Feathered Extravaganza

Maitreya — a teenager, a birding enthusiast and a published author — is ready to whisk us away to one of the most megadiverse countries’ in the world, Colombia. Get ready to be blown away by its breathtaking assemblage of birds!

- MAITREYA SUKUMAR

There are several countries which are very species-rich in terms of birds, but there is only one that truly stands out — Colombia. It has 1909 species in a geographical area that is just onethird the size of the Indian subcontinent. A first-time visitor to Colombia is likely to be partly dazzled and partly bewildered by the buffet of neotropical species that literally seem to be falling off the trees.

Situated in north-western South America, Colombia has three major biogeographic zones: the Andes, the Amazon and the Llanos. It also has other habitats, such as the arid coastal desert of the Guajira Peninsula. The sheer variety of zones has resulted in an astounding diversity of birds such as hummingbirds, tanagers, guans, brush finches… the list goes on. You cannot do justice to Colombia in a single trip, unless it lasts months. Over the next few pages, we will explore some of the region’s unique birding habitats.

THE WILD PARAMO

The Paramo is a vast high-altitude grassland that can be accessed by a drive of just around a couple of hours from Bogota, the capital of Colombia. It is a surreal, windswept landscape, bitterly cold, filled with a unique vegetation. As one drives up from Bogota, the vegetation changes— the trees of the city give way to high altitude Paramo forest and then treeless Paramo grassland with bromeliads and flowering bushes everywhere, interspersed with cold streams.