The Birders Show in the Colombian Coffee Region
For the latest episodes of The Birders Show, our hosts traveled to Caldas department in Colombia. Episode 1 is set in the Coffee Region. Our host Chris has written a new blog post about the episode.
When we were looking for a region to film our Kowa-sponsored episodes of The Birders Show in Colombia, we quickly settled on Caldas. Caldas packs many ecosystems into its borders for a relatively small department and boasts one of Colombia's best birding infrastructures. In just a week of filming, we could efficiently cover three different areas, film a bunch of unique birds, and highlight many other appealing activities to our audience.
For the first episode, we were based at Hacienda Venecia coffee farm. Hacienda Venecia is a working coffee farm set in a gorgeous valley of lush vegetation, streams, and, naturally, thousands of coffee plants. It also operates as a boutique hotel, with three houses accommodating guests, swimming pools, delicious food, and tourism activities.
Hacienda Venecia, Caldas, Colombia
We spent two nights at Hacienda Venecia, including one full day of filming around the farm. The birding there is terrific; a vast array of colorful tanagers, hummingbirds, and orioles visit the feeders and flowers dotted around the main house, while scarcer species like Parker's Antbird and Bar-crested Antshrike can be found along the forest trails. Diminutive Common Tody-Flycatchers perched atop coffee plants while Canada Warblers worked their way through dense bamboo plantations. Gregarious Blue-headed Parrots and Spectacled Parrotlets were ever-present, and Andean Motmots watched us curiously from every corner. It doesn't get much better for a beginner birder or even someone with a simple curiosity for nature.
We also took advantage of the local coffee guide and explored the plantations to learn more about Colombia's signature crop. Our guide, Lili, was a fountain of knowledge, explaining different varieties, cultivation methods, and coffee flavors. In return, we lent her our binoculars to enjoy her first close-up views of a stunning adult Canada Warbler. Needless to say, she was enamored with the little migrant visitor.
Our videographer Santiago filming coffee plants while Hacienda Venecia’s coffee guide, Lili, looks on
Thanks to our partnership with Kowa Sporting Optics, we also had brand-new Kowa binoculars to donate to children and young birders with high barriers of access to equipment. After speaking with Juan Pablo, the owner of Hacienda Venecia, we decided to give the first binoculars to Sofia, a talented member of the local young birders club.
Sofia joined us for the day's filming at Hacienda Venecia and quickly showed why she was such an outstanding candidate for these new binoculars; bright and intelligent, with a good eye for birds and a natural curiosity, it was a pleasure to bird with her. Her face when we gave her the Kowa bins and told her that she could keep them was easily the highlight of this chapter.
Chris, Sofia, and Diego after a wonderful day of birding around Hacienda Venecia
On Day 2 in the Coffee Region, we rose early, downed a few espressos at the Hacienda Venecia honesty bar - can we have more coffee honesty bars, please?! - and headed out to our following two filming locations: Hotel Tinamú and Finca Romelia. These excellent birding and ecotourism destinations are less than an hour from Venecia, making for an ideal tourist loop over a few days.
We arrived at Tinamú to fresh coffee, light rain, and action-packed banana feeders. After a couple of hours of enjoying close-up views of Green Honeycreeper, Blue-necked Tanager, and a pair of nesting Common today-Flycatchers, the rain eased up, and we headed out onto the forest trails.
Tinamú is one of the area's top birding lodges, and it's easy to see why: it offers an excellent balance between easy-to-see feeders birds and some trickier forest species. We managed to film several of these shyer birds, including the range-restricted Gray-headed Dove, lekking Green Hermits, and a smart male Golden-collared Manakin.
Birders Show videographer, Julian filming orchids at Finca Romelia
After driving the half-hour to Finca Romelia, we were served a slap-up lunch in the delightful main house. We were accompanied by the owner, José Fernando Londoño, and his family. After lunch, José took us on a tour of his remarkable orchid collection, one of the biggest in the country.
He showed us everything from large Cattleya orchids to tiny, pin-prick species that we needed a magnifying glass to see. Colombia is the richest country in the world for orchids, and, looking at José's expansive collection, it's easy to see why people become so consumed with finding these unique flowers.
After the orchid tour and a quick stop at an active Spot-breasted Woodpecker nest, we headed back up the mountain slope for our target bird of the afternoon, Ultramarine Grosbeak. This beautiful blue bird has a disjunct range throughout South America, and Romelia is one of the few reliable places to encounter it in Colombia. After a considerable flight of swifts passed overhead - including my lifer White-chested Swift - we heard the sweet, melodious song of the grosbeak deep in the coffee plantations.
Eventually, after some bushwhacking by Diego and me, we got excellent footage of this surprisingly skulky bird. It ended up forming the closing sequence of the new episode.
Celebrating finally capturing the Ultramarine Grosbeak on film at Finca Romelia
Our experience in the Caldas Coffee Region was as varied and diverse as I've come to expect from the Colombian Andes. In just two days, we learned about coffee and orchids, met passionate and engaged birders of all ages, and spotted a host of rare and localized species. It was indeed a good advert for birding in Colombia.
You can watch this episode from Colombian Coffee Country at the start of this blog, and keep an eye out on our YouTube channel for upcoming episodes filmed in Caldas.
