Colombia

We will concentrate on the eastern Andes northeast of Bogotá today, departing before dawn so that we avoid the city’s heavy traffic. We will have a field breakfast en route and spend much of the day birding in and near Chingaza National Park, including Bosque Guajira. This park has páramo (alpine grassland) with martian-looking Espeletia plants - home to Green-bearded Helmetcrest, Matorral (Pale-bellied) Tapaculo, and White-chinned Thistletail.

We will also bird forest/forest edge habitat with Brown-breasted (Flame-winged) Parakeet, Rufous-browed Conebill, Black-billed Mountain-Toucan, Muisca Antpitta, Black-headed Hemispingus, Agile Tit-Tyrant, Bronze-tailed Thornbill, Blue-throated Starfrontlet, Coppery-bellied Puffleg, Black-chested Mountain-Tanager, as well as many other species. Temperatures will be mostly pleasant to cool. Night in Bogotá.

We will leave our hotel early with a box breakfast to eat on the road. Our first birding will be in La Florida Park right in Bogotá (near the airport and our hotel, though Bogotá traffic will already be heavy), where we’ll be searching for Spot-flanked Gallinule, Yellow-hooded Blackbird, and the endemics Bogotá Rail and Silvery-throated Spinetail.

Next will be Laguna Tabacal, about an hour and a half’s drive from Bogotá, where we will walk along a rural road and quiet forest trails searching for Rosy Thrush-Tanager, Speckle-breasted and Black-bellied Wrens, Short-tailed Emerald, Blue-lored Antbird, Stripe-breasted Spinetail, Rusty-breasted Antpitta, Cinereous Becard and Spectacled Parrotlet.

Temperatures will be mostly pleasant in the morning (Eastern Andes) but will become warmer at each stop as we drive to Victoria in the lowlands. The whole afternoon will be driving the 3 1/2 to 4 hours to Victoria. Night in Victoria.

All day will be spent in the warm Victoria area. The birdlife here is very different from what we will find elsewhere on the tour, with species such as Pale-bellied Hermit, White-vented and Bronze-tailed Plumeleteers, Blue-chested Hummingbird, Black-crowned Antshrike, White-mantled Barbet, Olivaceous Piculet, Beautiful Woodpecker, Slaty-winged Foliage-gleaner, Yellow-headed Manakin, Yellow-browed Shrike-Vireo, Magdalena and Bare-crowned Antbirds, Antioquia Bristle-Tyrant, Black-headed Tody-Flycatcher, Sepia-capped Flycatcher, Velvet-fronted Euphonia, Sooty Ant-Tanager, and several species of trogons. Night in Victoria.

This morning we will do some more birding in warm Victoria at 750 m elevation, specially looking for the specialty species we may not have seen yet. Mid-morning, we’ll do the 3 ½ to 4 ½ hour drive to Termales del Ruiz, which will place us strategically for the next day’s birding. Termales del Ruiz is a hotel and spa at 3600 m elevation, where it is cool.

Termales del Ruiz has wonderful hummingbird feeders with a few species that we will probably not see elsewhere, particularly Rainbow-bearded Thornbill and Great Sapphirewing. And visitors to the tanager feeders include the glowing, multicolored Scarlet-bellied Mountain-Tanager. Night at Termales del Ruiz.

In the morning we will visit Hacienda el Bosque at 2800-3000 meter elevation. This site is a working cattle ranch but has left a portion of the property with its original cloud forest vegetation, and has recently began to double as a birding hotspot. It has wonderful hummingbird feeders, antpitta feeders and mountain-toucan feeders. Some of the species we will be looking for here are Crescent-faced Antpitta, Equatorial Antpitta, Gray-browed Brushfinch and Gray-breasted Mountain-Toucan.

In the afternoon we will bird in Los Nevados National Park, near Termales del Ruiz. This park has páramo (alpine grassland) with martian-looking Espeletia plants similar to Chingaza— home to Buffy Helmetcrest, Viridian Metaltail, White-chinned Thistletail, Andean Tit-Spinetail, Stout-billed Cinclodes, Plain-colored Seedeater, Plumbeous Sierra-Finch and Tawny Antpitta.

The stunted forest nearby is home to Rufous-fronted Parakeet, Páramo Tapaculo, White-banded Tyrannulet, Buff-breasted Mountain-Tanager and Black-backed Bush-Tanager. The marshy areas and water ponds will also give us a chance for Andean Teal and Noble Snipe. Night in Termales del Ruiz.

We will start the day driving 1 ½ hours to Río Blanco Reserve, which is habitat to many marvellous bird species that can be seen along gently sloping tracks through the cool cloudforest. Hummingbird feeders and flowering hedges attract Speckled Hummingbird, Fawn-breasted Brilliant, Buff-tailed Coronet, Bronzy and Collared Incas, Tourmaline Sunangel, Long-tailed Sylph, White-throated Daggerbill (formerly known as Wedge-billed Hummingbird) and White-bellied Woodstar.

