White-capped Tanager (Sericossypha albocristata)

The White-capped Tanager (Sericossypha albocristata) is a dramatic looking bird that is rarely seen, even our guide, Diego was excited to spot this little beauty close to the Yellow-eared Parrot Reserve.  You can barely make out his red throat here (or maybe it’s a female) but you can see it in the videos below.

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They can be found in the higher elevations in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela.  This one was well-spotted by our guide near  the finca near Ventanas above Jardin.

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LEARN MORE ABOUT WHITE-CAPPED TANAGERS

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These clips do the beauty of this bird justice better than my pics!

 

Sword-billed Hummingbird (Ensifera ensifera)

The Sword-billed Hummingbird (Ensifera ensifera) is a species of hummingbird from South America and the sole member of the genus Ensifera.  It is noted as the only species of bird to have a bill longer than the rest of its body. This adaptation is to feed on flowers with long corollas such as Passiflora mixta. The tongue is therefore also unusually long.

img_5683a img_5681a img_5680a They can be found in the higher elevations (mostly above 2500 meters) in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela.  Guango Lodge in Ecuador is a good place although they kept to the flowers in the rear and away from the feeders when we were there-maybe because of the rain.  I finally got a better look (pictures above) at the finca near Ventanas above Jardin.  Huembo in norther Peru is another good place.

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LEARN MORE ABOUT SWORD-BILLED HUMMINGBIRDS

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At Guango Lodge on a feeder

 

This brave little guy has to fight the rain to get at the flowers.

 

See how this one preens himself with his feet as his bill is so long.  Also note how he holds his head with the bill pointing up, that thing must be heavy!

 

 

 

Yellow-eared Parrot (Ognorhynchus icterotis)

The Yellow-eared Parrot (Ognorhynchus icterotis), is an endangered parrot of tropical America. It is found in the western Andes in Colombia and (perhaps only formerly) Ecuador and is closely associated to the wax palm Ceroxylon sp. which is itself endangered.

The foggy weather messed up my photos so I have added the Wikipedia shot so you can see the gorgeous colours of this beauty.

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They are the symbol of conservation in Colombia and there is a reserve to protect them near Jardin, Antioquia.dscn2900 img_5813

Although they once had a larger range according to Birdlife’s map, nowadays they have a very limited area at Ventanas near Jardin, Colombia.

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LEARN MORE ABOUT YELLOW-EARED PARROTS

Wikipedia

World Parrot Trust

Birdlife

American Bird Conservancy

ProAves

Our Endangered World

VIDEOS

Peter Odekerken, a top Australian photographer was more fortunate (sunny weather + superb photography skills) than I was in getting very detailed footage of these amazing birds.  He made a really interesting mini-doco.

Hungry much?

And another mini-doco!

 

Birding The Yellow-eared Parrot Area

Looking back, I can’t believe this birding excursion booked at the last minute turned out as well as it did.  I had been in contact with a highly recommended guide who lives in Jardin, Colombia named José Castaño.  Unfortunately, he was booked for the time we were there but fortunately he was able to put us in touch with his friend Diego Guerrero, who is also a birding guide from Jardin.  We had barely checked in at the Valdivia Plaza around 8pm-ish and called Diego to see if he could take us birding the next morning.  He and his friend Paula came to the hotel and we formulated a plan to bird the area near the Yellow-eared Parrot Reserve (the reserve proper was closed) and then take us to our next destination – Rio Blanco Reserve near Manizales.

They picked us up VERY early and we started driving to Ventanas, the location of the Yellow-eared Parrot Reserve.  As dawn broke, I was worried to see how foggy it was.  Thankfully the parrots are noisy and Diego soon located a small flock near the roadside and we pulled over to watch them for as long as possible.  The fog made the lighting terrible but we could still make out the yellow ears.

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I was being so cautious of spooking the parrots that I wouldn’t let anyone open a car door and was just poking my camera out the window and hoping they would stick around until the sun came up.  They may very well have done just that but a motorcyclist came up behind us and roared past scaring off the birds.  I was really upset as I watched them fly off, but glad that we got to at least see them!dscn3022a dscn3023 dscn3024

We drove on a bit past the entrance to the reserve proper and arrived at a finca (Colombian farm).  The scenery was gorgeous!

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The finca has lots of hummingbird feeders and we setted in to see some real beauties such as Tourmaline Sunangel,  Collared Inca, Buff-tailed Coronet, White-bellied Woodstar and the amazing Sword-billed Hummingbird who was happy to show off his extremely long bill!
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There were lots of other birds on the property as well.
Black-billed Mountain-Toucan

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Lacrimose Mountain-Tanager

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“Turn around so I can id you!”img_5929a
Speckle-faced Parrots flying overhead.

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TBD

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Rufous-collared Sparrow img_5535a

Great Thrush

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Masked Flowerpiercer
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After we left the finca and were driving through the mountain, Diego spotted a
White-capped Tanager near the road – quite a coup as they are apparently difficult to find!
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Typical road near Ventanas.dscn3091

Andean Motmot, a nice find a bit further down the road.

