Colombia’s Santa Martas: The Caribbean Coast & Megadiverse Mountains

February 9 - 16
eBird Trip Report
Guided by Joshua Covill

Colombia’s “magical north coast” is a unique place for traveling birders who want to see a lot in a short amount of time. On this tour, we sampled a huge diversity of habitats and birds, but also foods, climates, and experiences! The ‘Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta’, the Santa Marta mountains, is a striking mountain range, known for dramatic landscapes that transition from tropical rainforests at lower elevations to snow-capped peaks at over 18,000 feet (5500m). This diverse ecosystem supports a wide range of biodiversity, with endemic species of plants, animals, and birds found nowhere else. Its varied climates and ecosystems make the Santa Martas a biodiversity hotspot, playing a critical role in this tour. The endemics of this range were the main focal point of the tour, shared only with the regional specialties of the Guajira peninsula.

Read Joshua’s full trip report

Blue-naped Chlorophonia by Joshua Covill

Colombia’s Santa Martas: The Caribbean Coast & Megadiverse Mountains

January 14 - 22, 2026
eBird Trip Report
Guided by George Armistead

Colombia’s Santa Martas: The Caribbean Coast & Megadiverse Mountains

January 7 - 14, 2026
eBird Trip Report
Guided by George Armistead

Panama: The Canal Zone & Western Highlands

March 15 - 24, 2025
eBird Trip Report
Guided by Holly Merker

Read Holly’s full write-up on Canva!

Hillstar Nature Pelagic: MD Waters aboard the Ocean Princess

11 Jan, 2025
eBird Trip Report
Guided by Zach Baer, Mollee Brown, Mikey Lutmerding & George Armistead

It was sort of like two days in one. For the first 4 hours of the day, we enjoyed pleasant seas and fabulous birding, with hundreds of alcids around. There were nice flocks of common loons on the water, a tremendous show of (mostly show-white adult) gannets, and big numbers of Dovekie and Razorbills. These sightings were punctuated with scarcer birds as well, including a pair of flyby common mirrors, regular visits from both first cycle and adult, black legged, kitty weeks, and a couple Atlantic puffins. We also enjoyed a nice visit from a pod of common dolphins. We had expected in the weather to change at about 2 PM, but that change came sooner than it was forecasted, and by 11 AM it felt as though we were in a washing machine. Winds from the west picked up as we turned back in shore, and things got wet and bumpy for most of the rest of the day. As we got close to shore, we again enjoyed slightly calmer waters with still, some numbers of Dovekie & Razorbills around, and the Inlet as always had a few nice birds, including a few Common Eiders. Thanks to all who joined, and to Captain Victor and Jeff for helping us get where we wanted to and to navigate some bumpy seas.

Colorado

8 - 13 Jul, 2024
eBird Trip Report
Guided by George Armistead

Colorado in summer is tough to beat. George Armistead guided a group of friends from the Atlanta area, seeing White-tailed Ptarmigan on the alpine tundra, the two prairie longspur species out at Pawnee Grasslands, and ponderosa and lodgepole pine special in Rocky Mountain National Park. Hillstar Nature partnered with Carl Bendorf of Colorado Birding Adventures for the third year in a row, and had a great trip.

Alaska: Outposts & Utqiagvik

6 - 15 Jun, 2024
ebird Trip Reports: Outposts & Utqiagvik
Guided by George Armistead and Alvaro Jaramillo

Visiting St. Paul Island in the Pribilof Archipelago and Nome on the Seward Peninsula for Hillstar's Alaska Outposts tour, and Utqiagvik (formerly Barrow) inside the Arctic Circle as an extension, our intrepid group of friends experienced a thrilling birding adventure. See the eBird trip reports here for this "code-share" between Hillstar Nature and Alvaro's Adventures.

Costa Rica 🇨🇷: A Birder’s Paradise

10 - 21 March, 2024
eBird Trip Report
Guided by Joshua Covill

India: The Taj Mahal, Wondrous Wetlands & Tiger Country

9 - 21 Feb, 2024
eBird Trip Report
Guided by George Armistead

Visiting Madhya Pradesh, the inspiration for Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, we sought Earth’s biggest cat, the Bengal Tiger. India hosts 80% of the world’s total population, and there are more in Madhya Pradesh than anywhere else. We saw 9 tigers over our 6 days on safari and also 3 leopards, 2 Sloth bears, and many other mammals. Then we headed for the Chambal River which featured Gharial, Mugger Crocodiles, Ganges River Dolphin and critically endangered Black-bellied Tern. We finished off with wetland birding at Bharatpur and then the Taj Mahal.

Colombia: High Times in the Cordillera Central

9 - 15 Feb, 2024
eBird Trip Report
Guided by Mollee Brown & Yessenia Tapasco

Colombia’s famous “Coffee Triangle” is featured on this route that Mollee Brown and Yessenia Tapasco guided. Visiting some of the nation’s best birding sites such as Rio Blanco, the Tinamú Birding Reserve, and the National Natural Park of Los Nevados, we enjoyed a fantastic array of hummingbirds, some snazzy antpittas, along with birds like Gray-breasted and Black-billed Mountain-Toucan, Parker's Antbird, Black-backed Bush Tanager and more.

Colombia’s Santa Martas: The Caribbean Coast & Megadiverse Mountains

3 - 10 Feb 2024
eBird Trip Report
Guided by Joshua Covill

Josh Covill guided a group of fantastic Hillstar friends around, arguably, the greatest biodiversity hotspots on Earth. Despite some at times challenging weather, they still enjoyed a great round-up of endemic birds including documenting a large antpitta (similar to an Undulated) that appears to be an undescribed species! Prior to its rediscovery last month, apparently it had not been seen since 2015. Even apart from this dramatic occurrence, our group enjoyed a great bunch of birds.

India: Jewels of Gujarat

1 - 8 Feb 2024
eBird Trip Report
Guided by George Armistead

Visiting extreme western India, George Armistead and Manisha Rajput guided a group of Hillstar Friends around the Saurashtra of Gujarat, India hitting well known wildlife spots such as Gir National Park, Velavadar, Nalsarovar and the Little Rann of Kutch. Dual focus on birds and mammals, with copious amounts of Masala Chai ingested along with lots of sweets, including Adadiya.

Winter Pelagic: Hillstar Nature in MD Waters - December 29th, 2023

As winter pelagics go, this trip off Ocean City, MD was bordering on colossal. 

From 730am til 330pm we were constantly in the presence of Dovekie. We totaled 5156 on the day, which at least in eBird appears a new state high count. It was extraordinary. In addition to this spectacle, we enjoyed 246 Red Phalarope, 22 Atlantic Puffins, 84 Razorbills, 1 Little Gull, 21 Black-legged Kittiwakes, and 8 Manx Shearwaters, including one that followed the boat for almost 2 hours & landed around us, extremely close, feeding on our chum. 

To top it off we also had what appears to be the first winter record of a Black-capped Petrel in Maryland. And as if that wasn’t shocking enough, soon after that Cory Husic spotted a whale that as we got closer, we began to realize was a good candidate for a Northern Right Whale. This is one of the rarest animals on the planet with only about a 360 in existence. Photos confirm what we saw in the field. 

All in all it was an incredible day and we’re so thankful to everybody who was there and helped make it happen. 
Thanks!

View eBird trip report

Overnight NJ Pelagic Sept 6th & 7th, 2023

Leaders: George Armistead, Zach Baer, Emma Price & Scott Barnes

Aboard: The Gambler

Out of: Point Pleasant Beach

Image credits:

Bridled Terns by Emma Price

Cory’s (Scopoli’s) Shearwater by Brian Zylich

Cuvier’s Beaked Whale by Jessica Coss 

Sunrise aboard The Gambler atop 8000 feet of Atlantic Ocean water, about 100 miles offshore from Pt. Pleasant Beach, New Jersey.

Part of the thrill of a pelagic trip is that you just never know what you’re going to see. It can be slow at times out on the water, but typically there is always something you see that makes it rewarding. And occasionally you get to see really spectacular things. The Sept 6-7 Overnight pelagic out of point Pleasant, New Jersey, was notable more for the wildlife than for the bird sightings, but we did have some great birds, too. 

Tropical Terns: Most notable was we had two groups of tropical terns, which are hard to come by in New Jersey waters. One pair of terns flew by keeping some distance from us. At the time we strongly suspected Bridled Tern would be the species involved, but inspection of photos by leader Emma Price show a juvenile and an adult Sooty Tern. This species is hardly seen in New Jersey when not associated with a tropical storm, so this was quite a surprise and one of only 4-5 sightings in the past decade. Later we located 3 Bridled Terns resting on flotsam amid some sargassum weed. A juvenile with two adults, these birds probably have ventured north from the nearest breeding grounds in the Bahamas or perhaps further south in the Caribbean. These are the first sightings documented in New Jersey waters in over a decade.

But it was really the cetaceans and other wildlife that stole the show. Leaving the dock at Manasquan Inlet at 9PM, by 4AM we reached our starting point. We stopped the engines, put out some chum and began to drift, and to look and listen to the waters around us . With just light winds out of the south it was a beautiful night, and we could see Saturn glowing orangish on the horizon. A couple of warblers briefly approached the boat, and then kept moving. The water temperature here was about 75° and the ocean floor was close to 8000 feet below us. We had made it out to “the deep”.

Soon after we settled into our drift, the lights of the boat began to attract some wildlife. There were dozens of Webbed Flying Squid all around the boat. We managed to bring some onboard into a bucket to observe them, and we watched them ink the waters, and change color as their body pulsated. Schools of them darted around and below the boat. Our photos of these animals mark one record of less than 10 ever in iNaturalist.

While we waited for it to get light we watched moon jellyfish push past us in the water, and several Wilson’s storm Petrels came into the boat, landing on it. We had wonderful studies of these remarkable seabirds, one of the most widespread animals on the planet, yet one hardly ever seen so well as this. As the sun rose, a blue shark began circling our boat, attracted to the chum, and more and more birds began to appear. Then a distant pod of striped dolphins emerged, and they hustled along, and soon after that we had a distant sighting of a sperm whale. Cory’s, Great, and Audubon Shearwaters came in providing close views, and photos show that at least one of the Cory’s we saw was of the Scopoli’s (Calonectris diomedea diomedea) subspecies (image above), a taxon elevated to species by most taxonomists (though not by eBird/Clements). The Great Shearwaters came in and landed right next to the boat. At times, we could hear the Wilson Storm-Petrels, and the Great Shearwaters as they vocalized to one another. We tried in vain to record Wilson’s Storm-Petrels, for which there are only a total of 10 audio recordings in eBird.

As the sun rose, the sea revealed more amazing animals. We began to see large groups of Offshore Bottlenose Dolphins, which average 15% larger than and differ genetically from the well-known inshore ones we see along our beaches. Mixed among the Offshore Bottlenose were pods of Short-finned Pilot Whales, including one hulking bull male. Later we began to encounter Cuvier’s Beaked Whales. While this is the most widespread member of the beaked whale family (Ziphiidae), it is still quite a rare thing to see, and a really rare thing to see well. We encountered three separate pods, including a pair that we watched rising repeatedly and rapidly before diving and leaping out of the water right next to our starboard! It was a spectacular thrill to see these animals so close and thanks are due to the many photographers onboard who snagged shots that allowed us to identify these animals.

All in all it was a darn nice haul!

Birds Seen Offshore:

Laughing Gull
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Sooty Tern (2)
Bridled Tern (3)
Black Tern (2)
Common Tern
Royal Tern
Wilson's Storm-Petrel (626)
Leach's Storm-Petrel (4)
Band-rumped Storm-Petrel (3)
Cory's Shearwater (45; >1 Scopoli’s)
Great Shearwater (30)
Audubon's Shearwater (4)

Non-Avian Taxa

Cetaceans
Striped Dolphin 45
Bottlenose Dolphins 60
Risso’s Dolphin 9
Sperm Whale 2
Short-finned Pilot Whales 45
Cuvier’s Beaked Whales 9

Sea-Turtles

Sea Turtle sp. 1 (small, Ridley-type or Green)

Loggerhead 16

Fish

Blue Shark

Scalloped Hammerhead Shark

Ocean Sunfish (Mola mola)

Flying fish sp.

Mahi mahi

Needle/gar type 

Cephalopods

Webbed Flying Squid (Ommastrephes caroli)

Montana: Glacier to Grasslands

9 - 15 July 2023

eBird Trip Report 

Guided by Joshua Covill

Tour leader Joshua Covill and participants Kathy Calvert, Debbie Samac, Colleen Crank, Linda Mack, Yvonne Lenter, and Paul & Maureen Wolter.

I am so grateful to have led such an amazing group for Hillstar’s first tour in Glacier NP and this part of Montana. I have been dreaming of this route for years, and finally making it happen was so exciting! More importantly, it was a smashing success! Everyone had a great time exploring some of the most spectacular landscapes in the country and enjoying some of the best wildlife in the West!

In addition to the 177 species of birds, we encountered 20 species of mammals with highlights being Black Bear, Bighorn Sheep, Mountain Goat, Moose, Pronghorn, Coyote, Black-tailed Prairie Dog, Snowshoe Hare, and Yellow-bellied Marmot.

View full trip report PDF.

Colorado 2023: Best of Summer Birding

11–16 Jun 2023

eBird Trip Report

Guided by Carl Bendorf & George Armistead

A vibrant exploration of Rocky Mountain National Park, Pawnee Grasslands, and the Pinyon-Juniper of central Colorado, we enjoyed highlights including White-tailed Ptarmigan, Lewis’s Woodpecker, Thick-billed and Chestnut-collared Longspur, Pinyon Jay and more.

Join us next year!

Hillstar Nature - Prairies 2023

2–9 Jun 2023

eBird Trip Report

Guided by Josh Covill & George Armistead

183 species over 7 days of birding tallgrass, mixed and shortgrass prairies with a little forest and riparian birding around Yellowstone thrown in at the end. Highlights included multiple Baird’s Sparrows, great experiences with both the prairie longspur species, Sprague’s Pipits, Ferruginous Hawks, and Long-billed Curlew, Marbled Godwit, Wilson’s Phalaropes and so much more.

Join us next time!

Tanzania 2023

18–30 Mar 2023

eBird Trip Report

Guided by George Armistead & Kennedy Elly

March is a little "off-the-beaten path" in terms of travel to Tanzania. The bulk of visitors come in the dry season in June-August. But the birds don't know this and don't care. The animals are certainly aware of how much rainfall there is, as it affects almost every aspect of their lives. But the fact that March/April is often a time of significant rain in Tanzania works to our advantage. Birds like weavers, estrildid finches, and the many wading and water birds we encounter are here at this time in no small part because of the rains. Also it is a time of migration for many birds. Various cuckoos, European Rollers, European Bee-eaters, shorebirds, Common Buzzards, Lesser Kesterls, and many others birds are on the move and in evidence. For birding, it is one of the best times of the year. But of course the birds are only half the story, or less. A birder's visit to Tanzania is as much about the food, the animals, and the people who live here too. With the help of our good friends, Humphrey Mrosso and Joel Amon, we saw a fair piece of northern Tanzania, including about 400 species of birds and over 40 species of mammals.

Join us next time!

Life List Colombia 2023 Tour

10–19 Feb 2023

eBird Trip Report

Guided by Mollee Brown & George Armistead

In February 2023, our group of intrepid travelers and loyal listeners embarked on our first Life List Podcast tour in the magical Central Andes. We ventured around Caldas, Colombia in search of an array of the region's - and the world's - most colorful, unique, skulky, and spectacular birds. After several nights around Manizales and into the Páramo, we traveled to Cali to enjoy the field trips, presentations, and social activities of the Colombia Birdfair. Throughout the trip, we met many birders from all over and individuals who are each working to support conservation through ecotourism in Colombia. Among the 383 species were many highlights including Horned Screamer, Chestnut Wood-Quail, White-throated Daggerbill, Crestcent-faced Antpitta and Lyre-tailed Nightjar.

Join us next year!

Hillstar Nature - Santa Martas 2023

27 Jan–4 Feb 2023

eBird Trip Report

Guided by George Armistead

292 species with highlights including Black-and-chestnut Eagle, a big flock of American Flamingos, Santa Marta Blossomcrown, and other endemics like Chestnut Piculet, Stripe-cheeked Spinetail, Tocuyo Sparrow & more.

Join us next year!