Southwest Colombia
The Western Andes of the Cali Region - Araucana Lodge and the Choco
May 31 - June 9, 2027
Colombia is famous among birders and naturalists for being the most bird-rich county on Earth. While that's impressive enough, so, too, is its overall biodiversity which is eclipsed only by that of Brazil.........which has the advantage of being more than seven times larger. The unique topography of the country - Pacific and Caribbean coasts, three Andean ranges, vast Amazonian forest, and the equally vast Llanos - supports a tremendous number of bird species, including about 90 endemics and over 100 near endemics. Southwest Colombia offers exceptional opportunities to see, enjoy, and learn about the country's impressive birds and wildlife as it has good tourist infrastructure, good habitat variety, and many talented Colombian people who make our trip safe, comfortable, and fun.
We begin this journey in the valley of the Rio Cauca, an important area that is not only home to several endemic birds but is also a key biogeographic feature in Colombia, separating the Central from the Western Andes. Here we’ll visit Laguna de Sonso, a freshwater wetland area with a large variety of birds. In addition to waders, kingfishers, horned screamer, comb duck, all three species of ani, and whistling-ducks, we’ll look for less common species such as apical flycatcher, grayish piculet, jet antbird, little cuckoo, ruby topaz hummingbird, blackish rail, and others. We’ll have lunch near the lagoon and in the afternoon visit the nearby Yotoco reserve, one of the few well forested spots in the valley. Here we’ll look for a nice suite of widespread tropical species - piratic flycatcher, yellow-bellied elaenia, slate-throated redstart, blue-necked tanager, collared trogon - as well as some rarities such as yellow-headed and white-bibbed manakins, bar-crested antshrike, Parker’s antbird, and others.
From Cali we’ll climb into the Western Andes to the very nice Araucana Lodge which will be our home base for 7 nights. Araucana has excellent rooms, very good food, an superb service. It’s located at a comfortable 5600 feet and is in the heart of one of Colombia’s most bird-rich areas. From Araucana, we’ll make day trips to several nearby hotspots, including a few amazing feeding stations. One is the La Florida which is home to specialties such as chestnut wood-quail, multicolored and many other tanagers, and up to two dozen hummingbirds including velvet-purple coronet, blue-headed sapphire, tawny-bellied hermit, white-booted racket-tail, rufous-gaped hillstar, empress brilliant, and brown inca. We’ll spend a full morning here enjoying the Andean eye candy.
Another famous spot is San Cipriano, about 90 minutes to the west. Here in the Choco lowlands, we’ll enjoy outstanding lowland rainforest as we look for Baudo guan, Baudo oropendula, blue-tailed trogon, Choco toucan, stripe-billed aracari, rose-faced parrot, spot-crowned and five-colored barbets, tooth-billed hummingbird, and many more - the ebird list for this location is over 400 species. We’ll spend the whole day in this area, returning to the lodge in the late afternoon. The diversity in this area is such that we may very well make two day trips here.
The Anchicaya Valley is yet another famous spot to the west. This area is a little higher than San Cipriano so we’ll have chances to see many new species, including lemon-spectacled tanager, toucan barbet, crested ant-tanager, golden-collared honeycreeper, glistening-green and rufous-throated tanagers, perhaps the rare scarlet-and-white and golden-chested tanagers, sooty-headed wren, and others. While in the Anchicaya area, we’ll visit a well known feeding station, the Avistamiento de Aves Dona Dora. Here we’ll look for black-headed and Choco brushfinches, crimson-rumped toucanet, greenish puffleg, plain-backed antpitta, ochre-breasted tanager, Zeledon’s antbird, and more.
As one of the most biologically rich countries in the world and with a landmass almost twice the size of Texas, Colombia offers many choices to traveling nature enthusiasts. The Cali region offers not only easy access but hosts some of the highest endemism in the world and provides the perfect introduction to this natural paradise. In addition to the many great birds, we'll learn a lot about the excellent natural history of the area.