BIRDS OF COLOMBIA – INTRO
Colombia is a paradise for Birders
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Colombia is one of the most biodiverse countries on the planet. Diverse ecosystems meet here, from volcanic beaches to the Sierra Nevada’s peaks, creating habitats for abundant wildlife.
This biodiversity is second only to Brazil, which is approximately seven times larger.
Colombia hosts 10% of the world’s species, including 1,954 bird species—more than Europe and North America combined. It also has 10% of mammal species, 14% of amphibians, and 18% of bird species globally.
Cock of the Rock Lek
Colombia’s equatorial location provides a tropical climate that stays constant year-round. This tropical climate, allied with the unique topography, makes it an ideal territory to nurture a tremendous variety of ecosystems and incredible diversity of life forms.
Colombia is undoubtedly a pivotal destination for birders. A fifth of the world’s birds reside here, so this is more than an incentive to visit the country.
Humming bird
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South America alone hosts about 3,435 bird species, more than half of which can be found in Colombia. Colombia has 1,954 species and nearly 20% of the world’s 10,000 bird species.
Thanks to an extremely diverse range of habitats and ecosystems as well as geographical isolation, Colombia is home to a splendid number of birds which cannot be seen anywhere else on earth.
Although Colombia leads with the greatest number of individual birds, it does not support the highest number of endemic birds in South America. Colombia possesses 14% of the 561 endemic birds exclusive to South American countries. Brazil and Peru far exceed Colombia with the number of endemic birds.
Burrowing Owl
Colombia’s vast territory encompasses dry and wet rainforests, grasslands, and deserts. The country’s geography is characterised by its six main natural regions that present their own unique characteristics.
From the Andes mountain range, the Pacific Coastal region, the Caribbean coastal reaches, the Llanos (plains), the Amazon rainforest, to the insular area, comprising islands in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, the variety is boundless.
Now that birding tourism has become fashionable, birders are able to target the many amazing endemic and range-restricted species.
Together with the knowledge of a handful of local ornithologists, birders, and conservation NGOs, several special routes have been developed where one can travel and enjoy Colombian birding.
Scarlet Ibis
Despite sharing different ecosystems with neighboring countries, Colombia is the only country where all the ecosystems are found together in the same territory. It is also the only country in South America with coasts on both oceans.
Colombia has three Andean mountain ranges and their inter-Andean valleys, one coastal ice-peaked range, a semi-desert tropical area, the Amazon jungle, a biogeographic Choco region, the Llanos in the east, and a portion of the Guiana shield. It is hard to imagine one country having such a diversity of ecosystems. Nevertheless, Colombia has them all.
Climate is another interesting element, which determines the mega diversity of Colombia. Thanks to its location in the tropics, Colombia has a constantly variable climate that keeps changing throughout the year. However, temperature and other climatic conditions change with altitude too and the diverse topography makes for tremendous diversity of flora and fauna.
Male Green Honeycreeper – Chlorophanes Spiza
As a result of all this, Colombia is the country with the highest number of orchid species, 4,270 species of which 1,572 are endemic, the second highest number of butterflies with 4,059 including 350 endemic, second in fish diversity with 4,013 including 39 endemics and second for amphibians, supporting 850 species of which 375 are endemic.
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Colombia being one of the world’s megadiverse countries, is home to almost 10% of the planet’s biodiversity. It is also the country with the greatest variety of birds on earth, with nearly 2,000 species, including more than 200 migratory and 80 endemic species.
This is why Colombia is now recognized as the country of birds.
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