Colombia: Bogota, The Magdalena Valley and the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta Jun 28—Jul 13, 2010
Posted by Steve Hilty
Steve Hilty
Steve Hilty is the senior author of A Guide to the Birds of Colombia, and the recently published Birds of Venezuela, both by Princeton University Press. Other credits inclu...Related Trips
About a year and a half ago we operated our inaugural trip to Colombia—the first in 23 years. Since then we have operated seven more tours to Colombia, six of them involving this itinerary and two to the Central Andes. Security has been a non-issue in the areas we visit, and the birds fantastic. Colombia has undergone considerable change in the past 20–25 years—more construction, agriculture, mining, business everywhere—in short, an economy affected in relatively small ways compared to much of the rest of the world during the past two years, and a GNP growing at a 4% annual clip. The country is encouraging tourism, exporting coffee, coal, emeralds, flowers, food products, and much more, and is currently energy self-sufficient.
The birds? Better than ever. The national park service remains in place, and there are a growing number of private reserves and small municipal reserves, as well as a strong and growing environmental movement that is evident in everything from cleaner cities and highways to less forest destruction. This tour utilizes a variety of parks and small protected areas, only slightly modified from the original trip a year and a half ago, and we were able to locate a remarkable number of endemic and near-endemic birds and others that do not range much beyond Colombia's borders. The much-vaunted Blue-billed Curassow reserve, heavily promoted by the ProAves organization as a means of protecting this bird's fragmented populations, seems only partly successful. The curassow itself has proved difficult to find, and we failed to find it again on this trip despite much effort. Furthermore, the reserve itself, with its newly-constructed trails, may have become more a site for illegal hunting (as we witnessed on this trip) than for preservation—certainly an unintended consequence.
Colombia is, at present, a trip for adventurous birders and naturalists willing to accept a few rough spots along the route, but the rewards are more than worth the effort. The countryside is beautiful, its cloud-filled valleys and verdant mountains an inspiration, and its much-hyped birdlife—the longest list of any country on the planet—more than meets expectations. Just ask those on this trip. It would be hard to imagine a group that enjoyed the birding, the adventure, and the camaraderie more than those on this trip…and it wasn’t just the wine at night. The birding really was that good.