Colombia’s Amazonian Gateway: Inírida
🔗 This tour can be linked with an extension to Los Llanos.
Birding the White Sand Forests of Eastern Colombia
Perched at the edge of Amazonia in far Eastern Colombia, the bustling little town of Inírida harbors some of Colombia’s best kept birding secrets.
Distant from the country's urban centers and disconnected from the main road system, Inírida is just a short flight from Bogota and provides a superb escape from the mainstream tourist hubs. While confluent with the Amazon, Inírida is also a serendipitous gateway to a unique and biologically important eco-region known as the Guiana Shield. The Shield, which stretches from Eastern Colombia through Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, and northern Brazil, is characterized by sparse forests and sandy soils known as “white sand forests”. White sand soils are nutrient-poor and strongly influence the type of vegetation capable of growing in these areas. Unlike the lush tropical forest you might expect in the Amazon, the forests of the Guiana Shield tend to be more scrubby and are dotted with open sandy savannas. Inírida is also biologically influenced by the nearby Llanos, a vast tropical grassland plain east of the Andes. Finally, the area is crisscrossed by one of the most important freshwater river systems in the world. The waters of the Rio Orinoco, Rio Inírida, and Rio Guaviare swell tremendously in the wet season, inundating the nearby forests with water but also renewing soil nutrients, giving way to yet another distinct and highly productive ecosystem — the várzea, or seasonally flooded, forest.
This juxtaposition of so many different bio-zones is exactly what makes Inírida magical for birders. The convergence of Amazonian rivers and forests, the white sand forests of the Guiana Shield, and the grasslands of Los Llanos have created an area so biologically rich that the regional list of birds recorded from this area is over 450 species. Many species are endemic and extremely local and can be found only in the Inirida area. Take for instance the little-known and extremely range-restricted Orinoco Softtail, the White-naped Seedeater, Azure-naped Jay, and a yet-undescribed Thamnophilus Antshrike that may even be a new species. While too numerous to name them all, other unusual or notable species here include Capuchinbird, Black Bushbird, Pale-bellied Mourner, Red-fan Parrot, Amazonian Umbrellabird, Black Manakin, Rose-breasted Chat, Imeri Warbling-Antbird, and Velvet-fronted Grackle.