November 24-December 1, 2025 with Jesse Fagan
This was a special trip for me and the group. It was our inaugural Puerto Inirida tour, one that I had been planning for a couple of years since I first scouted the area. Puerto Inirida is found in the extreme eastern part of Colombia at the confluence of two major rivers, the Guaviare and Inirida, which feed into the mighty Orinoco River. This is also a transition zone as several major ecosystems come together here. The llanos is found to the west and north. This is a vast area of ephermeral marshlands, lagoons, and savanna. And to the south is the Amazon Basin with a mix of terra firme and varzea habitat and the highest concentration of biodiversity anywhere in the world. Another important habitat type is the patchy distribution of white sand forest. This holds its own unique set of species adapted to the poor soils and the endemic plants that grow on them. Finally, there is the Guianian Shield that reaches its western most terminus in Colombia. This is ancient bed rock, approximately 1 billion years old, with famous formations like the tepuis, Mavicure Hills, large waterfalls, and more special organisms adapted to its environment. All of these habitats and more are found around Puerto Inirida, and we spent 5+ nights exploring the area by mototaxi (or tuk tuk) and boat (or peci peci) while staying at a comfortable small hotel and eating local foods. We tallied nearly 240 species in that short period, a solid total, but not without the help of my support network incuding our excellent local guide, Daniel Camilo, our tuk tuk drivers, and Mollee.
As mentioned above, we recorded near 240 species with a number of highlights for the group. Yapacana Antbird (Aprositornis disjuncta) is a white-sand forest specialist only found in extreme eastern Colombia, southern Venezuela, and northwest Brazil. There are only a few accesible sites for this species. We were treated to a pair foraging right at our feet! Cotingas were high up on the list of favorites. We saw several species well including Spangled, Purple-breasted, and Pompadour, plus the outlier, Bare-necked Fruitcrow. A very cooperative Wire-tailed Manakin at La Matraca stole the show some of you. Indeed, I saw those crushing photos that a couple of you got of it! However, it was an unnamed species that most agreed was the Bird Of The Trip. It was the "Inirida Antshrike," a Thamnophilus antshrike only recently discovered in the last few years being most similar to Chestnut-backed Antshrike (T. palliatus), which is found further south. We were able to see this 'species' well, both male and female, plus hear its vocalizations including the long barking song and several shorter calls. It is hoped that this taxon will be formely described in the near future. Regardless of the outcome, it is exciting to be in an area where new discoveries like this can still be made!
You can see my complete trip report on eBird at this link: https://ebird.org/tripreport/441762
You can download a combined PDF of this page and the eBird report at this link: https://fieldguides.com/triplists/cin25TRIPLIST.pdf
-- Jesse Fagan aka Motmot (from Lima, Peru)