Colombia - The Magdalena Valley and Eastern Andes

After arriving in Bogota on a direct overnight flight from London, this new tour will pitch us straight into a frenzy of hummingbird activity as we visit a special site on the mountainous outskirts of the city, where the endemic Indigocapped Hummingbird is a frequent visitor, along with the stunning Ruby-topaz Hummingbird and a dozen or so others. This dazzling hummingbird spectacle and a cup of freshly-brewed Colombian coffee will be the perfect antidote to our trans-Atlantic flight!

We will then descend into the lower Magdalena Valley, near the town of Libano, where surviving pockets of Andean forest hold some sought-after endemics such as Crested Ant-tanager, Yellow-headed Brush-finch, Blossomcrown and Velvet-fronted Euphonia. Further north, we will spend some time exploring the humid tropical forest of the Rio Claro Nature Reserve on the eastern slope of the central cordillera. A geological feature of this reserve is a spectacular canyon through which the Rio Claro drains into the Magdalena. Here, too, endemic birds provide a focal point for our exploits and include White-mantled Barbet, Beautiful Woodpecker, Sooty Anttanager, Antioquia Bristle-tyrant and Colombian Chachalaca, while the reserve is also noteworthy for its five resident species of manakin. Although mammals are not the focus of this tour, we may nevertheless run into a troop of endemic Silvery-brown Bare-face Tamarins, or perhaps a shy Neotropical Otter.

Our journey northwards along the valley brings with it more exciting possibilities, including the rare Recurve-billed Bushbird, a critically endangered species with a global population of less than a thousand individuals. It favours patches of secondary growth and bamboo in Colombia and neighbouring Venezuela and was only recently rediscovered after a 40-year absence. While searching for this rarity we might also come across the inconspicuous White-bibbed Manakin – another regional speciality.

Our next destination is the Cerulean Warbler Reserve, a buffer to the much larger and generally inaccessible Yariguies National Park. Highlights close to our well-appointed lodge might include three Colombian endemics: Turquoise Dacnis, the skulking Niceforo’s Wren and perhaps the rare Chestnut-bellied Hummingbird, which has been known to visit the lodge feeders. Above the lodge, a steep 45-minute walk will bring us into some pristine Andean montane forest, reached on horseback if you'd prefer! Avian gems here include Gorgeted Wood-quail, Black Inca and Parker’s Antbird. As throughout the tour, we should find a fine selection of boreal migrants here, amongst them the Cerulean Warbler, after which the reserve is named, a vulnerable migrant which winters in the reserve in significant numbers.

After a short flight back to Bogota, we will spend a full day in high-altitude páramo habitat in the spectacular Chingaza National Park, where such spectacular species as Green-bearded Helmetcrest, Crimson-mantled Woodpecker and the eastern subspecies of Golden-fronted Whitestart occur. Our tour concludes as it started, in another magnificent hummingbird garden frequented by the mesmerising Sword-billed Hummingbird and glittering Blue-throated Starfrontlet amongst others – a paradise for photographers.

This holiday has been designed along the same lines that have made our Multicoloured Tanager and Santa Marta tours so popular, with top bilingual bird guides, the best accommodation available and comfortable four-wheel-drive vehicles for when the going gets bumpy. Do join us in the birding Mecca that is Colombia in 2020!