Page 37 - BBC Wildlife Volume 36 #11
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fair and a brain-melting mêlée of tapaculos, It’sgettingrathernoisy Clockwise from burrowing owl in
trogons and tyrants, many with dazzling, top left: the Los Flamencos;
triple-barrelled names that sound too whenthreesmallwords russet-throated the endemic
pufbird is
yellow-crowned
outlandish to be real. confined to (or Santa Marta)
silencethebanter: coastal northern whitestart. Below:
Quest for a quetzal Colombia (and swallow tanager.
More of these I encounter at the close of the white-tipped quetzal. Venezuela);
day, following a brief but epic downpour that
drenches the canopy and turns the paths into
ephemeral bubbling streams. From a viewing
tower, as the storm rumbles over distant it: metres away is a glorious Christmas tree subsist on fishing, goat-herding and weaving
gaudy mochilla bags that brighten the
of a bird, all iridescent green plumage and
peaks, we spot black-capped tanagers, red-
ssa Groo; wh testart: G enn Bartley/ a slate-throated whitestart zipping to and from handsome rival from his turf with a lunge threatened habitats in the world, reduced to
deep scarlet breast. After shooing an equally
billed parrots, blue-naped chlorophonias and
pavements of nearby towns.
Tropical dry forest is one of the most
and splay of feathers, he poses obligingly,
its pathside nest. Perhaps it’s the 3:55am start,
remnant pockets scattered across the globe.
turning his head from side to side as if to
but my companions are in a sprightly mood
ensure we don’t miss a thread of his finery,
and eruptions of laughter are mingling with
Unlike tropical rainforest, it endures a yearly
before melting into the leaves.
the chitters gurgling from the foliage.
drought. Leaves are shed in anticipation,
If north-western Colombia vaguely
Pufb rd: Gabbro/A amy; ow : Me BIA/Minden/FLPA; tanager: Murray Cooper/Minden/FLPA It’s all getting rather noisy when three landscape of dunes, tropical dry forest allowing sunlight to reach the forest floor,
and the resulting tangle provides the perfect
resembles an upwards-looking bird,
small words silence the banter in
a flash: white-tipped quetzal.
cover for elusive, skulky birds.
La Guajira Peninsula is the beak. In
We tumble down the damp
contrast to the cool, verdant highlands,
Slope to shore
wooden steps, jostling on
this is a vast, wild desert, whose parched
This being Colombia, there are naturally
the path for the best view,
and scrub is home to the country’s largest
not that you could miss
indigenous group, the Way’uu. Eco-tourism hundreds of them, as I see for myself in a
sweltering three-day stay in the Caribbean
is starting to provide much-needed income to fishing village of Camarones, in a lodge a
these impoverished and neglected stone’s throw from the surf. Navigating the
communities, which otherwise prickles fringing the sand, a relentless breeze
November 2018 BBC Wildlife 37
