Birdwatching, Nature & photography in Sumapaz National Park

This was our second day of birding with our excellent guide, Camilo Orjuela from Bogota Birding. After a long day of birding in Chicaque previous day, we overslept until Camilo arrived to pick us up from the hotel at 5AM. We scrambled and got on our way to Sumapaz National Park, which is the world's largest Paramo. Quick breakfast on the way and we were birding by 8AM. It was chilly and breezy here at this high altitude paramo, so come prepared with layers of clothing. It was a beautiful day with great visibility and the the majestic forest of Espeletia aka Frailejones are unique to this area. The area had the loud singing birds - Apolinar's Wren (which is endemic to this area) and Tawny Antpitta singing all the time. The difficulty was to see them and then photographing them. With Camilo's skills in calling and spotting them, we were able to photograph them. We observed 26 species there for this sparse area near Laguna Chisaca. Camilo tried to call the Bogota Rail, but it wasn't there. We also saw the female Green-bearded Helmetcrest hummingbird feeding (another endemic species here). We saw and photographed a lot of birds, but even if we didn't, the beauty of this unique landscape would have been worth it. This can be a great place for landscape photographers. After spending about five hours there, we stopped at a small private reserve closer to Bogota for lunch at Reserva Chiguaza with brothers Daniel and Luis, who are amazing hosts and bird guides as well. After lunch, we went for birding in their property and saw a few more new birds for us - Green-tailed Trainbearer hummingbird, Silvery-throated Spinetail, Gray-browed Brush Finch, etc.). And then we returned back to the hotel by 5PM. Another 12 hours of birding with Camilo and Bogota Birding. Thank you, Camilo, Oswaldo, Daira!

We had two amazing days with our guide Leon Sanchez and driver Alex Prada. They showed us basically every difficult Bird species in both Sumapaz NP and and Chicaque nature reserve. Wonderful days with true Colombian food and wildlife!

My colleagues and I are working on water resources and since the paramo is so important we took the opportunity to go up Sumpaz NP, near Bogotá. For my own interests, the birds were a nice bonus! OSwaldo did a great job explaining anything from Colombia's sociology, upcoming elections, ecology, the birds (he found the really special ones), and it goes on. On top of that, he was by far the safest driver we had for the week. It was cold, wet and miserable but we had a really nice time!