January 21-31, 2026 with Dan Lane & Manuela Zapata
Colombia is a large and varied country which has resulted in it being blessed with the world’s largest avifauna. No surprise: that was one of the main draws for us coming on this tour! We concentrated on one of the most important geographic features of the country—a major avenue of commerce and also a biogeographic feature that has allowed for some speciation between two paralleling mountain ranges and the valley that separates them. I’m talking about the great Magdalena Valley, life blood of much of central and northern Colombia! The Magdalena runs north from headwaters at the separation of the Eastern and Central Andes chains and passes several of the country’s largest population centers. Its lower stretches have been important to the moving of goods by boat from farms and industries in the interior of the country to the coast port city of Barranquilla and thence to the rest of the world, as well as the return course carrying international goods back to the people living in the interior of the country. But from our perspective, perhaps the more important character of the Magdalena is how it has united and divided several habitats from one another, allowing for speciation of birds (and other organisms). The lower reaches of the valley are fairly dry, although the original semi-deciduous forest has largely been cleared and replaced with anthropogenic habitats such as pastures, orchards, and agricultural fields, but there are still scraps of original vegetation on the hills, smaller side valleys, and reserves. Here, such as at Mana Dulce (our first site) we get to see examples of what the original avifauna was. We also experienced the “artificial” avifauna responding to the clearing I just mentioned, such as at our El Hato stop. Next, the humid slopes of the mountains on either side of the valley reflects how some species are able to cross the obstacle of the valley and others can’t—the latter either illustrated by differing forms on opposite sides, or a total lack of a form on one side. Finally, there are differences in elevation, temperature, and rainfall from the upper to lower parts of the valley and adjacent slopes that dictate what birds are present. These factors all add up to what we are likely to encounter and where. That was your sermon on biogeography for the day. Amen.
So our trip started, quite logically, in the capital city of Bogota, a megalopolis that is famous for its traffic jams and comfortable temperatures as it sits in a medium elevation plain within the Eastern Andes. This is a site where little to none of the original vegetation remains, and everything is anthropomorphic. From here, we headed east towards the upper part of the Magdalena valley, spending our first morning in the surprisingly rainy Mana Dulce reserve, which is usually known for its drier conditions (ha!). After losing most of that morning to rain, we continued on to the western side of the valley and the Tolima foothills of the Central Andes, where we spent the next couple of days exploring different elevations at Iguaima and Ukuku. From there, we headed back down into the valley, stopping at the tragic village of Armero, which suffered being buried by a volcanically-induced landslide, or lahar, in 1985, killing most of the inhabitants before they were able to react! We also bore witness to the cacophony of cicadas there. Then, we moved on to El Hato, which for us was mostly birding in an agricultural landscape. Our next couple of days were spent birding the La Victoria area and the Bellavista reserve, one of the scraps of native forest on a group of hills west of the Magdalena river and surrounded by human clearing. From here, we continued north (downstream) to Los Colores and the Rio Claro reserve, which features humid lowland forest on the western side of the valley. From here, we continued along the eastern side of the valley, with stops along the way in open country and marsh habitat, eventually arriving at the Cerulean Warbler reserve which sits on the slopes of the Eastern Andes and once again provides a view of the native humid upper tropical and cloudforest that once cloaked this range. Today, the region is largely home to coffee plantations, which still house a large number of birds, as we saw! Finally, we headed to the city of Bucaramanga to catch a flight back to Bogota.
We always strive to provide good memories for you when you join our tours. From the list of highlights that folks gave me at the end, it seems we succeeded! Some of these fond memories involved places and experiences, such as the charming morning we spent at Ukuku Lodge, whose owners really provided a lovely visit for us with good food, easy birding, and wonderful views of their local birds, such as the local Tolima Dove. This visit was further memorable due to the horse ride two of our folks enjoyed to get there! Another fond memory was the hike at Rio Claro that ended with our evening at the Oilbird cave… and the bold cat that accompanied us there. Another was how impressive nature is after a catastrophe as illustrated by the Armero story and its appearance in the present day. A lasting image will be the dark story of the Yellow-throated Toucan we watched as it tore open the nest of a Chestnut-headed Oropendola and then stunned and eventually removed the fledgling chick inside! For some, having the opportunity to bird by ear over the course of the tour was memorable, and certainly cemented the importance of the skill in birding in the Neotropics! Finally, Manuela suffered the distinction of receiving some “scent marking” on her leg from a dog on one of our hikes… We certainly didn't give her any ribbing for that one!
And let’s not forget the birds! That was why we came, right? Species that made the list include widespread species that just caught our attention, more restricted range species that are nonetheless also found well outside of Colombia, and some truly endemic species that are main targets of the tour. We will begin with some of the widespread species that you voted as memorable including: Great Potoo, which we just found by chance at Armero and glared at us silently. Great Kiskadee, a very widespread and abundant flycatcher that still captivated with its bold personality and loud voice. The colorful Blue-naped Chlorophonia is found from Venezuela to Bolivia, but still looks like a flashy lollipop with feathers. Another brightly-colored, but widespread bird, is the Saffron Finch, a tanager in fact, that loves open country and has been spready thanks to human activity. Now we’ll deal with those slightly less-widespread birds such as White-tailed Trogon, which I think was included because of the easy of seeing it and its bright plumage. Black-and-white Owl was a favorite thanks to getting great views of a nocturnal species that is often hard to spot. Striolated Manakin is a diminutive member of the manakin family yet sports some flashy colors. Its relatively inactive lifestyle makes it hard to spot, but we did just the same. Bicolored Wren is a species that is widespread and common in Colombia and Venezuela, and grabbed our attention multiple times over the course of the tour. Dwarf Cuckoo and White-eared Conebill are both species that are quite range restricted, but are found outside of Colombia. Both put on great shows for us, and were mentioned as top three picks. Ok, now for the real endemics, the species that are restricted to Colombia, or even to the Magdalena valley proper: first, the well-named Beautiful Woodpecker, which took us a while to encounter, but eventually showed well at Bellavista. Colombian Chachalaca was long considered part of the Little Chachalaca complex, but now is split off and endemic to the country. Niceforo’s Wren was one of our last endemics and was one that made us wait but eventually showed well. Manuela related why it was one of her most favorite birds of the trip, and so its definitely gets a top mention! Chestnut-bellied Hummingbird is another local endemic that wasn’t even on the checklist, but we had pretty good views near the Cerulean Warbler reserve. And finally—and I am in no way favoring barbets because I am named “The Barbet”—the endemic White-mantled Barbet was a headliner of the tour and performed brilliantly for us at Bellavista, showing us its bowing hoot song on several occasions during our visit there.
Mammals:
Red-tailed Squirrel (Sciurus granatensis)
Santander Dwarf Squirrel (Microsciurus santanderensis)
Central American Agouti (Dasyprocta punctata)
Common Hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius)
Herps of note:
poison-dart frog (Phyllobates sp.)
Green Iguana (Iguana iguana)
Spectacled Caiman (Caiman crocodilus)
So this tour allowed us to see the Colombian heartland, visit some beautiful sites, and enjoy some great birds. Manuela and I really enjoyed sharing this visit with you all and we hope you enjoyed the tour as well. Let’s meet up again some time and stare at some more birds through optics for fun!
Until then, tome un tinto y goza a la vida!
You can see my complete trip report on eBird at this link: https://ebird.org/tripreport/468607
You can download a combined PDF of this page and the eBird report at this link: https://fieldguides.com/triplists/cmv26TRIPLIST.pdf
-- Dan (the Barbet)