Page 33 - BBC Wildlife Volume 36 #11
P. 33
e’ve been out for range in the world, pinnacled by Colombia’s
two hours and I’ve tallest peaks, which pierce the clouds at a
long lost count. breath-thinning 5,775m.
Something flits Ascend the 36km from base to summit
among the foliage. and you’d start among coral reefs and finish
Faster than you can amid ice and snow, climbing through a
Wsay ‘is it another medley of forests and páramo along the
tanager?’, it’s caught in the crosshairs of a way. An impressive list of endemics (species
scope. Squinting into the eyepiece, I meet unique to an area) has evolved on these
the gaze of a handsome bird with a sunshine isolated slopes, so many that Santa Marta
breast, grey and olive feathers and soot-black was hailed in a 2013 study as the world’s
head emblazoned with a golden crest. “Yellow- most irreplaceable protected area.
crowned whitestart,” I’m told. “Endemic.” For all its riches, Santa Marta is not well-
I’m far from an expert birder, but even if trodden. For one thing, it requires several
I was, I’d likely be out of luck trying to bone-shaking hours in a 4x4 to get up here.
identify much up here. Because this is And until a decade ago, it was stubbornly
the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta: the off-limits, a flashpoint in a brutal 55-year
showstopping grand finale of the Northern conflict between the government, right-wing
Colombia Birding Trail, and arguably the paramilitaries and notorious leftist rebels –
birdiest spot on the planet. including the FARC (Revolutionary Armed
Study a map of Colombia and the Santa Forces of Colombia) and ELN (National
Marta Mountains barely catch the eye – a Liberation Army) – that saw 260,000 people
small, heart-shaped blob at the tip of the killed and millions more displaced.
country, eclipsed by the trio of Andean Following the Colombian peace deal in
cordilleras that tumble across the Ecuadorian November 2016, the insurgents finally
border and continue north-east towards relinquished control of these misty
Venezuela. But Santa Marta sits head and mountains. Santa Marta, together with
shoulders above these famous flanks, quite many other nature hotspots once clouded in
literally: it’s the highest coastal mountain combat, was open for birdwatching business.
Waiting
in the Colombia is number one in the
world for avian diversity, but
wings decades of conlict kept visitors
away. In a new era of peace, it is
ready to share its birding riches.
no more By Sarah McPherson
