The day started with the seven Chestnut Wood-Quail coming for breakfast as usual. These birds are so trusting of Javier, La Florida’s owner, that they come right up to him. They even allowed me to stand beside him so close that I could have reached out and touched one.
I had a lovely breakfast at the outdoor table and then moved to the feeder area for a couple of hours where I watched beautiful birds like this Saffron-crowned Tanager.
Lisa arrived at 10:00 AM and I think that by lunchtime she saw all the birds that I had seen in the previous day and a half and more.
One of our favorites was this adorable female White-sided Flowerpiercer who bathed nearby while we ate lunch.
We watched the birds around the lodge a bit more and soon it was time for feeding the Little Tinamous. Tinamous are very shy forest dwellers who can sometimes be trained to come for worms as they do at La Florida.
Next, we went to Finca Alejandría to watch dizzying displays of dozens of hummingbirds. Even though I had been there the previous day, I was very happy to go back again with Lisa. Below, a pretty Andean Emerald.
Another jewel was a Crowned Woodnymph.
Just as the day before, a Golden-headed Quetzal showed up just before we left. We returned to La Florida for dinner and listened to a Mottled Owl calling before falling into bed.
On Lisa’s second day in Colombia, we headed out for San Cipriano with our guide, Anderson Muñoz.
San Cipriano is a small village in the middle of the Pacific rainforest half an hour from the port city of Buenaventura. About 600 people live in the village but many more visit, some for birding and some for tubing on the river.
Most birders love San Cipriano, and with good reason; it has amazing birds. But, it was a hard day for me. We got up early for a 5:30 AM start from La Florida and it was uncomfortably hot and humid for most of the day. More significantly, though, it was the hardest type of birding for me with my vision challenges. It’s a lot of dark, dense forest with skulky birds that really don’t want to be seen. Nevertheless, it was an amazing experience and I wouldn’t have wanted to miss it.
There are no roads to San Cipriano, so you drive to Córdoba and park there (that was a 1-3/4 hour drive for us). Then, you must cross the Rio Danubio on a shaky old suspension bridge.
The final step in traveling to San Cipriano is on a brujita, a motorcycle-powered cart that runs on railroad tracks. It’s the only way to get there. The photo below shows a bruita getting a little repair. Each one is slightly different, but they are all similar. The entire wooden platform goes on the tracks and passengers sit on the benches.
Anderson and I found it a fine mode of transportation. Thanks to Lisa for the photo.
It’s usually a smooth ride, but we had a little excitement and Lisa caught it all on video. It was a surprise to us, but not to the drivers. They just picked up the other brujita and took it off the tracks for us to pass. Then, they put their brujita back on the tracks and we were all on our way again.
A few minutes after 8:00 AM, we finally arrived in the little village of San Cipriano and met our local guide, the unparalleled Never Murillo. He was amazing at finding birds, and Never was also fun, friendly, and kind.
Lisa had a wonderful day and got 26 life birds. I got 10 lifers and didn’t get good photos of any of them. The female Black-crowned Antshrike below was a bit more cooperative.
I thought that this Tawny-crested Tanager was a life bird, but when I checked eBird, I saw that I had seen it three times previously, in Panama and Costa Rica. It makes me understand people who don’t count a bird as a lifer until they get a photo. I present my photo lifer Tawny-crested Tanager at San Cipriano.
One of my favorites in the deep rainforest was another photo lifer, this beautiful Chestnut-backed Antbird.
I was trying very hard to get my eyes on the little forest birds and Anderson and Never did all they could to help me. One of the most spectacular birds in the rainforest is Ocellated Antbird and I really wanted to see it. Finally, after working for a long time as it flitted from one tree to another in the dark forest, I saw it. I’ve felt emotional before when seeing a desired bird, but this time my reaction was more intense. My entire body felt flushed with heat, I was shaking and a little dizzy, and I don’t think I was able to speak clearly for a couple of minutes. Of course, being greedy, I wanted a photo of this bird, but I could not get it, so Anderson took my camera and went off the trail and deeper into the forest. He apologized for only getting a shot of its face, but I was thrilled to have this photo to remember the experience.
San Cipriano is is known for its wide biodiversity of flora and fauna, not just birds. But, I learned that frogs and insects are not easy either and require special effort and searching in different places than where we were looking for birds. Never did find this wonderful frog for us, though. I have not been able to confirm its identification, but I think it is an Atrato Glass Frog.
We were all smiles at mid-afternoon when we left for the return trip “home.” Below: Anderson, Lisa, and Never. Our guides did an outstanding job of showing us birds and making the day fun.
We got back to La Florida in time for dinner and to hear the Mottled Owl call again this night before we fell asleep, tired and happy.
Birding for Life 