Blossomcrown— Photo: Fundación ProAves/www.proaves.org

VENT leader Steve Hilty, who worked and traveled extensively in Colombia between 1971 and 1986, is featured in an article about birding in Colombia which appeared in the June 25, 2009 edition of the Wall Street Journal, and also in an article in the Spring 2011 issue of Living Bird, the quarterly magazine of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

The world's richest avifauna, an opportunity to search for many exciting endemics, and a glimpse of a fascinating and beautiful country almost unknown to birders are only some of the rewards of this pioneering trip to Colombia.

Colombia is back after more than a 20-year absence. Is it safe, you ask? Our answer is an unequivocal "Yes!" Most of the country is now back to normal and as safe as almost anywhere one can travel in Latin America, and our return to Colombia in 2009 has not gone unnoticed by other birding groups who are now rushing to bring out their own itineraries. On this trip we stay in well-established hotels or in reserves established by ProAves, a Colombian conservation organization. The reserve facilities are mostly relatively new and have been established in order to protect threatened or endangered species, and most of them also have overnight visitor facilities. These reserves have never experienced any security problems, and the facilities, generally, are quite nice, although still relatively small by eco-lodge standards in other Latin American countries. You can be assured that Colombians are very excited to receive foreign visitors, and every bit as excited to show their country and its avian riches to us, as we are to offer this trip.

Simply put, more species of birds have been recorded in Colombia than in any other country in the world—now some 1,879 species. For decades birders and naturalists have looked longingly at Colombia's ever-growing list of birds and the enticing number of endemics—some 70 species—found only within its borders, and almost twice that many near-endemics, many of which have distributions that barely extend beyond the Colombian border into Panama, Ecuador, or Venezuela.

The focus of this trip is on finding as many endemic species as possible, although you can be sure that in the process we will pay attention to everything, including commoner and widespread species. We begin with an exciting day-trip into the high country above Bogotá, and then descend into the Magdalena River Valley, first in search of hummingbirds and several endemics including Tolima Dove, Apical Flycatcher, Yellow-headed Brush-Finch, Crested Ant-Tanager, and Velvet-fronted Euphonia, and then to two small reserves where several more endemics can be seen, among them White-mantled Barbet, Sooty Ant-Tanager, and Antioquia Bristle-Tyrant. Next we visit the newly established "Cerulean Warbler Reserve" in the eastern range of the Andes where another parade of endemics or near-endemics includes Gorgeted Wood-Quail, Black Inca, Indigo-capped Hummingbird, Parker's Antbird, Bar-crested Antshrike, and Turquoise Dacnis.

Our last major site is the Santa Marta area. First, we’re off to what is surely the crown jewel of the trip, a new reserve nestled high in the Santa Marta Mountains. Here, within sight of snowy peaks above and the balmy Caribbean below, there are almost 20 endemic birds—all packed into a region that, for its size, may contain the highest concentration of endemic birds anywhere on earth. Many carry the name Santa Marta, so there's a Santa Marta Parakeet, a screech-owl, an antpitta, a tapaculo, a bush-tyrant, a wren, a mountain-tanager, a brush-finch, a warbler, and so on, and we should be able to find a good many of them. Our trip concludes with a morning in the Santa Marta foothills and a final morning in picturesque desert-scrub on the Guajira Peninsula to the east of Santa Marta.

Simple to very good accommodations; food good throughout; several long drives but bus transportation comfortable and air-conditioned; steep rough roads in 4-wheel-drive vehicles to access two or three sites; variable trail conditions, most relatively easy, one slippery and requiring walking sticks; one site accessed by horseback; this trip is somewhat more physically demanding than other VENT trips but is otherwise not difficult; midday breaks in some areas; climate a mix of warm to hot lowlands and cool pleasant highlands; tourism infrastructure still developing.