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The Secret Life of the Andean Tapaculos — The Andean tapaculos, like this Narino Tapaculo, are among the most elusive birds in the Neotropics. A journey through Colombia revealed not only why they are so difficult to see, but also how evolution and geography shaped one of the most remarkable bird groups of the Andes. © Hasan Al-Farhan

The Secret Life of the Andean Tapaculos

The Andean tapaculos are among the most elusive birds in the Neotropics. A journey through Colombia revealed not only why they are so difficult to see, but also how evolution, geography and curiosity have shaped one of the most remarkable bird groups of the Andes.

Gyorgy Szimuly

Gyorgy Szimuly

July 19, 2026 – 7 min read

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The Tree of Life — <i><em class="italic" style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Our first sighting of this striking Blue-necked Tanager (Stilpnia cyanicollis) came in the “Tree of Life”, where a single fruiting tree drew an extraordinary variety of birds into one canopy. A fitting introduction to one of Colombia’s most colourful species. © </em></i><a href="https://search.macaulaylibrary.org/catalog?userId=USER1169046&mediaType=photo&sort=obs_date_desc" rel="noreferrer"><i><em class="italic" style="white-space: pre-wrap;">David F. Belmonte Rguez-Pascual</em></i></a>

The Tree of Life

A fleeting glimpse of a large bird made us turn the car around. What followed was forty-five minutes beside a single fruiting tree that became one of the busiest birding stops of our Colombian adventure.

The Tree of Life — Our first sighting of this striking Blue-necked Tanager (Stilpnia cyanicollis) came in the “Tree of Life”, where a single fruiting tree drew an extraordinary variety of birds into one canopy. A fitting introduction to one of Colombia’s most colourful species. © David F. Belmonte Rguez-Pascual

The Tree of Life

A fleeting glimpse of a large bird made us turn the car around. What followed was forty-five minutes beside a single fruiting tree that became one of the busiest birding stops of our Colombian adventure.

The Pulse of a Colombian Wetland — Few birds had occupied a place on my wish list for as long as the Sungrebe. Its elusive habits and preference for hidden waterways have always given it an almost mythical quality. Seeing one at Laguna Guarinocito was the highlight of an afternoon spent exploring a wetland habitat largely absent from our Colombian itinerary. Despite the oppressive heat, still air and near-100% humidity, the abundance of waterbirds made the stop one of the most rewarding diversions of the trip. © Hasan Al-Farhan

The Pulse of a Colombian Wetland

After days of cloud forests, mountain roads and Andean endemics, a small wetland detour in Colombia’s Magdalena Valley offered something different. In oppressive heat and near-saturated humidity, Laguna Guarinocito revealed the pulse of a landscape overflowing with life.

How We Plan Birding Through Colombia — Among many other beautiful hummingbirds, the Crowned Woodnymph glows in the humid forests of the Colombian Andes — a fitting emblem of the landscapes awaiting us along our carefully planned route. © Patrick Maurice

How We Plan Birding Through Colombia

Planning a birding trip through Colombia requires more than chasing species lists. Here is the method we used to design a realistic itinerary using eBird hotspots, habitat diversity, and a slower PatchBird-style approach.

An African Finfoot and a Twenty-One-Year-Old Promise — A bird that appears and disappears on its own terms — and, on this day, brought three people back to the same stretch of river. © Hasan Al-Fahan

An African Finfoot and a Twenty-One-Year-Old Promise

A search for African Finfoot on the Gambia River reconnects with a missed pitta in Thailand — and a promise made quietly twenty-one years earlier.

A New Continent at Thirty: Notes from a Moroccan Birding Trip — Orange light folding over the dunes of Merzouga – distance felt tangible, and silence stretched beyond the horizon.

A New Continent at Thirty: Notes from a Moroccan Birding Trip

A father–son journey through Morocco at thirty – landscapes, method, missed species, and a long-awaited Cream-coloured Courser.

The Secret Life of the Andean Tapaculos — The Andean tapaculos, like this Narino Tapaculo, are among the most elusive birds in the Neotropics. A journey through Colombia revealed not only why they are so difficult to see, but also how evolution and geography shaped one of the most remarkable bird groups of the Andes. © Hasan Al-Farhan

The Secret Life of the Andean Tapaculos

The Andean tapaculos are among the most elusive birds in the Neotropics. A journey through Colombia revealed not only why they are so difficult to see, but also how evolution, geography and curiosity have shaped one of the most remarkable bird groups of the Andes.

The Tree of Life — Our first sighting of this striking Blue-necked Tanager (Stilpnia cyanicollis) came in the “Tree of Life”, where a single fruiting tree drew an extraordinary variety of birds into one canopy. A fitting introduction to one of Colombia’s most colourful species. © David F. Belmonte Rguez-Pascual

The Tree of Life

A fleeting glimpse of a large bird made us turn the car around. What followed was forty-five minutes beside a single fruiting tree that became one of the busiest birding stops of our Colombian adventure.

The Pulse of a Colombian Wetland — Few birds had occupied a place on my wish list for as long as the Sungrebe. Its elusive habits and preference for hidden waterways have always given it an almost mythical quality. Seeing one at Laguna Guarinocito was the highlight of an afternoon spent exploring a wetland habitat largely absent from our Colombian itinerary. Despite the oppressive heat, still air and near-100% humidity, the abundance of waterbirds made the stop one of the most rewarding diversions of the trip. © Hasan Al-Farhan

The Pulse of a Colombian Wetland

After days of cloud forests, mountain roads and Andean endemics, a small wetland detour in Colombia’s Magdalena Valley offered something different. In oppressive heat and near-saturated humidity, Laguna Guarinocito revealed the pulse of a landscape overflowing with life.

A Wandering Albatross in a Hungarian Village: The Documentary That Changed How I Understood Birds — A Vogelkop Lophorina illustrated by the Hungarian wildlife artist, Szabolcs Kókay for David Attenborough’s 95th birthday. For many people around the world, Birds-of-paradise first became living reality, rather than myth, through Attenborough’s documentaries. © Szabolcs Kókay

A Wandering Albatross in a Hungarian Village: The Documentary That Changed How I Understood Birds

Before the internet, a young birder wrote a letter to David Attenborough — and received a signed photograph beside a Wandering Albatross chick in return.

When Variation Doesn’t Become a Boundary: A Putative Mixed Subspecies Pairing in Long-tailed Tits — A familiar presence in Central European woodlands, the Long-tailed Tit Aegithalos caudatus europaeus carries the darker head pattern that defines much of the region’s breeding population—an anchor against which rarer, paler forms reveal themselves. © Alexis Lours (CC-BY)

When Variation Doesn’t Become a Boundary: A Putative Mixed Subspecies Pairing in Long-tailed Tits

A pair of Long-tailed Tits reveals how subspecies boundaries, so clear on paper, begin to soften in the field when variation and behaviour intersect.