Colombia part 5. Cock-of-the Rock

We leave for Jardin, a drive of about four hours. Not necessarily a bad thing. The scenery is often  beautiful and we can enjoy it in peace, as our driver is doing all the work. A sanitary stop is mandatory of course and, given the average age of the travellers, perhaps more frequently than would be the case with a younger generation. And should there be no cafe available along the road, the ever-present forest will suffice. At one of these stops our tour leader suddenly comes dashing from the trees and calls out he has seen an owl. At first we think he is eager to share a spiritual experience with us, but apparently he is referring to a real bird. This goes to show that moments of privacy for a true bird-tour guide are few and far between. The owl turns out to be a large, striking spectacled owl. It flies off immediately, shocked at the sight of the spectacled tourists, but lands again a little further in a tree along the road. A decent photo is only possible if we go and stand in the middle of the road, where local trucks thunder past at regular intervals. Of course we do not want to miss this opportunity and we feel quite safe under the watchful eye of our leader. He urges us to be careful and move to the side, but his hitherto undisputed authority fails to have any effect on us. The photo comes first.

Spectacled Owl

Travel brochures recommend Jardin as one of the most beautiful villages in Colombia, whose colonial character has remained largely untouched. Such a qualification would lead to protest demonstrations and parliamentary questions in our country, but here we can enjoy it in peace.

But first there is work to be done. This village was chosen not only for its picturesque houses and attractive squares. Just outside Garden is the "Gallito de Roca Preserve", where the “cock of the rock" can be admired. A somewhat dubious name you may think, but this is the dream bird of every birder, visiting Colombia. It has dazzling orange-red colours and its beak is hardly visible due to a large crest. Despite these bright colours it is usually quite hard to find. For such an encounter it is best to visit a so-called ‘lek’ where several males congregate, trying to attract the attention of a female cock. I’m sorry about all this. They go about it by performing some kind of stilted dance, during which they utter shrill, unattractive calls, undoubtedly hoping these will be mistaken for songs. I am not surprised there is not a single female to be seen. As this whole process takes place in  the deep shade of the cloud forest, photography is by no means easy. The birds are not shy at all, however, so we do end up with some nice images.

Andean Cock-of-the Rock

We are not the only visitors. This is the best place in all of Colombia to seek out the cock of the rock and all tour companies know it. There is another group of Dutch bird watchers, walking around with two guides. Clearly they are on a tight schedule. After ten minutes in the reserve, they have seen the target bird, taken a photo, ticked off seven other species, and are herded back to the exit to go and reach their daily quota, birding on the mountain slopes. In the evening we meet them again, because they are staying at the same hotel. They are all seated at a long table, while the tour guide reads out the bird names they saw that day. Everyone is equipped with a multipage print-out and dutifully ticks the names that are called up. A kind of bingo for birders. It looks fun and extremely professional, so I aks our own tour leader why we are not performing this daily ritual. Smiling, he promises to send us a spreadsheet after we return home with all the birds spotted during the trip. And so he does. It turns out he has seen quite a few species.

We do not have dinner at the hotel. We sleep there. At least that is the intention according to the travel agency. It's a very attractive hotel to look at, both outside and inside, but the beds were clearly low-priority. In terms of comfort, I am inlined to make the comparison with a bed of nails, but I am not sure whether you could hit a nail in wood of this quality. And this is just the mattress, I’m talking about.  

The village is really lovely, especially in the evening. The church in the main square is entirely lined with lights and attracts quite a crowd. To be fair, countless coloured lights burn and flicker in every street and on every house. It will soon be Christmas after all and we should be fully aware of that.

Jardin has more colours on offer than those in the Christmas lights. On our walks in the area we meet up with new exotic birds. And we are even taken to another antpitta feeding station, after a steep climb. No grandstand this time, just a few tree trunks, but no Chinese competitors either. The slope was way too steep for the equipment I think.

Rufous Antpitta

White-capped Tanager

Masked Flowerpiercer