Colombia Bird Fair 2018

It's the first day of the Colombia Bird Fair 2018. We woke at 330am, yes, painful, but we needed to meet up with our tour that would depart from Hotel Spiwak where most of the fair attendees were staying. The Fair offered 39 field trips to different areas led by local birding experts. We chose a tour for each of the three days.

One thing that I found very interesting about Colombia is the fact that none of the homes or buildings are sealed as ours are in the United States. I'm actually standing inside the hotel lobby looking out towards the patio and connected shopping area. There is no wall, window or screen, it's just open to the elements. Temperatures stay about the same year around, so there's no need for heating and cooling. It's a really neat way to blend inside and outside living.

We loaded into a packed van and then drove for 90 minutes through the mountains to Rio Bravo. 

For lunch they took us to Hotel La Huerta where we enjoyed delicious food with a fantastic view.

Isn't this place just lovely? 

After lunch we birded the attached bamboo forest where we found leaf-cutter ants and saw the damage they do to small trees. 

On the second day our tour took us to Laguna de Sonso, my favorite location of the three days. It was the only location with a mosquito problem, but the birds here were plentiful and full of variety.

The Snail Kite (above) is a rare sight in the US, but they are plentiful at this lagoon. 

The Lineated Woodpecker (above) is one of the largest woodpeckers at 13.4 inches.

We were lucky enough to see four of these Common Potoos while in Colombia. 

The Vermillion Flycatcher (below) is a striking bird that can also be found in the US.

You could see the rain coming down in the mountains. Time to head back to the bus!

Our third and final day of the fair took us to Yotoco where our favorite sighting was this Spectacled Owl. We spent about 20 minutes watching while he was calling and flying from one tree to another. It was an amazing experience!

This snail was about 7 inches long!

While deep in the forest I heard the strangest sound, a very loud, deep roar. 

Howler monkeys! What an amazing sound! I just wish we could have seen them too!

We ended up having lunch at Hotel La Huerta again. This time while birding around the hotel, 

we found three Black Vulture nestlings in a downed tree trunk, biggest baby birds I've ever seen!

We enjoyed meeting and birding with David Lindo aka The Urban Birder, and Jose' on this tour. 

At the end of this tour, a couple in our group invited the three of us to relax at their home before the nightly presentations. We enjoyed showers, drinks, backyard birds and wonderful conversation. A wonderful example of the Colombian hospitality we encountered.

Around 5pm every night, the Fair provided dinner and juice before the presentations began at Zoologico de Cali (the zoo)! What a brilliant place to hold the fair! There were about 20 presentations scheduled, however only one was in English. In previous years, they had translation to English available for all the presentations, but this year only for the last night. I understand live translation services are expensive and there were not many English speakers in attendance, however, I feel they are really missing out on a huge opportunity to increase fair attendance and bring more birders to Colombia. I would bet the majority of birders speak English. According to the US Fish & Wildlife Service the United States alone has 45 million people watching birds and spending $41 billion annually on trips and equipment. Most of them watch birds where they live, but an estimated 18 million travel specifically to see birds. One Florida 5 day festival pulled in $1.3 million to the area in 2017. Now add English-speaking birders in Canada, Europe, Australia and many other countries, that's a large audience that is being ignored. Colombia has more bird species than ANY other country. If someone is looking to take one trip and see the most birds, this is THE place.

Urban Birder, David Lindo, was the only English speaking presenter. We attended and really enjoyed his presentation. I love his mission to awaken all people, especially city-dwellers, to the winged beauties all around them. Afterwards we were lucky enough to observe another Common Potoo in one of the zoo's trees, but this one was sitting on an egg! We watched long enough to see it fly off to a nearby branch a few times and back onto the egg.

I really enjoyed the Colombia Bird Fair. We saw a total of 155 species on our three tours. I was happy with the tours, the provided food on the tours was fantastic and I enjoyed looking at and purchasing items from the vendors. While I was disappointed to miss out on all but one presentation, I really enjoyed the one presentation that was in English. Making friends and meeting new people is always a fun result of attending a birding festival, and this one did not disappoint.