January 13-21, 2026 with Jesse Fagan
What a whirlwind trip around the birding hotspots of Bogota! It’s impressive the number of species we were able to record in just seven days of birding mostly within the “grasp” of the capital city. It does require some early starts to beat the traffic, but it’s very much worth it for so many birds in such a short period. Despite the proximity to a city with over 10 million inhabitants, the tour also samples a nice altitudinal range of ecosystems from sea level in the llanos near Villavicencio, the Andean foothills at Chicaque and Pedro Palo, montane forest at Chingaza National Park, and paramo grasslands at Sumapaz. The corresponding flora and fauna were also quite diverse. For example, on this tour we saw Giant Anteater and Apolinar’s Wren! Go figure.
So, yes, the tour is in and out of Bogota but by design it also spends a considerable amount of time not in the city. We started off in the small town of La Vega visiting a site called Tabacal. The parking lot was buzzing with birds early in the morning. We quickly ticked off Bar-crested Antshrike, Black-bellied Wren, and Spectacled Parrotlets, among others. By the time the gates opened we were well on our way to 100 species that morning. We managed to pull out decent looks of Blue-lored Antbird on the trails, plus chattery Checker-throated Stipplethroats, and a surprise Velvet-fronted Euphonia. A quick visit to Jardin Encantado later in the day had us drowning in hummingbird action. The endemic Indigo-capped Hummingbird was common, and a female Gorgeted Woodstar buzzed in an appearance. In total, we tallied eleven species of hummingbird here.
We spent our first two nights near the town of La Mesa where we visited Chicaque Nature Park on the first morning. It was a little slow in the dense fog that shrouded the site for most of the day, but we hit a couple of the mega-flocks that Chicaque is famous for. One of those flocks contained 30+ individuals (lots of Grass-green Tanagers and Ashy-throated Chlorospingus) including Brown-billed Scythebill, Yellow-billed Cacique (all too brief!), Montane and Lineated foliage-gleaners, and Fawn-breasted Tanager. It was one of those flocks you dream of! And most of the group got a kick out of thermaling a Blackish Tapaculo! (Honestly, it’s practically the only way to find those little guys!) The next morning, we drove up to Pedro Palo for a morning worth of birding before heading back into Bogota. It was easy walking with lots of birds at eye-level and our best looks at Speckle-breasted Wren, Plain Antvireo, Flame-faced Tanager, and a giant Copperhead Tarantula.
There were a couple of mornings spent at higher elevations on the tour. At Chingaza we focused on the montane forest “sub-paramo.” It’s always about finding the flocks here, and we hit a couple that added greatly to our species list. It’s also more quality vs. quantity at these elevations. Standouts this morning include Pale-bellied Tapaculo, Pale-naped Brushfinch, Black-chested Mountain Tanager, and Rufous-browed Conebill. We made a stop at Observatorio de Colibri in the afternoon and what an amazing place. Not many spots in the world you can photograph Longuemare’s Sunangel, Black-tailed Trainbearer, Glowing Puffleg, Sword-billed Hummingbird, and Blue-throated Starfrontlet without taking one step. The following day we traveled across town climbing a little higher into a strange other-worldly habitat of bunch grass and Espeletia plants. There were a lot of new trip birds here for us: Green-bearded Helmetcrest, Boyaca Antpitta, Chestnut-winged Cincloides, Many-striped Canastero, Plain-capped Ground-Tyrant, and Apolinar’s Wren. That’s a significant haul of high-quality birds.
From the Bogota plain, we then descended for the last two days of the tour into the eastern lowlands. This ended up being one of the group highlights of the tour. Our evening out on the llanos plain was magical as dusk settled in around us and we watched Giant Anteaters come out into the open grass and Yellow-crowned Amazons, sounding a lot like little babies crying for their bottle, settled in for the night. Earlier that afternoon we had stood awe struck as a troop of Ornate Titi Monkeys slowly worked their way across the road in front of us, jumping limbs and climbing fences until they found the safety of a larger forest patch. I would be remiss to not mention our birding at Bosque Bavaria and our lovely little lodge at Camana (so much hospitality!). Both provided new birds and judging by all the fantastic photos, great looks, too. Finally, the last morning we climbed into the eastern foothills of the Eastern Cordillera to meet up with the Herrera family. It was here that we saw a little known antpitta described to science in 1992 by Gary F. Stiles but first observed by Peter G. Kaestner in October 1989. The Cundinamarca Antpitta, thanks to the Herrera family, is now viewable at their hide and we were lucky enough to observe and photograph one. It was a beautiful morning looking across the Andes from their porch, and a great way to end the trip.
Thanks to all of you for joining me on this fun adventure. I look forward to our next trip. I also need to thank Manuela and Dario for their excellent work. All the best in 2026 and beyond.
You can see my complete trip report on eBird at this link: https://ebird.org/tripreport/481383
You can see my iNaturalist report of non-avian taxa at this link: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/field-guides-birding-tours-colombia-s-eastern-cordillera-2026-with-jesse-fagan
You can download a combined PDF of this page and the eBird report at this link: https://fieldguides.com/triplists/cba26TRIPLIST.pdf
-- Jesse Fagan (aka Motmot) from Lima, Peru