But outside of the dining room, a balcony boasted both panoramic views across the valley and hummingbird feeders that compelled us to grab coffee and sit among the birds.
Rufous-tailed hummingbirds (note pink bill)
White-vented plumeleteer (female) on right and rufous-tailed on left.
Steely-vented humingbird
White-necked Jacobin
We also had a Keel-billed Toucan come in for some mango. He's a regular visitor and is used to all the clicking of cameras and oohs and aahs of birders. He is sitting on the top edge of an open window.
We had an early morning walk through Minca up into the jungle, back for lunch, then climbed into the 4x4s to get to El Dorado, much higher in the mountains.
It took us several hours to get there as we stopped and birded several locations on the way. Some of the amazing birds on the way included:
Lineated Woodpecker. Serious fun watching
a pair working on a nest in a hole of a dead tree.
A Swallow tanager
This next Rufous-capped warbler was a surprise. The birds are often so high in the canopy, not to mention well camouflauged that sometimes getting a picture was point and pray. I was so happy to discover that the camera actually found this little guy.
Masked Trogan Broad-winged hawk
Double-toothed kite Black and white owl
Finally arrived at El Dorado, a private bird reserve run by ProAves whose mission is to protect birds and their habitats, especially now as only 15% of the Sierra Nevada's original vegetation remains after years of deforestation and agricultural assaults.
El Dorado has been likened to the Holy Grail and as a Mecca for birders. In this 1800 acre reserve alone, just under 400 species have been identified. Birders say there are more, they just haven't been found yet.
The preserve has wonderful lodging. It is a series of outbuildings each with four to six rooms. They are not very close together and are tucked away in the trees. The rooms are beautiful with big windows for viewing. The main building (registration, dining and library)has decks that also provide up-close experiences with many birds. We also saw a kinkajou, crab-eating foxes, an agouti and red-tailed squirrels here in addition to the bird life.
The food was exquisite, and they even provide great breakfasts at four in the morning for early birders.
You really know you are in a jungle forest when you can't see further than 5 to 10 feet, at most, off the side of the road. The trees are covered with bromeliads which further obstruct the view. All I could think of was Lewis Carroll's "dark and tulgey" wood and wonder when the bandersnatches were going to show up. We abandoned our luggage on the way to the rooms as the lodge had hummingbird and fruit feeders. Oh boy.
The fruit feeder was occupied by a female Black-capped tanager, a Bay-headed tanager and a small flock of Blue-naped chlorophonias.
I have mentioned how hard it is to see the birds. Here is a good example. The bird is first spotted with most of us looking up wondering what? where? Then you find it in the binos and realize it isn't a leaf.
In this case, the sun actually illuminated our Groove-billed toucanet for just a minute. What a difference!
But back to the feeders, the hummingbirds were swarming around them and squabbling over the perches. Quite a sight.
White-tailed starfrontlet
Brown violetear Violet-crowned woodnymph
Our next morning began with breakfast at 4am then taking 4x4s for the journey up to Cuchilla San Lorenzo. This took us to an elevation of 10,000 feet, high in the cloud forest. The sun would be shining, then the mist-filled fog would roll up the valley to the peak. It was an amazing thing to see. Even though the highest peaks still towered above us, it felt like we were on the top of the world.
And here comes the fog.
We were really lucky that it cleared up and we were able to look across the valley and see Pico Colon and Pico Bolivar, the highest peaks in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. At 18,942' they are still topped in glaciers. Since they are most often hidden by clouds, it was a treat to see them above the cloud layer.
The goal for this area was to find Santa Marta endemics, or those birds only found in this one habitat. Here are a few:
Santa Marta parakeet
Santa Marta tanager
Santa Marta Brush-finch
One of my favorite birds from this day was a Cinnamon flycatcher.
And so ends another day in Colombia.
I saw 308 species during our eleven-day sojourn. It seems like I have inundated you with way too many pictures of birds, but compared to what we saw, it really is just a drop in the bucket.
The bird colors are magnificent - almost unreal. You said you saw 308 species during the trip - how many were new to you?
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