Santa Marta Extension

Cerro Kennedy

Feb 20

Rise early and head up to higher elevations towards Cerro Kennedy in search of these endemics: Santa Marta parakeet, Santa Marta warbler, Santa Marta mountain-tanager, Santa Marta bush-tyrant, and brown-rumped Tapaculo, among many others. You will have a picnic at high elevation with great views of the Sierra Nevada, and bird along the road on our way down, hoping to run into awe-inspiring species such as swallow tanager, grove-billed and Santa Marta toucanet, black-chested jay, the endemic white-lored warbler, golden-breasted fruiteater, and the near endemic white-tipped quetzal. After dinner you will certainly scout for the endemic and recently described Santa Marta screech-owl.

El Dorado Lodge

Feb 21

After breakfast, enjoy the well-maintained feeders at the lodge. Hummingbirds that visit the feeders include the endemic white-tailed starfrontlet, white-vented plumeteer, and long-tailed hermit. The bananas attract the endemic Santa Marta brush-finch as well as the endemic Colombian brush-finch, and the many flowers in the garden attract white-sided and black flowerpiercer. You will spend some time searching for the Santa Marta antpitta, a skulker that will take some work. A day of birding near the lodge will have its rewards, a special treat being the near endemic black-fronted wood-quail that visits the lodge’s compost pile in the afternoon.

El Dorado Lodge to Barlovento

Feb 22

After some birding around the lodge in the morning, spend the afternoon birding along the road to Minca. You will enjoy the hummingbird feeders at the hotel while we have breakfast. Some of the species that visit include rufous-breasted hermit, black-throated mango, long-billed starthroat, the near endemic red-billed emerald, and violet-crowned woodnymph. You will also have time to explore the surroundings in search of birds such as black-backed antshrike, scaled piculet, swallow tanager, rufous-tailed jacamar, keel-billed toucan, masked tityra, and whooping motmot. After lunch, you head down the hill towards your hotel near Tayrona National Park. On the way, you will stop to catch any birds you missed on the drive up, making a stop in the town of Minca, a great location to bird for lower elevation species.

Los Flamencos National Park

Feb 23

Visit Los Flamencos and the village of Camarones. This is the west edge of the Guajira desert where dry forest becomes shorter and more sparse and bare dry earth separates the trees from each other. However, before you have a mistaken idea of a parched world, Los Flamencos is on the coast, and it has shallow waterbodies that fill from the rains that evaporate during the dry season. These evaporating ponds concentrate salt, and then brine shrimp bloom, which brings in the namesake bird of the park – American flamingos! Their numbers vary depending on water levels, but they can be here in the hundreds on a good day. You will also find gulls, terns, and many migratory shorebirds.

Retreating to the forest though, one is quite surprised that a series of very attractive regional specialties are found here. The sole South American offshoot of what is really a North American group, the vermilion cardinal resides in this area. Nothing prepares you, even if you have backyard northern cardinals, for the striking red of this species, the overdone crest, and the very different look from its close relatives from the north. On the ground, a member of a group that is usually very drab and brown may elicit “Wows!” from the crowd; the white-whiskered spinetail is one heck of a good-looking spinetail.

Pecking in the branches and trilling away is a tiny and colorful woodpecker, the chestnut piculet. You will also find specialties that are more somber in tone, such as the slender-billed inezia (tyrannulet) and white-tipped inezia. A crowd favorite is the russet-throated puffbird (called the bobo bird by locals) that will just sit staring back at you as hard as you stare at it. In a crowd of what tends to be relatively greenish or grayish and nondescript, the saltators, the uncommon orinoco saltator, is quite nice-looking bird. Don’t ask why this drab desert habitat hosts so many good-looking birds, just enjoy these wonderful dry forest birds. After lunch, you drive back to Barlovento.

Tayrona National Park and back to Barranquilla

Feb 24

Visit the park in the morning, and if all things align, the blue-billed curassow could show itself. Otherwise, this is a great place to see some species that you are not as likely to find elsewhere on the trip. One abundant bird that is easier to see here than anywhere is the stunning lance-tailed manakin. Sometimes it can be found with its relative, the white-bearded manakin. The birds here are varied, from crane hawk and boat-billed heron to greater ani, white-necked puffbird, and rufous-tailed jacamars. The blue-headed parrot is common, and lineated woodpeckers are impressive to see as they forage on the large trees.

White-bellied antbirds belt out their song from the understory. If we are lucky, they will even show themselves. The complex songs of buff-breasted and bicolored wrens are heard in the forest, along with the repetitive songs of scrub greenlets, nasal sounds of barred antshrikes, or loud calls of boat-billed and streaked flycatchers. It is an active area full of birds! Crimson-backed tanagers and the gorgeous red-legged honeycreepers give a lot of color to the local flocks. While birding here, it is common to see the cottontop tamarin, a gorgeous little monkey dwarfed by the less common white-fronted capuchin. After lunch, you head to the city of Barranquilla to prepare for flights home.

Fly Home

Feb 25