Western Andes of Colombia

Tour Cost: $4,000

Single Supplement: $700

Tour Capacity: 8 People

The Western Andes of Colombia are a hotspot of avian diversity and relatively under-birded. Every time I visit, I find new unexpected species due to the amazing diversity and scant information on species-habitat relationships for the region. This tour will focus on five locations that span an altitudinal gradient, allowing for birding in high-elevation cloud forest and lowland valley habitats.

As tourism slowly increases throughout the country of Colombia, the Western Andes is gaining recognition as a fantastic location to see hard-to-find endemics and an amazing array of tanagers and hummingbirds. As a country, Colombia is filled with amazing scenery, welcoming people, and otherworldly birds. This tour serves as an introduction to this spectacular country and all it has to offer.

Our first ecolodge for the tour sits in the Reserva Forestal Protectora Regional Bitaco, a high-elevation cloud forest measuring close to 500 acres on the Western slopes of the Andes. The ecolodge sits approximately 1 hour outside of the city of Cali and serves as a centralized location for exploring the myriad parks and private reserves in the higher elevations of the Andean mountain range. Sitting on the porch of the lodge and watching the fruit feeders is an overwhelming experience in its own right, with species such as the Multicolored Tanager, Red-headed Barbet, Blue-winged Mountain-Tanager, Golden, Saffron-crowned, Beryl-spangled, Metallic-green and Golden-naped Tanagers common and plentiful. The adjacent hummingbird feeders are even busier, with Long-tailed Sylphs, White-booted Racket-tail, Andean Emerald, Buff-tailed Coronets, Purple-throated Woodstars and Steely-vented Hummingbirds to name just a few species we will see! Each afternoon, after a busy morning birding off-site, we will return to the lodge where we will sit comfortably around the feeders while the birds come to us! The longer you sit, the more species you will see, as waves of mixed-species flocks regularly move through. At night, Mottled Owls and Rufescent Screech-Owls sit right outside the lodge!

During the tour, we will spend one full day exploring the Bitaco Reserve by walking the 2km roadway that bisects the cloud forest on the lodge property. This easy walk is often most active at dawn and we will explore portions of it prior to our breakfast, returning after breakfast to search for mixed flocks and many of the emblematic and relatively common species of the area, including Sickle-winged Guan, Golden-headed and Crested Quetzals, Crimson-rumped Toucanet, Yellow-vented Woodpecker, Andean Motmot, Nariño Tapaculo and more. Any energy deficit you experience from walking the trails at our lodge will be more than replaced by the ample meals served at our lodge!

While in the mountains, we will focus our off-site birding on three local hotspots. The first is the famed Kilometro 18 (Km18), a roadway on the outskirts of Cali that is dotted with private birding reserves. We will visit two locations along this road and do some walking along the road itself, with bisects forested habitat and clearings for agriculture and residences. The private reserves offer a chance to view difficult-to-find species such as Scaled Antpitta, Chestnut Wood-Quail, Blue-headed Sapphire and Greenish Puffleg. The reserves are also relaxing locations as most birding is done in bird blinds and fruit and hummingbird feeders. As you watch these rare species, you can sit back and sip freshly ground Colombian coffee – a coffee lover’s dream!

We will also spend an entire day visiting the Anchicaya Valley, a birding trail that leads to the Pacific and, as it descends in elevation, will expose us to a completely new suite of species. To begin the day, we will arrive early to the top of the valley and search for Crested Ant-Tanager, Lyre-tailed Nightjar, and other species that are relatively easy to find despite their rarity at this location. We will have both our breakfast and lunch at an amazing property with an abundance of species that are virtually non-existent anywhere else, including Toucan Barbet, Velvet-purple Coronet, Purple-bibbed Whitetip, Lemon-browed Flycatcher and Tricolored Brushfinch. Our intermediate periods will be spent walking the roadway, searching for new trip species, such as Chestnut-headed Oropendola, Bay Wren, Spot-crowned Barbet, Grayish Piculet and many others. For those interested, we will offer a short (but steep) hike to a Andean Cock-of-the-rock lek site for a look at one of the most sought-after bird species of the Andes.

After our 4 full days birding the higher elevations of the Western Andes, we will descend and head to the town of San Cipriano. This site is recognized as one of the best birding spots in all of Western Colombia and offers an opportunity to step back in time and bird untouched forests where biodiversity is extremely high. Getting to the town itself is an experience not soon forgotten. In order to reach San Cipriano, we will drive to the town of Cordoba and catch a ride on a brujita, a modified motorcycle cart that runs along a railroad line. This mode of transportation is extremely fun and famous in the area. Once we reach the town of San Cipriano, we will explore the town and surrounding lowland forests for bird species, including Tooth-billed Hummingbird, Five-colored Barbet, Choco Toucan, Velvety Manakin, Crimson-bellied Woodpecker and Lanceolated Monklet and, of course, the myriad number of antbirds that dwell in the forest undergrowth. After our day of birding this famed site, we will return to the nearby town of Buga and check into our extremely comfortable lodge before a hearty Colombian dinner.

The final location we will visit will be the Laguna de Sonso Nature Reserve north of Cali. This lowland wetland complex is vastly different from the locations visited previously. The lower elevation and habitat promote a completely new suite of species, including Common Potoo, Horned Screamer, multiple waterbird species, Spectacled Parrotlet, Masked Cardinal and Snail Kite.