The plan for Day 4 was to check out of our base hotel in Bogota and head to the city of Ibague for our exploration of the central cordillera. However, before we could do that we had to pick up the famous endemic Bogota Rail. Some of the group had gotten a quick glimpse of this species earlier in the trip when we visited Sumapaz but the looks weren't great and we knew that a visit to Parque La Florida on the outskirts of Bogota would be a much better chance to see this species. We arrived at first light which was not great for photography but we had a tight schedule so we made do with the conditions. We had the rail pretty quickly when we reached the lake but again it was sub-optimal looks so we headed down a side trail which flanked the reed beds around the lake.
Spot-flanked Gallinule! Although this species can been seen elsewhere in South America, it has a very limited range within Colombia.
Andean Ducks look a lot like Ruddy Ducks and in fact once were considered one species. They can be found basically anywhere in the Andean range throughout South America.
Bogota Rail! Finally we had great looks and out of the hundreds of photos taken, a few came out despite the horrible light. Most came out as speed blurs.
With that target in the bag, we had to go. These organized tours are a little frustrating for the same reason why they are also good, namely that they are designed to get you the most species of birds possible in the time allotted. What this means is that you don't get a lot of time at some spots that really deserve more time. Parque La Florida was the kind of place I would have loved to explore and I think one more hour would have allowed some awesome photo opportunities.
One the road we took a bathroom break at a roadside soda and I took a pic of a species that became a kind of mascot for the whole trip.
Rufous-collared Sparrow was one of the species seen throughout the whole trip along with Great Thrush. Both species are found in multiple habitats throughout the Colombian mountains but the sparrow which we affectionately called Rufi was always heard as well as seen. It's a striking sparrow which is frequently taken for granted because of its abundance.
Part of the reason we left Parque La Florida so quickly is that the plan was to get to the next stop called Laguna El Tabacal early enough to get feeding flock activity. This park is actually not so much on the way to Ibague but it can be really good for certain species so I think the tour leaders thought it would be worth a detour. The park is about an hour northwest of Bogota. Unfortunately we got there to find out a television show was being filmed onsite and it was kind of a zoo with vehicles and people everywhere making tons of noise. This probably impacted the bird activity and although we did rack up a nice list of 32 species, most of the looks were high up in the canopy and in really poor light. We did get rained on a bit too so it ended up being a bit of a dud. Even though we did pick up some species we didn't get anywhere else, for me it was frustrating from a photography perspective.
Golden-faced Tyrannulet - we did see these throughout the trip.
Velvet-fronted Euphonia - this was a Colombian endemic so I had to deal with the poor looks in the canopy.
The all dark under tail is what helps separate it from other similar species that have white under tail feathers.
Our first looks at the stunning Blue-necked Tanager were way up in the canopy.
As were the Green Honeycreepers.
A very quick look at a Streak-headed Woodcreeper was unsatisfying but the only shot I got during the trip.
Same goes for this Rusty-breasted Antpitta which stayed hidden deep in the forrest and was only seen through many leaves and twigs.
This Bar-crested Antshrike was the only one seen on the trip and it too stayed way up in the canopy.
Our first looks at Scrub Tanagers were exciting at the time but I quickly found out we would get much closer looks later as this species will come in to fruit feeders.
We also got our first looks at Crimson-backed Tanagers and Rufous-capped Warblers but I got much better photos later in the trip so I will spare you the bad photos. A Long-billed Gnatwren was a good one but my photos are terrible. Altogether this stop ended up being very frustrating for me.
We had a nice lunch at a roadside restaurant where we also picked up this new species in a tree in the courtyard.
Plain-colored Tanager.
Lunch was typical of many of the Colombian Restaurants and I got some Chicharrones which were delicious as well as a Guanabana smoothie which is from the Sour Sop fruit. MMMmmm yummy.
The rest of the day was spent in transit to Ibague which would be our base for the next couple days. My next post will be from probably my favorite stop of the trip - Ukuku Lodge. The photography there was optimal and will make up for the poor showing on Day 3-4 so don't forget to tune back in for the next installment.
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