Tag Archives: Termales del Ruiz

Rainbow-bearded Thornbill (Chalcostigma herrani)

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The Rainbow-bearded Thornbill (Chalcostigma herrani) is a species of hummingbird in the Trochilidae family.  They can be found in the high paramo in cold high altitude areas.  They have an interesting way to survive the cold.  They enter a nightly hibernation called torpor, where their body temperature, breathing, and heart rate drastically slow so they conserve most of their energy.  My photos don’t do this gorgeous little bird justice as i didn’t get him head on to show the beard but at least I DID get a few shots at the feeders!

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They are found in Ecuador Andes regions & Colombia  in the high paramo south of  Manizales.  The best place to see them is in the gardens of the Termales del Ruiz.   You will be at 3500 metres so plan for altitude sickness.

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LEARN MORE ABOUT RAINBOW-BEARDED THORNBILLS

Wikipedia

Birdlife

Neotropical Birds

American Bird Conservancy

VIDEOS

Now you see him, now you don’t!

The trick is to get him facing you with the sun behind you to show off his iridescent beard, not an easy task!

 

Rufous-fronted Parakeet, (Bolborhynchus ferrugineifrons)

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The Rufous-fronted Parakeet, (Bolborhynchus ferrugineifrons) is endemic to Colombia and can be a real challenge to see as they like very high altitudes between 3000-4000 metres.  Wikipedia doesn’t have a photo but I do have a picture from Rio Blanco.  Photos are available on the websites in the “Learn More” section.

dscn3227Not only are they a Colombian endemic but their range is very small in the high paramo near Manizales & Pereira.  The best place to see them is in and around the Termales del Ruiz.   You will be at 3500 metres so plan for altitude sickness.  Once you get within 5km of the hotel, keep your windows down and ears open, they are the only parrot species in this area so listen for the squawking.

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LEARN MORE ABOUT RUFOUS-FRONTED PARAKEETS

Wikipedia

World Parrot Trust

Birdlife

Neotropical Birds.

VIDEOS

Not an easy bird to photograph or film, even with a scope! Top Colombian guide, Oswaldo Cortes got a few clips.

 

 

 

Birding The Termales Del Ruiz Garden

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High in the Nevados del Ruiz, the hotel at the Termales del Ruiz has a lovely little garden with lots of hummingbirds.  You have to pay 18,000 COP admission to the thermal pool to enter the gardens even if you aren’t planning to swim.  I wouldn’t have minded a swim but the high altitude was making my husband woozy so I just ran in for about 20 minutes to see the hummingbirds and any other birds that happened by.

It’s quite an attractive hotel and I would have liked to spend a night here if it weren’t for the 3500 metres altitude.

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Great view of Manizales!dscn3272 dscn3274 dscn3277 dscn3278 dscn3275 dscn3276

I should have prayed harder for those elusive photos!dscn3303 dscn3305 dscn3307 dscn3308 dscn3314 dscn3316 dscn3315 dscn3313 img_6168

Even a quick walk around the garden produced hundreds of hummingbirds that were buzzing around everywhere!  I couldn’t keep up with them and the guide didn’t speak English or know all the species even in Spanish.  He wasn’t a birding guide, just a hotel employee.

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Shining Sunbeam dscn3286

Black-thighed Puffleg dscn3295

Buff-winged Starfrontlet dscn3298 img_6161 img_6163 img_6166 img_6176 img_6177 img_6185 img_6190

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When I first entered, I had shown a picture of a Rufous-fronted Parakeet to the guide and asked him to be on the lookout for the “periquitos”.  We had heard them in the trees down the road from the hotel but didn’t get a good look.  So I was really excited to hear some parrot-y squawks while walking through the garden.   I asked the guide “periquitos” and he nodded and led me to a better vantage point.  I barely had time to watch a pair of Rufous-fronted Parakeets zoom overhead and disappear into the fog.  Unfortunately “Hail Mary” wasn’t on my side that day as all I got was this shot.img_6368

At least I did see them, albeit very briefly!  I wanted to get Ina back down to a lower altitude so we left right afterwards and headed back to Manizales.  When we got back, the drive got a call just as we were about to go to the bus station with the news that the Golden-plumed Parakeets were at Rio Blanco, so off we went!

 

A Visit To Colombia’s Páramo

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Up to now, we had visited some mountainy areas in Ecuador and Colombia but none were REALLY high up.  Quito is at 2850 metres and the El Dorado Reserve in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta is around 2600 metres.  On previous travels long ago I had been to Lhasa at 3700 metres and we have both been to Cuzco at 3399 metres.  I can recall spending one day in Lhasa pretty woozy then acclimating and being ok.  In Cuzco we were out of breath a bit but otherwise fine.

On this trip, we had flown into Medellin 1495 metres and traveled overland via Jardin to Manizales at 2160 metres and barely noticed anything.  I knew that many tourists use Manizales as a base to make day trips to the Nevado del Ruiz and some had complained of altitude sickness but they were going much further up than we were.  I was targeting a couple of parrots found in the Páramo  – the Rusty-faced Parrot and the Rufous-fronted Parakeet.  I had good data from eBird on where people had been seeing them and Albeiro from Rio Blanco Reserve had organized a car & driver for us and explained to the driver were we were going and why.

The driver picked us up around 5am so we could get to the birding area by dawn.  It was beautiful scenery throughout the whole trip.

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It wasn’t far but it was uphill all the way and we were going very slow to listen for the birds.  It was extremely foggy the whole day which pretty much ruined my chance to get bird shots, especially if they were in flight.   After slowly driving along the area where others had reported Rusty-faced Parrots, we finally heard the calls and saw a pair fly overhead and off to the bush without stopping.  This was as good as we were going to get.dscn3255 dscn3256

At this point, I was shocked to see how high we were – 3400 metres!  Shortly afterward we took a turn towards the Termales del Ruiz.dscn3257 dscn3258 dscn3259 dscn3261

 

The fog was getting worse – bad news for birders.img_6140 img_6149 img_6152

I just about freaked out when I saw this sign!img_6153 img_6160

From this point up to the Termales del Ruiz is the area where you are most likely to see Rufous-fronted Parakeets. So we drove slowly along listening anxiously but nothing could be heard.

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At this point we stopped for about half an hour.  I could hear what seemed to be parrot calls in the trees but none of them came out where we could see them.

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Spectacular view of Manizales!dscn3272 dscn3273

This is the Hotel Termales del Ruiz where we stopped for a short visit.  There is a fee to go inside the property to see the hummingbird feeders and I didn’t have enough cash for everyone so I went in to grab some photos while Ina & the driver hung around outside.  I’ll put this birding walk on a separate post due to large number of photos.dscn3274

Ina was starting to feel the effects of the altitude by this time so we had to go back down the mountain.  Surprisingly, all I got was a bit out of breath but nothing serious.  Ina got pretty woozy.dscn3320 dscn3323

Not sure what this is, I was just happy to see a bird close enough to get a photo of!dscn3324 dscn3329

The road is pretty bad so if you come here, make sure you have a 4×4 or at least high clearance.dscn3326 dscn3327 dscn3333

At this point we were almost back to Manizales when we got a call from Albeiro letting us know the Golden-Plumed Parakeets were hanging around the lodge area so we high-tailed it back to Rio Blanco.dscn3340