Monday, March 19, 2012

Cali, Colombia - Club Campestre de Cali

This past week I was in Cali, Colombia to participate in a medical mission with United Hands for Health.  When not working at the hospitals, our group stayed at the Club Campestre de Cali, a country club of the grandest sort.  Each morning before the buses departed and most evenings when we returned from the hospitals, I managed to sneak in some birding.

The first thing I noticed is that, especially in the morning, the light for taking photographs was very challenging.  Difficult to describe, it was sort of a diffuse gray light with lots of glare.  A more skillful photographer would have known how to deal with the light conditions more effectively.  I just did my best.  I did have one afternoon of birding around the club and the light for these photos was not quite as challenging.

Since this was not a birding trip there is little narrative to go with these photos.  In no particular order the photos below are the best I took. Some birds will be familiar to many and others not so familiar. Remember to click on the photo to see a full-screen image.

Black-bellied Whistling Duck (Dendrocygna viduata)

Blue-headed Parrot (Pionus menstruus)

Black-billed Thrush (Turdus ignobilis)


White-necked Jacobin (Florisuga mellivora)

Great Kiskadee (Pitangus sulphuratus)

Rusty-margined Flycatcher (Myiozetetes cayanesis)

Yellow-headed Caracara (Milvago chimachima)

House Wren (Troglodytes aedon)

Scrub Tanager (Tangara vitriolina)

Bare-faced Ibis (Phimosus infuscatus)

Tropical Kingbird (Tyrannus melancholicus)

Southern Lapwing (Vanellus chilensis)

Colombian Chachalaca (Ortalis columbiana) - the only endemic
I saw.

Grey-necked Wood-Rail (Aramides cajanea)

Vermillion Flycatcher (Pyrocephalus rubinus)

Black-crowned Night-Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax)

Green Kingfisher (Chloroceryle americana)

Spot-breasted Woodpecker (Colaptes punctigula)

Striated Heron (Butorides striata)

Shiny Cowbirds (Molothrus bonariensis) and
Giant Cowbird (Molothrus oryzivorus)

Lineated Woodpecker (Dryocopus lineatus)

Same Lineated Woodpecker after it flew to palm tree 

Blue-gray Tanagers (Thraupis episcopus)

Saffron Finch (Sicalis flaveola)



Straight-billed Woodcreeper (Dendroplex picus)

View of golf course with background

View from nature trail on the Club Campestre grounds from
which I took some of my photos.

These are not the only birds I saw on the grounds of Club Campestre but I could not get a photo of all.  Also, there were birds that I could not identify.  I'll be adding a couple of brief videos to this post and I'll have two additional blog entries:  one of the non-bird creatures and another of my birding day around Km 18 and San Antonio.