colombia guide.

Special note: if we have more than 5 guests (remembering that we limit our group to 8), we will supply a second expert guide.

Next departure for this tour:

01st March 2019

Full details of the tour, including dates, prices and a full and detailed itinerary can be found by hitting the following link:

https://www.wildaboutcolombia.com/birding-in-paradise

How to reach the Wild About Colombia team

Should you have any questions on this post, or our Colombia birding tours in general, please don’t hesitate to get in touch via: info@wildaboutcolombia.com

We are in the process of developing an email distribution so that new blog posts can be delivered to your inbox. But, in the meantime, if you enjoyed this post, please do visit (and make sure to like - so you receive blog updates!) our facebook page; https://www.facebook.com/wildaboutcolombia/ as we will inform you of new posts through this social media channel – as well as posting loads of amazing birds and other wildlife from our adventures in Colombia.

Did someone say something about Colombia mammal watching tours!?

If the likes of Spectacled Bear, Mountain Tapir, Cotton-top Tamarin, Ornate Titi and Giant Anteater get you going, please contact us on the above email address! We also arrange mammal watching holidays in search of Colombia’s rare and endemic species!

From all of us, thank you for reading this post, and happy birding and wildlife watching wherever you are in the world!

Best wishes,

The Wild About Colombia team

Your gateway to antpitta heaven!

183:715239020 (Robin Smith) — Fri, 14 Sep 2018 16:08:46 GMT

Welcome to Rio Blanco reserve

If you love bird watching then you should certainly consider heading to Colombia as there are many world-class birding sites here that offer the kind of experience that one dreams about when flicking through a field guide in anticipation of your next birding tour. So, if I were to tell you about a reserve that offered such avian delights as Masked Saltator, White-capped Tanager, Powerful Woodpecker, Stygian Owl, Golden-plumed Parakeet, Rusty-faced Parrot, Chestnut Wood-quail, Ocellated Tapaculo, Buff-breasted Mountain-tanager and Black-billed Mountain Toucan, you might think sightings of these much-sought-after species would be the highlight of your visit. However, the reserve in question – Rio Blanco – is special, for not only does it present excellent opportunities to see the aforementioned species, it also provides the very real chance for visitors to witness a collection of furtive antpittas!

What is it with antpittas?

Whether it is thanks to their skulking and shy habits, varied subtle but beautiful plumes, their undoubted yet intangible presence or most likely the combined effect of these factors, antpittas hold a special place in the heart of many visiting birders to the neotropics and in Colombia Rio Blanco is the antpitta capital! This pristine cloud forest reserve lies just outside the scenic Andean town of Manizales in Colombia’s central Andean mountain range. Thanks to a series of earthworm feeding stations, a single morning’s birding can result in no less than 5 species of this skulking family, including the endemic Brown-banded, the near-endemic Bicoloured, the striking Chestnut-crowned, and the diminutive Slate-crowned.

A typical day...

A day here often starts with a visit to one of these ‘stations’, before gently walking up a forested track while taking in myriad species of other birds until reaching the next antpitta hot spot. Photographic opportunities are excellent throughout the day, and lunch is taken at the reserve’s small guesthouse, where several hummingbird feeders attract jaw- droppers such as Long-tailed Sylph, Tourmaline Sunangel, Andean Emerald and Sparkling Violetear. In the afternoon our attentions often turn to the higher slopes where a differing suite of birds are possible and after nightfall, we can try for various nocturnal species such as White-throated Screech-owl.

How can I visit Rio Blanco?

We visit Rio Blanco on our extensive Golden Birding Trail tour, which offers our guests access to an incredible suite of Colombian endemic and near-endemic species throughout the eastern, central and western Andes, as well as the Magdalena Valley endemics and a host of fabled Chocó specials! Some of the many highlights of this Colombia birding tour include Bogota Rail, Buffy Helmetcrest, Beautiful Woodpecker, White-mantled Barbet, a visit to an Oil Bird cave and an incredibly active Andean Cock-of-the-rock lek, Yellow-eared Parrot, Chestnut-bellied Flowerpiercer, Toucan Barbet, Gold-ringed Tanager, Black-chinned Mountain-tanager and over 50 species of Hummingbird. And, of course, a select band of antpittas at Rio Blanco which often steal the show from some of the most colorful and dazzling birds on the planet!

We think our 16-day Golden Birding Trail itinerary is one of the most comprehensive Colombian birding itineraries possible and is perfect for any discerning birders first or second time visit to the country – it will be led by an experienced Wild About Colombia professional bilingual guide and if there are 5 or more guests, a second guide with join the party. However, we limit our groups to 8 guests. If you would like to learn more, please do get in touch with the Wild About Colombia team (contact details below), or visit the tour page where you can download the full itinerary and tour details. Here is the link:

www.wildaboutcolombia.com/the-golden-birding-trail

A 16-day tour is too long for me. Do you have a shorter tour?

