Birding in southern Colombia is a remarkable experience, offering an opportunity to explore diverse ecosystems teeming with bird life. This region is known for its rich biodiversity, thanks to its varied habitats, including the highlands of the Andes mountains to the lowlands of the Amazon rainforest. In the south is not only about birds, several local project and communitary-based programs have been leeading restoration aond conservation projects, allowing to visitors to enjoy not only birds but also monkeys in primary and secondary old growth forest.
we designed a customized trip on order to get the best of both and we had so much fun in the field.
Pygmy Marmoset photograpehd by Alejandro Pinto
After a short 1h flight from Bogotá to Pitalito, we moved quickly to the local reserve of CAM in the outskirts of the city and we worked for a couple of hours for one spectacular hummingbird, the Ruby Topaz.
Ruby Toopaz photographed by Alejandro Pinto near the city of Pitalito.
After few minutes in place we spotted one male, it was visiting a purple verbena flowers every 15-20 minutes but unfortunately after one hour we did not get good shots. Our local guide Lucho was checking another verbena flowers garden in the place and bingo! at least two males were moving in the bushes giving us good opportunities for photos so we decided to stay around.
late afternoon we visited a local wetland for open area birds, including the White-throated Crake - not good luck with photos - and Cinnammon Teal. we also photographed a nice Vermilion Flycatcher male. now on the way to el Encanto reserve.
Lucho, Cindy and Lina after Ruby Topaz session.
Drymophila reserve and el Encanto
Both areas located in the state of Huila, in the buffer area of los Guacharos National park. The Drymophila reserve is a 50 hectares private land, owned by a local family which works hard in order to preserve birds biodiversity the area and the conectivity of private reserves with Guacharis National park, once in place we worked in the different forest feeders for a lot of good birds. we started with a family of Green Jays catching moths, eventually Chestnut-capped Brush Finch and Three-striped Warbler joined to the party. later in the morning we photographed the endemic Tolima Dove and moved into another feeding stations for the rockstar of the day: Hooded Antpitta.
Hooded Antpitta photographed by Alejandro Pinto at Drymophila reserve
We photographed two Hooded Antpittas and we also saw Schwartz Anthrush crossing the feeding area, giving us some views. later in the day we added to our list some range restricted and endemic birds: Tolima Blossomcrown, Red-bellied Grackle, Short-tailed Emerald and also Flame-faced Tanager, Magpie Tanager, Violet-fronted Brilliant, Gorgeted Woodstar among many others! we ended the day with a good views of the Golden-winged Manakin (male and female) and a small flock with: Saffron-crowned Tanager, Beryl-spangled Tanager, Metallic-green Tanager and the migratory Blackburnian Warbler.
Gorgeted Woodstar photographed by Alejandro Pinto at el Encanto
El Encanto reserve is a 5 hectares piece of land embebed in a matrix of agriculture - mainly coffee - they decided several years ago to produce organic and birds friendly shade ground coffee and you can easily notice the difference in birds biosiversity between regular coffee ans shade ground. In el Encanto we watched and photographed very nice Tanagers and Hummingbirds, the main target was the Golden-eared Tanager who was very active early morning, but other nice birds in the lodge garden include: Indigo-capped Hummingbird, Gorgeted Woodstar, Ruby Topaz, Crimsom-backed Tanager, Bar-crested Antshrike, Gray-headed Tanager, Bay-headed Tanager, Blue-necked Tanager among others.
Cindy and Alejandro after a succesful morning in the field.
We want to thanks to all the staff, local guides, drivers at Drymophila and el Encanto: Melida, Antonio, Lucho, Michael and Angela for such a great attention.
Next day a transfer to the amazon forest with a quick stop at Discosura reserve. Discosura is a new project in the amazonian foothills, they are taking care of a big piece of forest this in order to protect natural resources but also birds. the garden is loaded with several flower bushes and many hummingbirds are visiting the flowers all day long, also the trails in the forest behind the house give to birdwatcher chances for several species. the local food made in a old fire place was delicious and on top of that we watched and photographed amazing birds.
