Colombian Beauties: Brilliant Birds and Other Animals

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 Swallows, 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.