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| Sparkling Violetear at Rogitama Biodiversidad |
We were headed to Rogitama Biodiversidad, where we would be staying for the evening and birding in the lodge’s dense Hummingbird gardens. |
| There were many, many White-bellied Woodstars |
A former farm, Rogitama Biodiversidad is a 29-hectare nature reserve in Arcabuco, Boyacá.
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| An aerial view; Photo: Rogitama Biodiversidad |
Founded in 1982 when all the land had been stripped bare of trees to create grazing land, it now serves as a conservation sanctuary for high-Andean forest and a refuge for endemic and threatened Andean species.
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| The gardens are designed to attract and nurture endemic birds |
It is renowned for its biodiversity and focus on ecotourism and birding.
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| There are still pastures across the way |
Since its inception, Rogitama Biodiversidad has achieved intensive reforestation and the recovery of Andean ecosystems, notably through planting and nurturing more than 1,500 wax palms.
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| You would never guess by looking at it that it was once pasture |
The plants – many Hummingbird-friendly flowering trees and bushes – are so thick you can barely see the lodge.
Rogitama Biodiversidad is located between Tunja, Villa de Leyva and Arcabuco at an altitude of about 7,500 feet above sea level.
The oak forest around the lodge hosts up to 243 bird species, including 25 varieties of Hummingbirds.
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| We saw a lot, but not 25 |
The drive was about two and a half hours. The skies darkened and it started to rain. Hard. When we turned off of the highway onto the dirt road leading to Rogitama Biodiversidad, we saw a rapidly rushing stream overflowing its banks.
As we drove the one stream turned into a river surrounded by multiple smaller streams and the pastures turned into lakes. Then, we drove through water running across the road. Then more. Until we reached an area where a major stream was completely obscuring the bridge it was breeching.
I used to live in Texas, where people routinely drowned trying to ford storm-induced washes across highways. I knew the danger. I didn’t want to cross and I said so. Our driver stopped and was actively assessing the situation. Alejandro tried calling the lodge to see if they knew how bad it was or it they could come fetch us in a higher profile vehicle, but couldn't reach them.
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| Typical Colombian flooding; Photo: NASA |
I did not like this. Apparently so much so that I never took a photo! I guess birding does not translate to photojournalism.
When a large truck crossed the bridge coming toward us, our driver used the truck’s progress to assess the risk and went for it.
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| I was not thrilled, but we made it; Photo: Vecteezy |
Robert dropped us off and returned to town rather than staying. His logic was that, if it got worse, the car would be on the right side and the lodge could ferry us back to the car. It turns out that the crossing also did some damage to the car that he had to repair in town.
The Rogitama Biodiversidad lodge was a lovely two-story hacienda-style building completely surrounded by thick, flowering trees.
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| The front entrance |
The rooms were on the second level, which had a balcony running around its perimeter.
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| The balcony held many, many Hummingbird feeders |
I took so, so many photos the first evening of the great array of Hummingbirds, but, lordy, it was dark! I got more the next morning, but I can’t say it wasn’t a challenge.
Around the lodge the first evening we saw ...
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| Sparkling Violetears |
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| Lesser Violetears (bad photo; it was dark) |
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| Buff-tailed Coronets |
And, three new species (of which I managed to photograph two, but not the Lazuline Sabrewing) …
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| A tiny Longuemare's Sunangel with a Sparkling Violetear in the background |
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| A Black Inca |
People (I guess including me) travel to Rogitama Biodiversidad specifically to see the Black Inca. A member of the Brilliant family of Hummingbirds, the Black Inca is found only on the west slope of the eastern Andes at elevations on 3,900 to 9,200 feet.
Its population is estimated to be only 7,000 or so mature adults and it is listed as Threatened.
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Black Inca
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About 90 percent of its original range has been cleared for agriculture, making reforestation projects such as Rogitama Biodiversidad critical for its survival.
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| Little is known about its habits because it is so rare |
There weren’t a lot of them, but we did see them.
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| There were also Southern Emerald-Toucanets in the trees ... |
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| ... and an Ashy-throated Chlorospingus (a lifer) in the nearby bushes |
We had a lovely dinner on the balcony and crashed in our comfy rooms (with hot water) for the evening.
Despite being a bit sticky, you would never have known the next day that there had been a flood.
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There was much better light ... |
We birded on the balcony and saw … |
| Sparkling Violetear, really showing us why they are called violet - ears |
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| Lesser Violetear (ditto on the name) |
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| White-booted Racket-tail (look at those boots!) |
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| Black Inca |
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| White-bellied Woodstar |
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| Buff-tailed Coronet |
Try as hard as I might, I still could never capture the Lazuline Sabrewing and, this morning, the Longuemare's Sunangel was also too fast for me.
