Summer 2009 - Colombia! - Part 3 of 3 Home » Forums » Birding » Trip Reports

I wrote this one quickly, sorry if it has errors.

The tourist town of Salento is close to the Acaime reserve, a large
protected area with a hummingbird feeder, so it was a must stop. The
area is famous for the beautiful Cocora valley, and the world's
tallest palm tree, the Colombain national tree, the wax palm. The
town is surrounded by coffee plantations, and the Aequatorialis
subspecies of the Blue-crowned Motmot is conspicuous here.

Acaime was one of the highlights of the trip. Over three days I picked
up nice photos of rarely photographed species including the Andean
Guan, Tawny-breasted Tinamou, Black-capped Hemispingus, Hooded
Mountain Tanager, Moutrain Velvetbreast, Plain-brown Woodcreeper, and
Pearled Treerunner. A dozen other species were sighted or
photographed from too far. Both the ranger station and the visitor
center are great places to spend the night, and

The story with Acaime is that a conservation group who owned the
property went bankrupt, and now banks in Cali owned the land. I could
not get more information, but one of the former owners told me by
email that they were seeking international funding.

Cali is the third largest city in Colombia, and has a reputation for
being a little more dangerous than other cities. One reason is that
the south and west was taken from the guerillas more recently than the
north and the east. But unlike Medellin, there are many birding
locations close to the city. A few are the town of Saladito,
Kilometro 18 and Dapa, and Pance.

The road to Bonaventura goes over the Andes and through some cloud
forests. Alas Bonaventura is a very poor part of Colombia, and you
can see a continous stream of lumber trucks coming over the hill to
Cali. I did not visit Bonaventura. At Kilometer 18 on this road is a
dirt road that leads to the town of Dapa. The four hour walk passes
'fincas' or farms, most of which are fancy residences and second
homes. and the cloud forest is in general present at the tops of
hills. Many birds can be seen on this walk, including hummingbirds,
hermits, toucans, cracids, hawks, and a variety of tanagers including
the Beryl-spangled Tanager. If you walk past the Universo recreation
property, on the left is a finca with one hummingbird feeder, and you
have the opportunity to see the White-necked Jacobin, Andean Emerald,
Purple-throated Woodstar, Booted Racket-tail, Fawn-breasted Brilliant,
and a few others.

Saladito is town around kilometer 15 with some trails into the cloud
forest. Through connections I managed to visit a private feeder
around kilometer 25, and was happy to see the Violet-crowned Woodnymph
(who Infonatura does not show in Cali) and Blue-headed Sapphire.

Pance is a town at the base of National Park Farallones. a park which
includes cloud forest and higher altitude terrain. We were told at
least twice that we needed a guide to enter the park. Tourist
robberies by ski-masked locals apparently do occur. Because Pance
does not have Internet, we stayed just one day. The area around the
waterfalls seems safe, and the ranger station there would be a good
place to photograph birds in the morning. I managed to get weak
pictures of the endemic Crested Ant-Tanager, but had my laptop stolen
two days later.

Another outing from Cali is the town of Buga and the Sonso Reserve.
Sonso is a wetland which is drying up. Apparently a political
struggle is underway with the area's waterflow. Local fishermen told
us that sediment rich water was being diverted to the area to on
purpose to eventually fill the marsh, so that it could be used for
cattle and sugar cane. Many feet of sediment and tiny lakes seemed to
support his story. The park officials told us the government was
about to correct this problem. Sonso has most of the waders you might
expect to see in Colombia, including the Greater Flamingo (1 seen) and
Horned Screamer. The Spectacled Parrotlet is common here. All in all,
Sonso is worth the trip.

Our last stop was the Rio Claro reserve, three hours from Medellin on
the road to Bogota. We had heard so much about Rio Claro, and it met
our expectations. It is tourist friendly and has adventure activities
like rafting, caving, and rock climbing. Although it is in the same
general area as the Proaves Paujil reserve, I was a competely
different set of birds here. Only the Collared Aracari was seen in
both locations. The birds at Rio Claro seemed to be small, like the
Little Hermit, Rufous-breasted Hermit, a host of wrens, and
flycatchers. The cave has about 600 oilbirds, which are a
fruit-eating nighthawk. Check the large trees with red flowers for
hummingbirds, and I have yet to identify two of the three species seen
there, the third being the White-necked Jacobin.

We took the bus back from Puerto Boyaca via Santa Marta and once again
passed a giant protected wetland along the coast between that city and
Cartagena, where I did some last minute bus birding. I don't have the
name handy, and there did not appear to be any hotels or posadas on
that stretch of highway.