Laura and I have recently completed our scouting trip for Quest Nature Tours and are back in Quito, Ecuador. It was a whirlwind tour of southern Colombia and we traversed a wide variety of habitats. The Magdalena River valley, the Amazonian lowlands, the eastern and western slopes of the Andes, high elevation paramo, a dry inter-Andean valley, and finally, the Chocó lowlands. I don't have a lot of time to write thorough daily posts from the two-week trip, but I wanted to provide a general summary of some of the main areas.
These areas are incredible from a biological point of view, yet receive few foreign ecotourists. The main reason is of course the stigma around southern Colombia due to the problems that persisted in these areas 15 and 20 years ago. However the areas are now very safe and the various provinces (especially Nariño and Putumayo) are trying to promote and establish ecotourism in their areas. We felt extremely safe during our time in southern Colombia, the people were very welcoming, and the biodiversity is just incredible. We fell in love with Nariño and Putumayo and can't wait to return!
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| Birding in Huila Province, Colombia |
For our first few days of the trip we explored several different locations in the Magdalena River valley, and up the adjacent mountainsides, in south-central Colombia. As everyone reads this knows, the Andes form the "spine" of South America, running along the western side of the continent. However what makes Colombia unique is that the Andes split into three separate cordilleras that run parallel through Colombia, except in far southern Colombia close to the Ecuador border. These three ranges promote endemism. Populations of a species found in each of the cordilleras may eventually differentiate over time, because the populations remain separated due to the geographic barriers. The two main river valleys - the Cauca and Magdalena - also have a few unique species that are confined to these hot and dry habitats.
Some of the endemic bird species that we were lucky to cross paths with in this part of Colombia included the Tolima Dove, Tolima Blossomcrown, Colombian Chachalaca, Dusky-headed Brush-Finch, Apical Flycatcher and Indigo-capped Hummingbird. Most of these species (except Tolima Dove and Dusky-headed Brush-Finch) I had encountered before in Colombia, but in most situations the views were fleeting. We soaked in "face-melting" views of all of the above species on this trip. The one hole in our list was East Andean Antbird at the Drymophila Reserve, named after the genus of the antbird. We heard one distant individual singing but it will be one I need to return for!
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| Colombian Chachalalaca - El Encanto, Huila Province, Colombia |
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| Tolima Blossomcrown - Drymophila Reserve, Huila Province, Colombia |
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| Apical Flycatcher - El Encanto, Huila Province, Colombia |
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| Indigo-capped Hummingbird - El Encanto, Huila Province, Colombia |
Of course, the birding was fantastic even apart from all of the endemics. In the humid forests in the mountains surrounding the river valley we also came across many interesting species. Red-headed Barbets and Andean Cock-of-the-Rocks were certainly crowd-pleasers, but I was just as happy with some of the less gaudy, enigmatic species that can be quite difficult to encounter. These included Spectacled Prickletail, Short-billed Chlorospingus, Fulvous-breasted Flatbill and Rufous-tailed Tyrant.
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| Andean Cock-of-the-Rock - Cerro Páramo de Miraflores, Huila Province, Colombia |
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| Fulvous-breasted Flatbill - Cerro Páramo de Miraflores, Huila Province, Colombia |
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| Red-headed Barbet - El Encanto, Huila Province, Colombia |
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| Spectacled Prickletail - Cerro Páramo de Miraflores, Huila Province, Colombia |
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| Saffron Finch - El Encanto, Huila Province, Colombia |
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| Rufous-tailed Tyrant - Cerro Páramo de Miraflores, Huila Province, Colombia |
The creeks in these mountains were beautiful with the territories of aptly-named Torrent Tyrannulets being continuous along their lengths.
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| Cerro Páramo de Miraflores, Huila Province, Colombia |
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| Torrent Tyrannulet - Cerro Páramo de Miraflores, Huila Province, Colombia |
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| Cerro Páramo de Miraflores, Huila Province, Colombia |
One area that we really enjoyed was Cerro Páramo de Miraflores. In early afternoon the sun came out, causing hundreds of butterflies to light up the trail with their colours. It was hard to remain focused on the birds when the lepidopteran life flourished all around us!
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| Altinote neleus - Cerro Páramo de Miraflores, Huila Province, Colombia |
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| Catasticta apaturina - Cerro Páramo de Miraflores, Huila Province, Colombia |
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| Perisama sp. - Cerro Páramo de Miraflores, Huila Province, Colombia |
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| Leptophobia tovaria - Cerro Páramo de Miraflores, Huila Province, Colombia |
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| Altinote sp. - Cerro Páramo de Miraflores, Huila Province, Colombia |
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| Greta andromica - Cerro Páramo de Miraflores, Huila Province, Colombia |
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| Orange Mapwing (Hypanartia lethe) - Cerro Páramo de Miraflores, Huila Province, Colombia |
My next post will cover some of the areas we visited in the Amazonian lowlands.
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