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| Luckily the flowers behaved |
Then, we walked to the perimeter of the property …
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| We birded where the reforestation met the pastureland |
We saw ...
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| Golden-fronted Redstarts (the White-faced kind) |
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| A Tyrian Metaltail, which prefers natural plants to feeders |
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| Several Southern Lapwings |
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| And, a Roadside Hawk |
Finally, we finished up with ...
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| ... a walk through the thick woods behind the lodge ... |
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| ... where I photographed a skulky Gray-breasted Wood-Wren |
On those two walks, we saw, but I didn’t get photos of a lot of familiar birds: White-throated Tyrannulet, Black Vulture, Brown-bellied Swallow, Eared Dove, Swainson's Thrush, Ashy-throated Chlorospingus, Rufous-collared Sparrow, Russet-crowned Warbler, Slate-throated Redstart, White-sided Flowerpiercer, Black-capped Tanager and Whiskered Wren.
At the lodge, we also saw some of their domestic stock ...
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| A Graylag Goose |
The best shots I got of the Black Incas were in the flowers in front of the lodge as we were loading up to leave.
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| Flitting around the entrance |
After our morning of birding, we headed out for our next location, passing over the same bridge and the same previously flooded areas with hardly any water in sight. Even the streams that were tearing through the valley the night before were back to slow meandering.
I enjoyed Rogitama Biodiversidad and would have liked more sunny time on the balcony to really soak in all the Hummingbirds, but, we had to press on.
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| Heather birding in front of the lodge, while Alejandro handles some business |
Mo' Páramo
Our next stop was a detour off the highway for another chance to bird in the páramo.
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| We drove a short distance down a gravel road ... |
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| ... beside a small river |
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| The landscape was completely different from the lush green of Rogitama |
Here it was scrubby and dry (well, as dry as it could be while it was lightly raining) with huge expanses of frailejónes and interesting cactus-looking plants.
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| I suspect they weren’t actually cacti |
Alejandro was searching for endemics that didn’t materialize and I was trying to get a photo of anything. Like back at the lodge, my success rate was pretty low. I captured …
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An Eastern Meadowlark
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| A Plain-colored Seedeater (this time a male) |
I saw more birds, but missed getting photos of (or, in some cases, ignored) White-collared Swifts, a Tyrian Metaltail, a Brown-backed Chat-Tyrant, some Great Thrushes and a lifer, a Bronze-tailed Thornbill. I hate when I miss a lifer!
I didn’t even see the Green-tailed Trainbearer that Heather caught an extremely brief glimpse of. I would have liked that because the tail on that Hummingbird is almost 80 percent of its length.
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| That would be something! Left: BirdForum; Right: eBird |
We searched and searched, but, after its quick fly-by, it never reappeared.
Lunch and Ending the Day
We ate lunch in Boyacá (or a town in Boyacá, I have no idea).
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| The towns in Boyacá look like this |
The restaurant had the usual Colombian choices, which seemed like too much for me. So, I decided on rice and avocado. I went to the restroom and when I returned, Alejandro was gone. Apparently, they didn’t have avocado, so he popped out and went down the street to buy one. Wasn’t that sweet?
Then, he gave it to the waiter to cut up for me. I was facing the window from the kitchen and saw the cook set the plate with the sliced avocado on the shelf. Then, I saw another man, whom I assumed was connected somehow to the restaurant because I had seen him in the kitchen earlier, come by and pluck a slice of the avocado off the plate and set it aside. They served me avocado with a missing slice with no explanation. Was one slice bad? Was there an avocado tax? I will never know, but it was odd.
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| The little town had a pretty church that Heather and I photographed ... |
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| ... along with a couple of Carib Grackles |
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| This was about as close to a cultural tour of Colombia that we got |
We ended the day at Hotel Campestre in Soatá to get ready for our next day’s adventures. The hotel had a beautiful swimming pool (that, of course, we had no time to use) and just a few rooms.
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| Our home for two nights; Photo: BoyacáTourism |
Dinner was cooked and served by the manager’s wife and I was able to get some laundry done. As I explained in my first blog, this hotel had individual heaters on the showers and mine did not work the first night. Another cold shower!!!! They did fix it for the second night.
The first night, we went out after dinner to look for Owls on the grounds, but, even though we heard some, we had no luck seeing any.
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| The next day, we were headed to higher elevations |
Tour dates: March 7-28, 2026
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