Birding in Meta, Colombia for the Global Big Day 2022
Our birding group at the start of the Global Big Day in Mesetas, Meta (all photos courtesy of the Instituto de Turismo del Meta)
Our host headed to Mesetas in Colombia’s Meta department for the 2022 Global Big Day. Beyond birds, he found a passionate local birding community, committed to bringing bird tourism to their beautiful region.
Since the first coordinated national effort in 2017 - largely thanks to the incredible efforts of my co-host on The Birders Show, Diego Calderon - Colombia has been far and away the most successful country in eBird’s annual Global Big Day event. Except for 2021, Colombia has topped the charts every year since 2017, and 2022 was no exception.
The way that Colombian birders and nature-lovers have embraced the citizen-science event has been nothing short of astounding to see. Regions up and down the country put on annual events, produce t-shirts, and generally treat the Global Big Day as if it were another Colombian National Holiday. Since my first two Colombian Big Days in Guaviare and Nariño departments - during which I ran around like a madman trying to add as many unique species to Colombia’s total as possible - I hadn’t been able to enjoy a proper Global Big Day in Colombia. Unfortunately, in 2019 I was in the UK, and I could only bird from my balcony in 2020 for obvious reasons.
So when the 2022 Global Big Day rolled around, I was determined to get out and enjoy the fun. I was generously invited to speak at a Global Big Day launch event in Villavicencio in Meta department. So naturally, I jumped at the chance to get back to the Llanos region, my favorite in Colombia.
Birding in Mesetas, Meta with members of Mesetas Birding Club
The event itself was a revelation - the organizers, which included Aves Meta, the Instituto de Turismo del Meta, and the Gobernacion del Meta, had brought in young birders from across the entire region to participate, and there was a crowd of at least 200 assembled at Parque Las Malocas. Speakers included the Governor of Meta (an aspiring birder, which was nice to see!), the head of the Tourism Institute, Luis Antonio Erazo of Aves Meta, and my friend Memo Gomez, one of Colombia’s top bird photographers. I also have to give credit to Fundación Camaná, which has given birding courses to over 600 participants across the entire department since 2020, helping to sow the seeds for this wonderful turnout.
My short talk focused on my birding childhood with the hope of inspiring some of the many young birders present. I also highlighted the importance of enjoyment and consistency in birding. I reminded those present to get out regularly into the field and enjoy birding. I think the competitive element that is part of the Global Big Day in Colombia is an important motivator for people to get involved. Still, I also believe that it’s vital not to neglect those other 364 days of the year: those are the days when you learn how to be a better birder. If anything, the Big Day should be a culmination of sorts.
Also, I was pleasantly surprised to see the energy and passion that the Governor of Meta brought to the event. I’ve long thought that we need more birders in positions of power (after all, how much better might things be if we had birders and nature-lovers making the day-to-day decisions that most impact our planet), and judging by his enthusiasm, Meta might well have a birder-governor pretty soon, if not already. That positive first impression was further reinforced when he assembled his entire cabinet and sent each of them off to a different municipality to go birding on the Big Day. That’s something I never thought I’d see when I first started birding in Colombia!
It was a nice opportunity to teach new birders some of the basics, including binocular use
For the Big Day itself, I was posted to the municipality of Mesetas. This region in the east of Meta lies on a strategic corridor between the Eastern Andes and the Serrania de La Macarena National Park. This proximity between the Andean foothills and the Guiana Shield rock formations of La Macarena means that many species from different ecosystems can be seen within a relatively short distance. Unfortunately, the armed conflict heavily impacted Mesetas, and it wasn’t very long ago that traveling there would have been highly ill-advised. However, since the Colombian Peace Accord, things have vastly improved, and now Colombian travelers flock there on weekends to go rafting along the stunning canyon of the Guejar River (more on that later).
The newly-formed Mesetas Birding Club is an effort by residents to grow birding tourism in the region, and I was in Mesetas thanks to their kind invitation. Upon arrival, I was taken to Cabañas del Cafre to meet the club members. I was greeted with live music, a dance show from the local culture club, and a delicious plate of typical llanero BBQ. I was particularly impressed with the enthusiasm and diversity of the club members: the age range was quite literally 8 to 80(ish). There were also a group of rafting guides there who were impressively passionate about learning more about birds to offer a better service to their clients and potentially work in birding tourism during their off-season. The whole night was great fun.
A warm welcome from the Mesetas Birding Club
The following day a group of 17 birders assembled at Cabañas del Cafre, and we spent the morning birding the riverside forests near the cabins. While activity was slow because of heavy rain, it was so much fun to share the time with such lovely and enthusiastic new birders. After breakfast, I moved to another location nearby, Finca Pueblo Chiquito. Again, our efforts were curtailed by rain, but the few hours I spent birding there with a couple of rafting guides were tremendous fun.
By the end of the day, I’d racked up about 60 species, but, more importantly, I’d enjoyed the company of dozens of new birders who I’m sure are poised to do their region proud.
We had a successful day of birding in spite of the rain
After a comfortable night’s sleep at Pueblo Chiquito, I had one more day in Mesetas. Thanks to the kind invitation of Go Travel Mesetas, I spent it rafting along the Guejar River. This spot has achieved social media notoriety in recent years in Colombia, and I was not disappointed. Since May is the start of the rainy season, the river doesn’t currently have the bottle-green color beloved by influencers, but the flow is stronger, and the rafting is more adrenaline-fuelled: perfect!
My guides were Jairo and Luis, my birding companions from the day before. If they bring even a fraction of their professionalism, knowledge, and sense of fun to birding tourism as they do to rafting, then future visitors to Mesetas are in for a treat. The entire day was a joy, as we rode Class 3 rapids, swan up side-streams to hidden waterfalls, and even birded from the raft. The cherry on the cake was a lifer for me: a confiding White-thighed Swallow flying alongside our raft, picking insects off the water’s surface. That’s 1,382 for Colombia - the 2022 dream of 1,400 species lives on!
The results of the Global Big were not only great for Colombia, but good news for Meta department as well - 573 species recorded (3rd in Colombia) and 1,517 lists submitted. That second number is my favorite - one of the launch event talks was about the importance of proper eBird use, and the number of checklists submitted shows that birders took the lesson to heart. It also shows how many people were out birding in Meta on the Big Day. I’d hazard a guess that no Colombian department had more birders in the field that day than Meta. Those 1,500+ lists were far and away the most ever submitted by one department on a Global Big Day in Colombia. It’s a good sign of the future of birding in Meta, and I couldn’t be happier to have been a part of it.
