If I Were Going...: Birding in Colombia #10: Up In the Clouds

Sparring Velvet-purple Coronets

Most of our time in the Montezuma Cloud Forest was spent birding along the rugged 8.6-mile-long Montezuma Road, which climbs (often steeply) up to near the mountain's summit at almost 8,500 feet above sea level, spanning multiple microclimates.

This is why they call it "cloud forest"

While it is in the Risaralda Department of Colombia (like a state), it is adjacent to the Chocó department and in the Chocó bioregion. It is a great place for seeing Chocó endemics without having to traverse that remote and difficult-to-visit area.

Chocó Brushfinch

At the top of the road is a military base and satellite station on the summit.

The inland mountains, where we were, are cut by low valleys and covered in thick rainforest.

The road under a canopy of trees

Part of our time was spent in Tatamá National Natural Park on the borders of the departments of Risaralda, Chocó and Valle del Cauca.

A walk in the Park

Established in 1987, the park encompasses 200 square miles of primary west-Andean tropical and subtropical rainforest, temperate cloud forest and páramo habitat.

Tatamá National Natural Park is a source of water to rivers in all directions

Here's a hidden waterfall ...

The Road

We gathered early for our first trip up Montezuma Road. We headed to the top and then, over the course of the day, worked our way back down to the lodge.

The road: Camino Montezuma

Then we did the same thing the next day. I am covering both excursions together to avoid redundancy.

Birding all the time; Right: Heather

I took lots of pictures, concentrating mainly on lifers, of which there were many.

A Violet-tailed Sylph

Even without birds, this would be a worthy trip. The views of the Andes – in the rare places where the vegetation parts to provide a view – are stunning.

Wild mountains

The plant life was varied and interesting.

From tiny orchids ...

... to giant leaves known as a poor man's umbrella ...

... to colorful flowers ...

... to exotic jungle plants

The route has a couple of shelters that were perfect for eating meals, resting our feet and watching birds.

They all looked relatively new, which is difficult in a wet environment

Because the road is an ordeal, we spent both days there without returning to the lodge until evening. They told us that they would provide a packed breakfast and lunch, which is the way I prefer it. I expected the usual thing one gets with a packed lunch – bread, fruit, maybe a sandwich. So, I was surprised to get hot meals. Really good ones, too.

Bringing us breakfast at the top shelter

Most of the shelters had feeders by them maintained by the lodge (which means hauling huge jugs of sugar water up to the feeders once or twice a day).

The feeders were busy the whole time

The shelters provided a nice variety of lifer Hummingbirds and Flowerpiercers ...

Greenish Puffleg

Brown Inca

Velvet-purple Coronet

Chestnut-bellied Flowerpiercer

There were two more Flowerpiercers – Bluish and Indigo – that made brief appearance, but I did not capture. Both were lifers.

The feeders on the Camino Montezuma (official road name) also had a wealth of birds we had seen before ...

Green-crowned Brilliant and Empress Brilliant

Tourmaline Sunangel

Female Violet-tailed Sylph

Purple-throated Woodstar

Male Violet-tailed Sylph

Collared Inca

Buff-tailed Coronet

Female Long-tailed Sylph

Female White-sided Flowerpiercer

Masked Flowerpiercer

By far, the most colorful were the Velvet-purple Coronets that, even when it seemed overcast, projected gorgeous sparkling plumage.

It's not just gorgets like many Hummingbirds; it's practically the whole bird

The most entertaining were the Purple-throated Woodstars, which, like their cousins, the White-bellied Woodstars, hover around the feeders, making a loud buzzing that sounds just like a Bumblebee.

The hovering – as opposed to rapidly flitting in and out – made them a bit easier to photograph.

The buzzing makes them easy to identify (and anticipate)

There were so many Hummingbirds birds by the shelters.

A fierce Buff-tailed Coronet

Often they would zip right by our heads our even navigate between two of us while were were standing on the shelter platform.

Bob, Enid and me looking for Hummingbirds; Photo: Heather

By the way, I am grouping birds with similar types, not providing a chronological log. And, it’s entirely possible that I have put some at the lodge that were on the road or vice versa.

Tourmaline Sunangel

It doesn’t really matter since they were all in the same vicinity.

A Velvet-purple Coronet and a Collared Inca

Over the two days, we came across two Hummingbird nests ...

Left: A Brown Inca in a nest; Right: We saw a Green-fronted Lancebill leave this nest

We also saw this unidentified nest

We saw lots of Tanagers, including these four lifers ...

Black-chinned Mountain Tanager

Glistening Green Tanager (bad photo, but a photo!)

Black-and-gold Tanager

Gold-ringed Tanager (it was in this spot two days in a row)

The Gold-ringed Tanager is an endemic that is the symbol of the National Park.

It's on the sign!

Plus, some additional lifers ...

Dusky Chlorospingus

Chocó Brushfinch

Chestnut-breasted Chlorophonias

Handsome Flycatcher (isn't he, though?)

Ornate Flycatcher (the fog hid the ornateness of a purple head and yellow flanks)

And, some old favorites (amazing how quickly a bird becomes an "old favorite") ...

Cinnamon Flycatcher and Great Thrush

I was so excited to see and photograph a Southern Emerald-Toucanet (lifer), because I had missed them at least twice before. Their green feathers blend in so well with leaves that I even had trouble seeing the bird in my own photos.

Now, I understood how I struggled to see them farther away in dense foliage

Found in montane regions of Colombia, Ecuador, western Venezuela, Peru and northern Bolivia, the Southern Emerald-Toucanet is 13 to 15 inches long. The distinctive yellow/maroon/white bill comprises 20 percent of the length.

This one was a bit easier to see

We saw three Toucan Barbets (another lifer) over both days. We had heard that they were nesting and we spent a lot of time waiting for them to appear.

In the first encounter, we saw one

The second time, we saw three

We stayed with them until thick fog rolled in and finally obscured them.

Relatively small compared to their Toucan cousin, the colorful Toucan Barbet has no close relatives in its range. It is social, living in small family groups which work together to defend their territories and raise the chicks communally (hence, three in a nesting site).

Their heavy, hooked bills can crush berries, drill nest holes and squeeze nectar from flowers

Males and females look nearly identical, but males have a small black tuft on the back of their necks

Among the many "tree birds" were even more lifers ...

Fulvous-dotted Treerunner and Tyrannine Woodcreeper

Yellow-vented Woodpecker (Male)

And, once again, I had an embarrassingly long list of lifers that escaped my lens on this day and for the entire trip: Uniform Treehunter, Black-throated Tody-Tyrant, Smoke-colored Pewee, Bronze-olive Pygmy Tyrant, Golden-collared Honeycreeper, Nariño Tapaculo, Tatama Tapaculo, Spot-fronted Swift, Rufous Spinetail, Munchique Wood-Wren, Slaty Antwren, Crested Ant-Tanager and Andean Pygmy Owl. I won’t list the lifers I missed here, but got photos of later. And, you don’t need to know the potential lifers my traveling companions saw, but I missed.

The road was also rich in other critters. Here are some ...