Friday 6 March 2020

Jardín, Bolombolo and La Romera

We traveled north from Otún Quimbaya to the Jardín area to spend a couple of nights. Jardín is a beautiful colonial-style town with a large central square and magnificent basilica. We stayed at the Valdivia Plaza Hotel right off of the main square, our base for two nights. 

Basilica of the Immaculate Conception - Jardín, Antioquia, Colombia

During our first morning we went on a search for the Yellow-eared Parrot, an Endangered species with a very small range that relies on wax palms for feeding and for nesting. Unfortunately, the early morning mist turned into a light shower, then morphed into a steady, bone-chilling rain that refused to relent. We staked out some areas that the parrots frequent but they must have been hiding from the weather, something we wished we were doing as well! We enjoyed hot coffee from the shelter of the back of the 4x4 Jeeps. 

But the morning was salvaged when our local guide Cristian knew of a great set of tanager feeders just outside of town, called Finca Bambusa. We dried off, sipped on our hot chocolates and coffees and watched a steady stream of colourful tanagers feed on the plentiful bananas set out for them. It was a photographers dream - the even lighting, beautiful birds and eye-level setup left all of us thrilled with the results.

Scrub Tanager - Finca Bambusa, Jardín, Antioquia, Colombia

Blue-necked Tanager - Finca Bambusa, Jardín, Antioquia, Colombia

Bay-headed Tanager - Finca Bambusa, Jardín, Antioquia, Colombia

Flame-rumped Tanager - Finca Bambusa, Jardín, Antioquia, Colombia

Blue-gray Tanager - Finca Bambusa, Jardín, Antioquia, Colombia

Crimson-backed Tanager - Finca Bambusa, Jardín, Antioquia, Colombia

Flame-rumped Tanager - Finca Bambusa, Jardín, Antioquia, Colombia

Palm Tanager - Finca Bambusa, Jardín, Antioquia, Colombia

Blue-necked Tanager - Finca Bambusa, Jardín, Antioquia, Colombia

The Rufous-tailed Hummingbird may be one of the more common species across its range, but it is still beautiful. We watched a few feeding on the flowers in the garden, competing with the plentiful Bananaquits.

Rufous-tailed Hummingbird - Finca Bambusa, Jardín, Antioquia, Colombia

Bananaquit - Finca Bambusa, Jardín, Antioquia, Colombia

Red-headed Barbets are one of the stars of the show at Finca Bambusa. A pair dropped in occasionally to sample the bananas.

Red-headed Barbet - Finca Bambusa, Jardín, Antioquia, Colombia

A nice variety of other bird species were encountered in the gardens and by the time we left we had tallied 40 in total. Flycatchers were well-represented; pictured are Tropical Kingbird and Yellow-olive Flycatcher. Other fun birds to observe included White-naped Brushfinch, Mourning Warbler, Russet-backed Oropendola and Bronze-winged Parrot. 

Tropical Kingbird - Finca Bambusa, Jardín, Antioquia, Colombia

Yellow-olive Flycatcher - Finca Bambusa, Jardín, Antioquia, Colombia

Laura has a knack for finding well-camouflaged roosting birds. We were about to get back into the bus when she came through yet again, this time locating a Common Potoo on a dead snag! 

Common Potoo - Finca Bambusa, Jardín, Antioquia, Colombia

Later in the afternoon we took a stroll from the town square for only a few hundred meters to a well-known lekking area for Andean Cock-of-the-Rocks. These incredible cotingas gather in this area every morning and afternoon, and the males perform a bizarre dance to try to attract the attention of a female or two, which are waiting in the wings. Excitement was high as we traversed the path to reach the lek. We paused to admire a Green Hermit along the way.

Green Hermit - Jardín, Antioquia, Colombia

The lek was nothing short of spectacular. At least nine males were present, some at an arms-length away. They would periodically duck and weave, while making odd popping and buzzing sounds. We could not see any females but presumably there were one or two hiding out of our view!

Andean Cock-of-the-Rock - Jardín, Antioquia, Colombia

Andean Cock-of-the-Rock - Jardín, Antioquia, Colombia

Andean Cock-of-the-Rock - Jardín, Antioquia, Colombia

Andean Cock-of-the-Rock - Jardín, Antioquia, Colombia

Andean Cock-of-the-Rock - Jardín, Antioquia, Colombia

Andean Cock-of-the-Rock - Jardín, Antioquia, Colombia

Andean Cock-of-the-Rock - Jardín, Antioquia, Colombia

The birding was great, even apart from the main attraction. A few Red-bellied Grackles were around. This flashy icterid is endemic to the mountains of Colombia.

Red-bellied Grackle - Jardín, Antioquia, Colombia

Someone spotted a roosting Tropical Screech-Owl high up in some bamboo which we enjoyed before leaving the lekking area.

Tropical Screech-Owl - Jardín, Antioquia, Colombia

That evening we celebrated with some good wine and excellent pizza.

The next morning we were up early to drive to Medellín, our base for the night. From there we would be flying to Santa Marta in the morning, a city located along the Caribbean coast.

We stopped for a few hours in the Bolombolo area in the Cauca River valley. Due to our early arrival we missed the stifling hot weather that this area experiences, while we found a nice variety of bird species that inhabit these dry forested, lowland environs.

Golden-collared Manakin - Bolombolo area, Antioquia, Colombia

Black-striped Sparrow - Bolombolo area, Antioquia, Colombia

Our top three target birds for this area are species all endemic to the dry valleys of Colombia - the Apical Flycatcher, the range-restricted Antioquia Wren, and the dimunitive Grayish Piculet. Luckily, all three were found with relative ease.

Grayish Piculet - Bolombolo area, Antioquia, Colombia

Among our ~60 species of birds that we found here, some other highlights included Bar-crested Antshrike, lekking Golden-collared Manakins, Cinereous Becard, Hook-billed Kite and Slate-headed Tody-Flycatcher.

Slate-headed Tody-Flycatcher - Bolombolo area, Antioquia, Colombia

As the temperatures warmed, the butterflies became more active. Below are a few that I photographed.

Staphylus sp. - Bolombolo area, Antioquia, Colombia

Two-eyed Eighty-Eight (Callicore pitheas) - Bolombolo area, Antioquia, Colombia

Hermes Satyr (Hermeuptychia hermes) - Bolombolo area, Antioquia, Colombia

Southern Sicklewing (Eantis thraso) - Bolombolo area, Antioquia, Colombia

Mevania Eyed-Metalmark (Mesosemia mevania) - Bolombolo area, Antioquia, Colombia

We left the Bolombolo area and completed the rest of our drive to the south end of Medellín. Since we were doing very well for time, we squeezed in one more stop before ending up at the hotel.

La Romera Reserve is located just south of Medellín and protects a nice swath of pre-montane forest. It also happens to be a well-known location to search for the Yellow-headed Manakin, a species that does not seem to be common anywhere. While the birding was quite during our late afternoon visit we did find some surprisingly skulky Colombian Chachalacas, a Western Emerald and Red-bellied Grackles (heard only). We were about to leave when a beautiful little Yellow-headed Manakin appeared next to the road, sticking around long enough for scope views! A few minutes later the rain started. Talk about good timing!

Yellow-headed Manakin - La Romera, Antioquia, Colombia

No comments: