Most international flights arrive into Bogota and some travelers choose to book their travel to Pereira through Bogota, but note there are direct flights from Miami to Pereira (PEI). The latter is best if you can make it work. Plan your international flights from the US to arrive mid-day or mid-afternoon. We will arrange transport to our hotel, El Recinto del Pensamiento, which hosts an orchid garden, a butterfly house, and a nice network of birding trails too. This is our home for our first three nights and we will enjoy a welcome dinner together here on our first night together. If you arrive earlier in the day you can relax at the hotel until our meeting at 630pm for dinner. Meet in the hotel lobby area. Night at El Recinto del Pensamiento in Manizales.

Just a short 25-minute drive from our hotel is a newly opened reserve known as Bosques de la Chec, catering to birders where we’ll plan to spend the bulk of the morning. Featuring a nice feeder array with about a dozen hummingbird species we’ll look to connect with Sword-billed Hummingbird, White-throated Daggerbill, and others. There is also a nice trail here the winds through gorgeous humid montane forest. Weather and luck of course both determine a lot, but we could enjoy sightings of Crimson-mantled Woodpecker, Rusty-faced Parrot (near/regional endemic), Golden-plumed Parakeet, Flammulated Treehnuter and a bunch of others. If the sun emerges early-mid morning, then we are wise to spend some time watching the sky here too as the Black-and-chestnut Eagle is known to cruise the area, in addition to other raptors. We’ll do lunch and spend the afternoon at a nearby coffee farm. There we’ll enjoy some local cuisine, sample some locally grown coffee, learn how this coffee farm functions, while also seeing a nice bunch of birds. The coffee farm has a bird list of near 300 species. Night at El Recinto del Pensamiento.

Today we drive about 75 minutes into secondary growth foothill forest to the charming and comfortable Tinamu Lodge & Birding Reserve. A small, quaint little lodge, surrounded by feeders with a nice network of trails, located in San Peregrino village, we will spend the bulk of the day, working this forest of near 40 acres. Here we could bump into endemics such as Grayish Piculet, Colombian Chachalaca and Parker's Antbird, and other specialties such as Bar-crested Antshrike, Mustached Puffbird, Andean Motmot, Blue-lored Antbird, Guira Tanager and Golden-collared Manakin. Photo opps at the feeders are good, and subjects there may include the near-endemics Western Emerald and Scrub Tanager, alongside Steely-vented Hummingbird and more common and widespread species like Green Honeycreeper, Blue-necked Tanager, Long-billed Starthroat, Green Hermit, and Lesser and Sparkling Violetears. Night at the lodge at Tinamú Birding Reserve.

Setting out early we will spend most of the day away from the hotel, returning mid-late afternoon, in order to pursue of some of the region’s most sought-after birds at one of its most famous birding sites.

Rio Blanco provides fabulous birding and has for a long time. It is especially famous as a place to see antpittas, including several species that just a few years ago were deemed nearly impossible to see. Here at Rio Blanco, they are often seen and seen well.

A patch of Cloud Forest (2150-3700m high) just outside of Manizales, the area is high biodiversity and protects a number of endangered species, with 362 species of birds, and no less than 13 of Colombia endemics. We begin walking with a local ranger who tracks the endemic Brown-banded Antpitta, and the near-endemic Bicolored Antpitta. We’ll keep an eye and ear out for the Chestnut-crowned Antpitta and its “compra pan” song, and hope also for the diminutive Slate-crowned Antpitta. The hummingbird feeders may provide species such as Long-tailed Sylph, Speckled Hummingbird, Bronzy Inca, Buff-tailed Coronet and perhaps Fawn-breasted Brilliant. Keep an eye out for the near-endemic White-throated Daggerbill too. Other species could include Pearled Treerunner, Black-capped and Black-eared Hemispingus, Streak-headed Antbird, Lacrimose Mountain Tanager (named for the teardrop below its eye), the stunning Blue-winged Mountain Tanager, and other jaw-droppers like Andean Motmot, Grass-green Tanager, Golden-plumed Parakeet, Green-and-black Fruiteater, and Gray-browed Brushfinch. Further searching could reveal a Masked Saltator, the dapper Plushcap, a Yellow-billed Cacique, Ash-colored Tapaculo, or dare we hope… Ocellated Tapaculo? Night again in Manizales.

Today we depart early to reach one of the better birding and photography sites in the Central Andes. At the incomparable Hacienda el Bosque, we enjoy a traditional hacienda located just 45-minute drive outside Manizales. With habitats ranging from 2,800 to 3,900m altitude (9500 - 12800 feet) it contains several ecosystems, including pastures for livestock and dairy production, but some good chunks of high Andean forest and paramo. It has been looked after by the same family for decades now and they are working towards making it more and more attractive to birders and nature enthusiasts. Today they manage sections of it for birders, and the feeding stations attract lots (!) of hummingbirds and tanagers, and are visited by the likes of Collared Inca, White-bellied Woodstar, Mountain Velvetbreast, Sparkling Violetear, Lesser Violetear, Tourmaline Sunangel, Tyrian Metaltail, Buff-Winged Starfrontlet and also the sought-after and gaudy Gray-breasted Mountain-Toucan. The main attraction here is one of the most enigmatic antpitta species: the Crescent-faced Antpitta. Here our chances are better than just about anywhere else, but we’ll still need some luck. And we also have chances for the Equatorial Antpitta, Barred Fruiteater, and much more. Then we move on to our very comfortable hotel high up in the Central Andes, situated at a thermal hot springs, at edge of the Nevados del Ruiz National Park. Astride the park and the forest, there are a bevy of birds possible here, and so we’ll spend two nights at this fabulous hotel and spa. Night at Termales de Ruiz.

Here, at up near 4000 meters (13,000 feet above sea level) the grounds of our hotel has hosted over 200 species of birds. Hummingbirds are a big part of the experience. Rainbow-bearded Thornbill, Golden-breasted Puffleg, and Shining Sunbeam are often here, and we’ll keep eyes peeled too for the near-endemic Black-thighed Puffleg. A short drive away farther up the peak of the volcano, we have a chance for Buffy Helmetcrest as well. Its entire range is confined to this mountain. Nevado Del Ruiz is a volcanic mountain situated in Los Nevados National Natural Park resting between 2800m and 4000 meter above sea-level (9180 - 13120 feet). It is a combination of paddocks, elfin forest, patches of bamboo, páramo habitat, and then there is the active volcano itself.

The elfin forest and páramo of this massive park are home to endemic species including the rare and local Rufous-fronted Parakeet and we will look for these along with the near-endemic Black-backed Bush Tanager, and Páramo Tapaculo, as we check for roving flocks that may hold Hooded Mountain Tanager, Golden-crowned Tanager, Tawny Antpitta, Stout-billed Cinclodes, Andean Tit-spinetail, Crowned Chat-tyrant, Brown-backed Chat-tyrant, Andean Tit-spinetail or White-chinned Thistletail.

The main target of this stunning mountain is the aforementioned endemic, the Buffy Helmetcrest. We will look for this amazing bird in flowering bushes of Espeletia (locally known as 'frailejones', as in the misty they somewhat recall a friar or monk), a unique type of shrub in the sunflower family. These are only in high elevation páramo ecosystems. After searching for it, we’ll get lunch back at the hotel and then soak up the action at the feeders, and perhaps take advantage of the therapeutic effects of the Natural hot springs. Night again at Termales de Ruiz.

We’ll have a last look around the grounds, but after breakfast it is time to move on. Those that fly home will head back to Pereira for their flight out. Those who plan to attend the Colombia Birdfair can be transported to Cali.

NOTE: After the Colombia Birdfair, starting on the 18th of February, Mollee & Yessenia continue with another tour to the Western Andes & the Choco.