Welcome to Birdquest
COLOMBIA WITH A DIFFERENCE
Saturday 30th October - Monday 22nd November 2010
Pete Morris
The stunning Recurve-billed Bushbird (Pete Morris)
I’d like to be able to say that our first tour around our new Colombia With A Difference itinerary was a roaring success but the reality was that the weather played a much larger part in proceedings than we would have liked. This in turn meant that we could not get to all of the sites we hoped to visit (due to bad weather and landslides) and consequently missed some of the hoped for goodies. This was largely down to the fact that this year was a La Niña year (see note below). Even as I write this the rains are still causing terrible trouble across the country and they are now reported as the worst rains for forty years, so it’s official, we were unlucky. But let’s look on the bright side. We got round most of the circuit with few major problems and still managed to record 512 species. These included such gems as the delightful little Crescent-faced Antpitta and the bizarre Recurve-billed Bushbird, our two worthy top birds of the tour. But there were many more highlights and to mention just a few, these included: an obliging Highland Tinamou; the amazing Wattled Guan singing its alien like notes at us; great views of three species of wood-quail including the localized Black-fronted and endemic Gorgeted Wood-Quails; great views of two Black-and-chestnut Eagles; the much-wanted Northern Screamer; the superb and localized Saffron-headed Parrot and endemic Flame-winged Parakeet; a superb selection of hummingbirds including endemics such as Black Inca and Indigo-capped and Chestnut-bellied Hummingbirds as well as crackers such as Shining-green Hummingbird and White-bellied and Gorgeted Woodstars; the unbeatable White-mantled Barbet in full display; great views of other much-wanted antpittas including the rarely seen Cundinamarca Antpitta as well as White-bellied and Ochre-breasted Antpittas; plenty of tyrant-flycatchers including the localized Rufous-browed Tyrannulet and Black-billed Flycatcher and endemic Apical Flycatcher; a superb selection of tanagers including the endemic Sooty and Crested Ant-Tanagers; the endemic and localized Yellow-headed and Dusky-headed Brush-Finches and the endemic and endangered Red-bellied and Mountain Grackles. Not a bad list!