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We had a great day of birding and got some pretty cool species in addition to the targeted Yellow-eared Parrot, the Sword-billed Hummingbird was amazing, the White-caped Tanager a nice suprise and that Andean Motmot was gorgeous!

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I can highly recommend Diego Guerrero as an excellent birding guide.  He doesn’t speak English but he knows the birds and will point them out in a book.  His friend Paula does speak English well.  Here are his contact details.

Diego Guerrero

311 752 6550

digruz23 at gmail.com

Hotel Review: Valdivia Plaza

Jardin, Antioquia, Colombia was the only place on this trip we didn’t have a pre-booked room.  My research showed that there were enough budget hotels in town and I figured it would be easiest to just get one as soon as we got off the bus.

We were lucky, the bus stopped right in front of the Valdivia Plaza and they had rooms we could afford and they even took credit cards!   I had remembered the name from preliminary research on Trip Advisor and knew it would be a decent place.

The location is superb, right on the main plaza with restaurants and a small market just outside.

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Small but functional and clean roomdscn2997 dscn2998

Wifi only works in the restaurant near the reception.dscn2999 dscn3000

Cathedral in the main plaza dscn3002 dscn3012

The market has some food stalls and random stuff but nothing artistic that interested me.dscn3004 dscn3003 dscn3005

Margarita’s Restaurant is just across the plaza from Valdivia Plaza and has a good budget menu.

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Minca – Santa Marta – Medellin – Jardin

Although we had some birding time in Minca while having breakfast, we still had a big travel day ahead.

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We used a taxi from Minca to the airport at Santa Marta to save time and let us hang around a bit longer and watch birds.

Santa Marta Airport

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Pray for a safe flightdscn2959

Avianca domestic flights in Colombia are only 3000 Lifemiles, a real bargain!dscn2960

Goodbye Santa Marta!dscn2961

Approaching Medellin airport we can see the city has a very attractive location.dscn2963 dscn2964

I was amused to see a Spirit plane here.dscn2965

Taxis are pretty straight-forward, passengers just line up and take the next one in line and people supervise.  There are set fares to the city, can’t remember what I paid to go to the bus station, it was around $35-ish in pesos.  It’s quite a long ways though.dscn2966

If we had more time for this trip, I would have liked to spend a couple days in Medellin but we had no time to spare so had to be content with seeing the outskirts from the taxi.dscn2967 dscn2968 dscn2969 dscn2971 dscn2972 dscn2974 dscn2975 dscn2976 dscn2977

Terminal del Sur is the bus station you need to go to Jardin.  We bought tickets on the next bus which was departing around 4-ish for 20,000 pesos each, about $7 USD.dscn2978 dscn2979 dscn2980 dscn2982 dscn2983 dscn2984 dscn2985

Nice scenery enroute!dscn2990 dscn2991

We arrived in Jardin around 8pm-ish and walked into the nearest hotel which happened to be the Valdivia and the rooms were cheap enough so we took one.dscn2995

Planning A Birding Trip To Colombia

Planning our birding trip to Colombia was a much bigger challenge than planning the Ecuador trip.  Even though the countries are next to each other, there is a huge difference between the tourist infrastructures.  Ecuador has been a travel hotspot for years and places like Mindo, Napo, Southern Ecuador & the Galapagos are well equipped to handle travelers of all types and budgets.  But Colombia was off limit for many years due to safety concerns and has only recently been returned to birders’ itineraries.  Even now, there is a preference for organized package tourists.  Many of the large birding tour operators are going to Colombia but there is still a good market for us budget minded independent birders!  We just have to work harder to manage it!

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SET YOUR BIRDING GOALS FIRST

With over 1900 bird species, Colombia has a lot to offer and unless you have unlimited time and money there is no way you are going to see it all.  Before you can choose which reserves you want to visit, you need to know what species are your priorities or which reserves have the biggest bird lists if you are looking to build up your life list.

My #1 target is to see as many parrot species as possible and lots of other bird species who live in the same habitats.  While I am not a “life-list ticker”, I do want to see as many different species of parrots in my life as I possibly can.  Therefore, when choosing between destinations within a country I consider these elements:

  1. Endemic species (can only be seen in one country such as Yellow-eared Parrot ( Santa Marta Parakeet).
  2. Species that I haven’t seen before.
  3. Species that are more easily seen elsewhere (Ecuadorian Amazon vs Colombian Amazon for example).
  4. How easily can I get to the reserve and is it in a safe location?
  5. Are some species just too rare that we probably have no chance of seeing them? (Sinu Parakeet – Pyrrhura subandina)?
  6. Can I hire guides in the reserves or nearest town?

