Colombia

We have been here in Colombia for almost a month, slowly wending our way from Bogota northeastward with a general goal of maybe flying out from Cartegena, Bucaramanga, or whatever seems feasible. It has been an enjoyable trip. Especially after leaving Bogota, events there in the news made us a bit leery of lingering.

After That we made our way to Tunja, Duitama, San Gil, Barichara – Thank you kind lady sitting next to me on the plane coming down for telling me about this gem of a town! – and now we are in Giron, also a colonial white-walled town similar to Barichara, but somewhat grittier.

I have been so occupied with exploring these towns – and also my other writing projects – that I neglected this blog. Since I have so many good nature photos accumulated that seems like a way to remedy my publishing hiatus here. Below are some of the Colombian beauties we saw, mostly birds:

**Left**: **Carib Grackle**, *Quiscalus lugubris*, Bogota. He sings better than his Mexican cousins. **Center**: **Glossy Flowerpiercer**, *Diglossa lafresnayii*, caught in the act of piercing a flower! La Zarza, near trinidad. **Right**: **Central American Agouti**, *Dasyprocta punctata*. San Gil.

The Rock Dove, *Columba livia*. Pigeons, especially when the light favors them as here, can be quite striking. Barichara.

**Left**: This **Colombian Chachalaca**, *Ortalis columbiana*, was the first bird I saw as we arrived in San Gil. Raucous birds, especially when they get together, but always fun to watch. **Center**: Immature **Yellow-headed Caracara**, *Milvago chimachima*. San Gil. **Right**: **Pale-breasted Thrush**, *Turdus leucomelas*. San Gil.

These next twelve photos are all from **Barichara, Colombia**, a mountain town just a half an hour’s bus ride from San Gil. Close by, but quite different. Peaceful, touristy yet not overwhelmingly so. We spent about ten days here. And each day there was a different part of town and countryside to explore.

The names of these motmots are in a constant state of flux, it seems. As of this week, at least, this is the **Whooping Motmot**, *Momotus subrufescens*. Beautiful birds, whatever the name.

**Left: Tropical Mockingbird**, *Mimus gilvus*. **Center: Blue-and-white Swallow**s, *Notiochelidon cyanoleuca*, make themselves at home under the eaves of the colonial houses. **Right: Bar-crested Antshrike**, *Thamnophilus multistriatus*.

**Left**: **Roadside Hawk**, *Rupornis magnirostris*. . I have never seen so many of these hawks in one place as I have here in Barichara, especially along the cliffside that marks the north edge of town. **Right: Black-faced Grassquit**, *Melanospiza bicolor*

**Scrub Tanager**, *Stilpnia vitriolina*. This striking gem of a tanager was a frequent visitor to the courtyard garden of our guesthouse, allowing me to get a decent photo from our window.

Some familiar friends from further north, Mexico and the Southwest states of the US, respectively. **Left: Chestnut-capped Warbler**, *Basileuterus delattrii*. **Right: Vermilion Flycatcher**, *Pyrocephalus obscurus*

**Venezuelan Troupial**, *Icterus icterus*. They look a bit like Orioles of the Baltimore persuasion, but they are not nearly as “well-behaved” as their northern cousins. They don’t build their own nest, but take over other nests, abandoned or occupied. If the nests are occupied they push out or – in some cases – eat the eggs and nestlings and then settle in to their new home!

This fellow sang such a nice, fluty song. But the blue robber-type mask gives him kind of a lean and hungry look!

**Left: Yellow-olive Flatbill**, *Tolmomyias sulphurescens*. **Right: Spectacled Parrotlet**, *Forpus conspicillatus*. These little parrots, once they light into the trees are very hard to pick out from the leaves around them. The second morning that I saw these birds they were working over the *Müllerian* *bodies* (“Gummi Fruit”) of a Cecropia Tree.

All the photos below are from Giron, a town just a few kilometers outside of Bucaramanga.

**Left: Straight-Billed Woodcreepers**, **Dendroplex picus**, are pretty common on the far bank of the stream. **Right: Green Iguana**, Iguana iguana. And these are especially common on the near side of the stream, along the aptly-named *Parque las Iguanas*. It is “*las* Iguanas” because they are fed here with fruits and vegetables from the nearby market. I noticed that they left the carrots untouched.

**Left**: One of the most unusual bird calls among the wrens is that of the **Bicolored Wren**, *Campylorhynchus griseus*. **Center**: The **Spectacled Parrotlet**, *Forpus conspicillatus*, like the other parrotlet above, is hard to see – even with the male’s pronounced eye-ring and wing margins. **Right**: **Red-Tailed Squirrel**, *Sciurus granatensis*. I would just call it Red Squirrel, but that name was already taken by a North American squirrel.

Two feisty and very successful competitors are these two colorful birds. **Left**: The **Blue-Gray Tanager**, *Thraupis episcopus*, is especially aggressive. **Right**: I have not seen the **Saffron Finch**, *Sicalis flaveola*, actually chase away other birds like the Tanager has. They are probably just successful because of environmental degradation. But both of these are very photogenic, don’t you think?

**Southern Lapwing**, *Vanellus chilensi*.

**Red-crowned Woodpecker**, *Melanerpes rubricapillus*. One of those birds that is usually first heard, then seen.

I hope to write more next time about the towns that we have visited this last month, especially Barichara and Tunja. Hopefully in a few weeks. Or maybe I will finish my set on Africa and start writing about our Malaysia adventures.

I had a hard time choosing the best photos for this segment, so there are more photos than last entry. I have noticed that, since some of these views are from ten or fifteen years ago, some of the cityscapes have changed.