We also have a chance to see Golden-plumed Parakeet, Crimson-mantled Woodpecker, Rufous Spinetail, Montane Foliage-gleaner, Pearled Treerunner, Streaked Tuftedcheek, Flammulated Treehunter, and Blackish, Ash-colored and Spillman’s Tapaculos. But, especially, Río Blanco is best known for its antpitta feeders. Up to 4 species of antpitta visit the different feeders: Bicolored, Chestnut-crowned, Slate-crowned and Brown-banded.

In the afternoon we will transfer the 2 hours to 1700 m elevation Santa Rosa de Cabal, our base for exploring Finca El Cortaderal the following morning. Night in Santa Rosa de Cabal.

We will bird the cloud forest of Finca El Cortaderal this morning. This area is one of few localities in the world where Indigo-winged Parrot can be found. In addition, we shall see several other higher-elevation cloud forest birds that we will not find elsewhere on this tour, probably including Mountain Avocetbill, Bar-bellied Woodpecker and Red-crested Cotinga.

In the afternoon we will drive 1 hour to La Florida, Pereira, where we will check into our hotel and have a chance to do some birding. Night in La Florida, Pereira.

We will leave the hotel an hour before sunrise to drive to a special spot where there is a chance to see Mountain Tapir and Hooded Antpitta, and then spend most of the rest of the day walking along the road through pristine forest where we look for the endemic Cauca Guan (long thought to be extinct until a healthy population was rediscovered in 1989), Streak-capped Treehunter, Red-ruffed Fruitcrow, Plumbeous-crowned Tyrannulet, Rufous-breasted Flycatcher, Variegated and Marble-faced Bristle-Tyrants, Chestnut-breasted Wren, White-capped Tanager, Crested Ant-Tanager and the breathtakingly gorgeous and aptly named Multicolored Tanager.

In the afternoon we will drive the 2 ½ hours to Pueblo Rico, where we will transfer into 2 or 3 4-wheel drive vehicles to take us to Montezuma Rainforest Ecolodge, roughly 1 hour’s drive. These will be the same vehicles that will be transporting us during our stay at Montezuma. Night in Montezuma.

The Montezuma Nature Reserve is part of the buffer zone of the Tatama National Park and consists mainly of a 14-kilometer road that goes from the lodge to a military base at the top of Cerro Tatamá. Many restricted and endemic bird species occur in this lush tropical rainforest and cloud forest.

Montezuma is one of the best birdwatching sites in Colombia and is managed by the Tapasco family, headed by mother Leopoldina and 5 of her daughters. Bird species we will be particularly looking for include the endemic Black-and-gold and Gold-ringed Tanagers, Munchique Wood-Wren, Chestnut-bellied Flowerpiercer, Tatamá Tapaculo, and Crested Ant-Tanager, as well as Velvet-purple Coronet, Empress Brilliant, Western Emerald, Rufous-gaped Hillstar, Barred Hawk, Toucan Barbet, White-faced Nunbird, Lanceolated Monklet, and Golden-headed Quetzal.

The diversity here is staggering. We’ll likely find other exciting species such as Fulvous-dotted Treerunner, Yellow-breasted Antpitta, Chocó Tapaculo, Beautiful Jay, Nariño Tapaculo, Black Solitaire, Black-chinned Mountain-Tanager, Rufous-throated Tanager, Tanager Finch, Barred, Scaled and Orange-breasted Fruiteaters, Olivaceous Piha, Chestnut-breasted Chlorophonia and maybe Choco Vireo. The feeders at the lodge will keep us busy in the late afternoon. We’ll likely spend one day working the upper part of the road and the other on the lower stretches. Nights in Montezuma.

In the morning we will bird the lower stretches of the Montezuma road above the lodge. Most of the rest of the day will be taken up transferring to the Cali area, with birding and washroom stops on the way. The main stop will be in warm Laguna del Sonso. Some of the target birds that we will be looking for in Laguna del Sonso and surrounding tropical dry forest are Apical Flycatcher, Greyish Piculet, Horned Screamer, Jet Antbird, Masked Duck, Great Antshrike, Dwarf Cuckoo, and Snail Kite. Night in or near Cali.

In the Cali area we should expect to find a different set of birds in pleasant to slightly warm temperatures. We will be spending the first morning in and near Doña Dora’s hummingbird-feeders and tanager-feeders in Queremal, where some of the birds we will be hoping to see are Empress Brilliant, White-whiskered Hermit, Green Thorntail, White-booted Racket-tail, Violet-tailed Sylph, Velvet-purple Coronet, Toucan Barbet, Red-headed Barbet, Silvery-throated, Rufous-throated, and Glistening-green Tanagers, and Blue-winged Mountain-Tanager.

Another spot where we will be spending time is the cloudforest and edge near “kilometer 18” and the nearby Finca Alejandría hummingbird garden, where some of the birds we will be looking for are Multicolored tanager, Golden-headed and Crested Quetzals, Blue-winged Mountain-Tanager, Colombian Chachalaca, Golden-naped, Metallic-green and Saffron-crowned Tanager, Blue-headed Sapphire, Bronzy Inca, and Andean Emerald.

In the afternoon of the second day we will fly to Bogotá and have our farewell dinner at the hotel. First night in Cali area, final night in Bogotá.