BIRD THE WORLD
THE URBAN BIRDER VISITS
CALI,COLOMBIA
➤ Carlos Mario Wagner, organiser of the Colombia Bird Fair. Web: colombiabirdfair.com ➤ Jose Manuel Wagner and Vicky Vergara. Striated Heron
Black-crowned Night Heron
➤ David stayed at Hotel Spiwak. Web: spiwak.com ➤ And flew with Evelop Airlines. Web: en.evelop.com
Have your wits about you and a birding trip to the Colombian city of Cali can be a very rewarding experience
Rusty-margined Flycatcher
88 June 2018
KE Y S P ECI ES
Reserva Bataclán El Gato Zoológico de Cali
the wing have an uncanny resemblance to pallid Red Kites. Soaring up above them are often legions of Black Vultures. When walking along the Cali River resist the temptation to leave the pavement to reach the waterside as it can be unsafe to do so, owing to muggings.
CALI
El Ingenio Park
La Babilla Park
Lago las Garzas
Riverside stroll
Outside the zoo flows the rapidly flowing Cali River that, in this part of town, is flanked by swish restaurants and relatively posh housing. If you walk on the pavement east along its length, you will pick up a variety of species on its thinly wooded banks. The rather small and beautifully patterned Red-crowned Woodpeckers are a given as they commute between the riverside trees and the nearby gardens of this well-to-do neighbourhood. Indeed, scan the feeders clamped onto the sides of some of the apartments and you may be rewarded with feeding hummers, including the Brown Violetear. Ochre-bellied Flycatchers are possible, along with Vermillion and Yellow-olive Flycatchers. Also, keep an eye out for Black-billed Thrush, the default thrush in the area. They are smaller bodied than our
Song Thrushes, with spotless chests. On the boulders and along the water’s edge, could be Black Phoebes looking and behaving not dissimilarly to our familiar Black Redstart, although they are entirely black-and-white. Black-crowned Night Herons hunt as well as the Snowy Egret, the New World version of the Little Egret. Further downstream is El Gato – a small area of parkland dominated by giant, colourful statues of cats. This popular tourist spot is also good for finding the ridiculously yellow Saffron Finches feeding on the ground, plus Common Tody Flycatcher, noisy flocks of Spectacled Parrotlets and overflying Chestnut-fronted Macaws. Also, check the treetops for loafing Yellow-headed Caracaras that when on
Lakeside birding
One birding spot within the western side of the city well worth visiting is Lago las Garzas – Heron Lake. It is a small, square-shaped wooded park in the south-west edge of the city with a central lake. It is here that the Greater Ani can be found. This curious relative of the cuckoo can be watched clumsily crashing around in the waterside foliage. Striated Herons can be searched for on the edge of the wooded island within the lake alongside Black-bellied Whistling Duck, Bare-faced Ibis and Neotropic Cormorants. There could also be Piedbilled Grebes on the water itself. Strolling around the roots of the riparian vegetation and sometimes right
Brown Violetear
out in the open are the outsized Greynecked Wood Rail, that strut like brown Water Rails on stilts. Craning your neck in the woodland will result in many of the tree-loving species mentioned previously, along with hummingbirds, Plain-brown Woodcreeper and Rusty-margined Flycatcher that look devilishly like the Greater Kiskadee although their rippling call is completely different. Other parks worth visiting include La Babilla Park, El Ingenio Park and Reserva Bataclán. The urban birding scene within Cali is small, although expanding, and it is possible to join birding walks led by local experts. The great thing is, though, that new birds for the city are constantly being uncovered, as no one really knows exactly what species occur. You could also discover forest denizens like the enigmatic Common Potoo. David Lindo’s new book, How To Be An Urban Birder (Princeton/WILDGuides), will be available from the end of July.
Red-crowned Woodpecker
DAVID SAYS So long as you are with a local, you will have nothing to fear while urban birding in Cali
FLPA/Alamy
Kiskadees proclaiming their existence by repeatedly announcing their names: ‘kiss-ka-dee, kiss-ka-dee’. Perched up with them are Tropical Kingbirds, another common arboreal member of the tyrant flycatcher family, to which the Great Kiskadee belongs. It is a somewhat smaller and duller bird. During the migration season the trees are filled with a host of other small birds including several New World warbler species, like Blackburnian Warbler and Tropical Parula, both of which are gorgeous in their fresh spring plumages. While admiring the waterbird collection look out for constantly diving Neotropic Cormorants that also sun themselves on exposed waterside branches. Look carefully and you may discover a Green Kingfisher silently perched waiting for a passing meal while keeping a watchful eye on the monstrous treeclimbing Green Iguanas.
➤ Birds of Northern South America Vols 1 & 2. Robin Restall, Clemencia Rodner and Miguel Lentino (Christopher Helm).
Cauca River
ou may think that urban birding on the streets of Cali would not be on the cards, especially after watching the various Netflix series about the drug cartels based in Colombia. This stigma also affects the country’s other notable cities, like Bogotá and Medellín. Well, certainly in Cali (or Santiago de Cali to give it its full name) you can enjoy safe, stress-free birding provided you go to recognised reserves or are in the company of a local who knows the lay of the land. The people of Cali are, in the main, very friendly and helpful, if a bit curious when encountering urban birders. The western side of the city is generally more affluent and, as a consequence, safer for birding. A good place to start exploring the ornithological scene is at the zoo – Zoológico de Cali. Checking out the open animal enclosures will certainly produce abundant Shiny Cowbirds finding pickings in among the droppings and furrows created by the hooves of the various encaged ungulates. In the trees and overhead wires are vociferous Great
Challe 25
All pictures by David Lindo unless stated
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Reference guides:
GREATER ANI The anis are a strange family of birds based in the tropics of the Americas, although two species are to be found in the southernmost edge of the US. They are related to cuckoos and consists of three members – Smoothbilled, Groove-billed and the Greater. The latter species differs from the others by being the largest with a yellowish-white eye-ring and eye and by having an iridescent gloss to its otherwise black plumage that shows hints of blue, green and purple. The birds are lovers of moist forests, swamps, mangroves and marshes where they clumsily, and noisily, crash around in the foliage. As with the other members of its family, and unlike most cuckoos, the Greater Ani is not a brood parasite. Instead, they nest communally with several females laying up to seven eggs in the same nest. They have few enemies, not least because close up BW they smell terrible! birdwatching.co.uk 89
Watchtheworld/Alamy*
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