So after looking at the 57 species of parrots that can be found in Colombia, I prioritized species that I hadn’t already seen on previous trips to South America and that I wasn’t likely to see in Ecuador, then I eliminated species that had no sightings on eBird and I was unlikely to be able to find.  Actually eBird played a HUGE part in planning this trip as I was able to get really good data on birds such as Fuertes Parrots which were being seen regularly near Santa Rosa and Rufous-fronted Parakeets which were being seen near Manizales.

This is a snippet of my planning spreadsheet for Ecuador, Colombia & Trinidad.  A yellow-filled box means that species is an endemic and needs to be prioritized.  Light green font indicates I have already seen the species elsewhere (but I am always happy to see them again) but I don’t need to make a special trip for that species.  Some birds are seen in both Ecuador & Colombia so I had to figure out which location would be easier logistically.  Just to get to this stage involved hundreds of hours of looking up each species on eBird, tracking sightings, cross-referencing species to get them down to as few sites as possible and making sure we can logistically get to the location.

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ORGANIZING THE LOGISTICS

I was now down to 6 locations and less than 2 weeks to squeeze them all in.  I should probably say 5.5 locations as Minca is enroute to El Dorado.

  1.  Minca & El Dorado – accessed via Santa Marta airport
  2. Jardin – Yellow-eared Parrot Reserve – accessed by Medellin airport and a bus to Jardin.
  3. Rio Blanco & Surrounds – lots of species here, accessed by taxi or bus.
  4. Pereira – nearest city to accessible Fuertes Parrots.  I was trying for Giles Fuertes Reserve but told by ProAves that this reserve was not accessible to tourists.
  5. Chingaza Reserve – accessible by road from Bogota, planned to hire a taxi to get there.

I would need 3 flights.

  1. Quito to Santa Marta via Bogota (used Avianca Lifemiles).
  2. Santa Marta to Medellin (used Avianca Lifemiles).
  3. Pereira to Bogota (originally was going to use bus but found super cheap fare on Avianca).

This is what it all looked like on paper computer screen.

Colombia Plan

FINDING ACCOMMODATION

This turned out to be the easiest part.  Broken down by site:

  1. Santa Marta – flight got in at 9:30 so used an Expedia voucher for budget hotel.
  2. El Dorado – booked online via ProAves.
  3. Minca – booked online via Booking.com
  4. Jardin – got off bus from Medellin and walked into budget hotel on main plaza.
  5. Manizales (Rio Blanco) – must have advance booking so booked by email.
  6. Pereira – booked a backpacker place as I knew they would be able to find a cheap taxi to take us to Fuertes Parrots location at low cost.
  7. Bogota – was going to use Club Carlson bogo redemption but they closed their cheaper hotel so I used Orbucks from last year’s photo contest with 15% off promo code.

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This is an extremely succinct version of all the work I put into organizing a budget birding trip.  It’s very time consuming, especially if you have target species to track down and are limited by both time and budget.  But the end result was worth it for my high success rate.  Birds highlighted in peach were seen on this trip.  Those preceded by a 9 were allocated to Colombian sites (1-6 were allocated to Ecuador).  Red font on white background (ahem – parrotlets!) were total dips for this trip and my lifetime.  Lilac background was a dip on THIS trip but seen previously elsewhere.  For Colombia, out of  15 allocated species, 11 were seen, 4 were dips but the Brown-throated Parakeet had been seen in Panama so not a life dip.  Lilac-tailed Parrotlets could also be seen in Trindad so there was a 2nd chance (which ended up failing).

Colombia targets

So how can you do a trip like this?  Join me for the fantastic ride through Colombia during the next few weeks!

Collared Inca (Coeligena torquata)

The Collared Inca (Coeligena torquata) is a species of hummingbird found in humid Andean forests from western Venezuela, through Colombia and Ecuador, to Peru and Bolivia. It is very distinctive and unique in having a white chest-patch and white on the tail.

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They have quite a large range in in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela.  I saw them in quite a few places – Cabanas San Isidro, Guango Lodge, a farm near Jardin, Colombia and Rio Blanco near Manizales, Colombia.

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LEARN MORE ABOUT COLLARED INCAS

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American Bird Conservancy

VIDEOS

Here you can see the beautiful iridescence of the Collared Inca.

Visiting a hummingbird feeder.

 

Andean Cock-of-the-Rock (Rupicola peruvianus)

The Andean Cock-of-the-Rock (Rupicola peruvianus), also known as tunki (Quechua), is a large passerine bird of the cotinga family native to Andean cloud forests in South America. It is widely regarded as the national bird of Peru.

IMG_2873 DSCN1081 DSCN1076 DSCN1083 DSCN1074Watching their antics as they dance around hoping to attract the ladies is one of the highlights of a birding trip to South America.  There are a few leks easily accessible to tourists- Paz de las Aves (Angel Paz) near Mindo in Ecuador; Jardin in Colombia & the Cock of the Rock Lodge in Manu, Peru.

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LEARN MORE ABOUT COCKS OF THE ROCK

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VIDEOS

This is a case where you need to see and hear the birds to fully appreciate them.  Here’s a few clips filmed (in order) in Mindo, Jardin & Manu.