We had another amazing day of birding on Day 14 with a visit to Hacienda el Bosque. This is a working cattle farm east of Manizales that has a working bed and breakfast and birding operation incorporated into its surroundings. This may seem contradictory because the main problem with birds in Colombia is habitat loss by cattle ranching. I think it is somewhat contradictory, but certainly this place mitigates the negative impacts of cattle farming as much as they can. The idea for them is to keep the cattle which is probably the bulk of their business, but also conserve bird habitats and grow the tourism part of their model. In fact, I think this is the major issue with environmentalists these days, they want to completely eliminate hurtful practices instead of working with the industries they seek to limit. We need to come to the realization that people eat meat and drink milk and so cattle farms are necessary. Instead of trying to oppose them, we should be working with them to develop business models that mitigate harmful impacts to the environment. Hacienda el Bosque does this by preserving areas of the farm that have attracted key species and then cultivating local birders that can help make these species accessible to their guests. They have set up feeding stations all over the property and placed blinds in strategic locations.
This is the view from outside the place where we had breakfast on the property. Very beautiful. After breakfast we hiked down the hill into one of the valleys where native habitat is being restored.
Gray-browed Brushfinch
Equatorial Antpitta - this is one of the many splits in the Rufous Antpitta complex. While we were at the Antpitta spot, an Ocellated Tapaculo was heard upslope a bit.
Shining Sunbeam
Black Flowerpiercer
Yellow-bellied Chat-Tyrant
Mountain Wren
Crescent-faced Antpitta - the star of the show. Can you get any cuter?
Northern Slaty Brushfinch
Buff-winged Starfrontlet
Tyrian Metaltail
Mountain Wren
Buff-winged Starfrontlet
Masked Flowerpiercer
Barred Fruiteater
Sword-billed Hummingbird
Tourmaline Sunangel
At this point we were waiting on some Gray-breasted Mountain-Toucans at a fruit feeding station but waited a good half hour and despite many calls from the local guide, it was time to go. This feeding station happened to be on the road down from the place where the van was parked so I asked if I could stay a bit longer while everyone else went up and used the toilets etc..
Great Thrush
I waited about 15 more minutes with one of the local guides and just as I heard the van coming down the road to pick me up.....
Gray-breasted Mountain-Toucan
I waved down the van and everyone piled out and got to see these beauties.
What an amazing day!
That afternoon we stopped at some roadside restaurant on the way to our last big stop for the trip, in Jardin. We actually arrived in Jardin in time for a very special bird, but I will save that for the next post.
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