Golden-eared Tanager photographed by Alejandro Pinto at el Encanto.
Some of the best sights: Violet-headed Hummingbird, Golden-tailed Sapphire, Fork-tailed Woodnymph, Coopery-chested Jacamar, Dusky Spinetail, Spot-winged Antbird and an incredible mix flock with: Paradise Tanager, Turquoise Tanager, Green and Gold Tanager and Masked Tanager.
we really want to thanks to all the family involved in Discosura project, specially to Ilber and Yuleima.
our visit in Discosura
Violet-headed Hummingbird photographed by Alejandro Pinto at Discosura project.
last stop, the Amazon forest.
we had two incredible days in the amazon forest around the city of Puerto Asis. the Gallery forest along the Putumayo river and the amazon forest patches near the city are home of many incredible birds but also monkeys.
Lina and Cindy having fun in the field
Our first day in the morning we did a short boat ride along the river to visit Playa Rica, a communitary based program which include birdwatching as an excuse for conservation, involving the whole community, they are very well organized and all the services were fantastic. first bird in the morning was the Black-fronted Nunbird, which was possing nicely along the trail.
Black-fronted Nunbird photographed by Alejandro Pinto at Playa Rica
We had to interrupt our breakfast to watch 4 Cream-colored Woodpecker working in a termites nest - they were getting their breakfast too - and the Ornate Titi Monkeys jumping in the forest behing them. after breakfast and during our walk we spotted: Chestnut-headed Woopecker, Long-billed Woocreeper, Black-banded Woodcreeper, Horned Screamer, Hoatzin, White-eared Jacamar, Yellow-tufted Woodpecker, Violaceous Jay among others, and we also spotted the Saddle-backed Tamarins to end the morning in a good way!
Long-billed Woodcreeper photographed by Alejandro Pinto at Playa Rica
at the afternoon a short visit to a place in the outskirts of the town to enjoy the Spix´s Night Monkeys sleeping in a dead trunk.
Spix´s Night Monkeys photographed by Alejandro Pinto in the Outskirts of Puerto Asis.
During our second day in the area we visited a new and very nice project named: Amazon´s Birds. the local family protect 50 hectares of amazonian forest only for the purpose of conservation. not only several birds has been recorded in this places - over two hundred - but also 8 species of monkeys! and off course one of our first sights in the morning was the Pygmy Marmoset, what a beauty! our loca guide Mr. Flechas took us around the reserve, we made a 2.5 miles loop around the forest were we where able to spot several birds and give high chances for other monkeys.
Pygmy Marmoset photographed by Alejandro Pinto in Amazon´s Birds
After Marmotset a very nice breakfast with good coffee and a walk in the forest: Plum-throated Cotinga (female) in the canopy, Black-fronted Nunbirds everywhere, Chestnut Woodpecker at the forest edge, Silvery, White-shouldered and Peruvian Warbling Antbird in the forest joined us for the morning. the usual mix flocks always with top birds: Lafresnaye´s Piculet, Masked Tanager, Turquoise Tanager, Purple Honeycreper and a couple of Euphonias.
Turquoise Tanager photographed by Alejandro Pinto in Amazon´s birds
Monkeys photographed in the amazonian area: Saddle-backed Tamarin, Ornate Titi Monkey, Spix´s Night Monkey, Pygmy Marmotset and Miller´s Saki. other species were seen during the trip like: Red-Howler Monkey and Squirrel Monkey.
Ornate Titi Monkey.
Saddle-backed Tamarin
Miller´s Saki photographed by Ivan Rocha.
we want to thank to all the staff in Amazon´s birds, specially Mr. Flechas - an incredible local guide - and his sister Yolima. they both play an essential role in the conservation of Amazon forest in the state of Putumayo. Their place Amazon´s forest is highly under risk and deforestation still on-going around one of the last primary forest in the area.
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