Not to worry! We also offer an 8-day Colombia birding tour that visits the world famous Santa Marta range with its incredible suite of endemic birds that can be found nowhere else on earth! A few of the key targets include Santa Marta Sabrewing, Santa Marta Parakeet, Santa Marta Foliage-gleaner, Santa Marta Screech-owl and Black-backed Thornbill! And whilst this tour doesn't visit Rio Blanco, you'll still get the chance to see antpittas, including the endemic Santa Marta Antpitta! Check out the link below:

https://www.wildaboutcolombia.com/birding-in-paradise

I want to do both tours. Is that possible?

Absolutely! Because we know you might only visit Colombia once (there are after all some other good places to bird around the world ;) we have specially designed the above two tours so that you can do them back-to-back. Full dates and prices can be found on the respective tour pages on the links above.

How to reach the Wild About Colombia team

Should you have any questions on this post, or our Colombia birding tours in general, please don’t hesitate to get in touch info@wildaboutcolombia.com

We are in the process of developing an email distribution so that new blog posts can be delivered to your inbox. But, in the meantime, if you enjoyed this post, please do visit and like our facebook page; https://www.facebook.com/wildaboutcolombia/ as we will inform you of new posts through this social media channel – as well as posting loads of amazing birds and other wildlife from our adventures in Colombia.

Did someone say something about Colombia mammal watching tours!?

From all of us, thank you for reading this post, and happy birding and wildlife watching wherever you are in the world!

Best wishes,

The Wild About Colombia team

Welcome to the Wild About Colombia blog

183:715239020 (Robin Smith) — Sun, 26 Aug 2018 00:00:00 GMT

Oxypogon calling!

We wanted to kick off the Wild About Colombia blog with a feature on one of the myriad special species of bird (over 1,900 species have been recorded here – the most of any country in the world!) that can be experienced on a Colombia birding tour. The magnificent Buffy Helmetcrest (a member of the genus oxypogon) is confined to montane habitats within a highly restricted distribution range of páramo (high-altitude tropical moorland), sub-páramo and elfin forests of Colombia’s central Andean range within the Los Nevados National Park. Here, amongst this starkly beautiful mosaic of habitats, Buffy Helmetcrest has a particular reliance and association with Espeletia, or locally ‘frailejones’ – a genus of plants in the subtribe Espeletiinae which the helmetcrests can often be seen clinging to, in order to conserve energy, while extracting nectar and especially picking off micro insects. Other flowering plants are also important to the species throughout the year, but it is the Espeletia which it is most reliant upon. They employ a feeding habit known as ‘trap-lining’ whereby an individual will forage a specific set of flowers on a continual loop – in a way harvesting the limited resources in this rarefied habitat. It is perhaps for this reason that, like many other hummingbird species, helmetcrests are highly territorial and will act aggressively towards others of its own kind that encroach upon its’ feeding grounds. Seeing these beautiful birds is always a special privilege and often proves to be a highlight of a Wild About Colombia birding tour!

Why we are Wild About Colombia?

For us at Wild About Colombia Buffy Helmetcrest and its closely related cousins of the oxypogon genus (there are 4 in total and 3 can only be found in Colombia – Buffy Helmetcrest, Green-bearded Helmetcrest and Blue-bearded Helmetcrest. The 4th White-bearded Helmetcrest is endemic to Venezuela) are representative of what is so special about birding and wildlife travel here. Namely, exciting and rewarding encounters with unique wildlife while enjoying time in wonderful and beautiful habitats. And, perhaps most importantly, we do all this while providing local communities with a sustainable source of income - be it through eating deliciously prepared local food, grabbing a fresh cup of world-class Colombian coffee between birding stints, staying in high quality locally owned lodges and hotels, or simply enjoying the services and friendly company of your expert bilingual Wild About Colombia birding tour guide. What could be better! Indeed, this was the driving force behind the Wild About Colombia project, and so to represent our company and ethos, we took inspiration from these unique little hummingbirds when designing the Wild About Colombia logo. We hope you’ll also get the chance to witness these beauties in their natural habitats, and we would love to help you make that a reality…

How you can enjoy Colombia’s mind-blowing birding as well!

We currently offer one Colombia birding tour, called ‘ The Golden Birding Trail ’, that practically guarantees seeing at least one of these species (Buffy HC) and offers a fair chance of seeing the Green-bearded HC as well! The Blue-bearded HC is so rare that it was considered extinct until its rediscovery in 2015. It can be found in extremely remote high mountains of the endemic-packed Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta – a mountain range we visit on our shorter Santa Marta birding tour which we call ‘ Birding in Paradise ’. However, we do not go high enough to see the Blue-bearded Helmetcrest. Indeed, an expedition style trip is required for this – proper trekking and camping (no comfortable lodges up there!). If this is something that sounds of interest to you, we can certainly arrange a visit to try for this near-mythical hummingbird that only a handful of people have ever laid eyes on! Either way, rest assured that our team of birding and wildlife experts can make your birding dreams a reality here in Colombia!

How to reach the Wild About Colombia team

Should you have any questions on this post, or our Colombia birding tours in general, please don’t hesitate to get in touch info@wildaboutcolombia.com

Did someone say something about mammals!?

From all of us, thank you for reading this post, and happy birding and wildlife watching wherever you are in the world!

Best wishes,

The Wild About Colombia team