12 Days · 11 Nights · Limited to 6 guests.
April 5–16, 2027
CREATED AROUND BIRD PHOTOGRAPHY
Our Colombia Bird Photography Tour is a 12-day journey through some of the country’s most rewarding photography locations, created for a small group of only six guests.
This experience is not about simply seeing as many species as possible. It is about creating exceptional images, finding beautiful light, clean backgrounds, natural perches, the right distance and, most importantly, having enough time to work patiently with each bird.
We will travel through carefully selected locations across the Colombian Andes, from feeders, gardens and photography setups to cloud forests and high-altitude páramo, each offering different photographic opportunities.
With only six guests, the rhythm of the journey is built around photography: waiting for the right moment, finding the best angle, and adapting each day to the birds, weather and light.
Twelve days. Six guests. One journey created around bird photography.
WHY THIS JOURNEY?
4,000 meters of photographic diversity
✓ 12 days dedicated to bird photography
✓ Limited to only 6 guests
✓ Carefully selected photography locations
✓ Feeders, hides, gardens and natural perches
✓ From tropical forest to high-Andean páramo
✓ Time to work with light, backgrounds and bird behavior
✓ A journey designed around photography, not a species checklist
A photographic journey through the extraordinary diversity of the Colombian Andes.
THE JOURNEY
From the Western Andes to the high-altitude páramo
Our journey begins in Cali and crosses the Colombian Andes through a carefully selected collection of bird photography locations before finishing in Pereira.
Along the way, changing elevations, habitats and landscapes create completely different photographic opportunities, from colorful tanagers and hummingbirds at feeders to antpittas inside cloud forest and high-altitude species in the páramo.
Cali → Western Andes → Cauca Valley → Quindío → Central Andes → Los Nevados → Pereira
VIEW THE ROUTE
PHOTOGRAPHY LOCATIONS
La Florida
Western Andes Cloud Forest
Our first full photography day takes place in the cloud forests of the Western Andes near Cali.
Feeders, natural perches and dedicated photography areas create opportunities to work with hummingbirds, tanagers and other cloud forest species at close range.
Photographic Highlights:
Chestnut Wood-Quail · Multicolored Tanager · Long-tailed Sylph · Booted Racket-tail · Andean Emerald
Doña Dora
Chocó Biogeographic Region
This family-run reserve offers remarkable opportunities to photograph some of the colorful birds of Colombia’s Pacific slope.
Feeders, forest edges and natural perches provide opportunities to photograph tanagers, toucans, hummingbirds and other Chocó specialties.
Photographic Highlights:
Toucan Barbet · Glistening-green Tanager · Empress Brilliant · Rufous-throated Tanager · Silver-throated Tanager
Hacienda El Diamante
Buga · Cauca Valley
Located in the Cauca Valley, Hacienda El Diamante offers a different photographic setting, with gardens, feeders and forest habitat attracting a wide variety of birds.
With more than 300 species recorded in the area, this stop introduces us to a new community of birds as we continue from the Western Andes toward Colombia’s Central Andes.
Photographic Highlights:
Bar-crested Antshrike · Crested Bobwhite · Apical Flycatcher · Ruby-topaz Hummingbird
Machángara
Quindío
Located at approximately 1,200 meters in the foothills of the Central Andes, Machángara is surrounded by mature trees, gardens and the agricultural landscape of Colombia’s Coffee Region.
Dedicated photography areas and feeders allow us to spend time working with the birds that visit the property.
Photographic Highlights:
Great Antshrike · Colombian Piculet · Andean Motmot · Rufous-tailed Jacamar · White-vented Plumeleteer
Anaime
Yellow-eared Parrot & Wax Palm Forests
Here, the photographic experience changes completely.
Instead of feeders and prepared perches, we photograph Yellow-eared Parrots in their natural environment, flying across the mountains and moving among the towering wax palms they depend on.
The landscape becomes part of the photograph, creating images that tell a broader story about the bird, its habitat and the conservation of these Andean forests.
Photographic Highlights:
Yellow-eared Parrot · Wax Palm Forest · High-Andean landscapes
El Retorno del Colibrí
Central Andes · Tolima
Feeders, flowering gardens and carefully positioned perches create excellent opportunities to photograph hummingbirds at close range.
Here we can slow down, choose our backgrounds and compositions, and spend time working with individual birds as they move between flowers, feeders and natural perches.
Photographic Highlights:
Tolima Blossomcrown · Indigo-capped Hummingbird · Tolima Dove · Shining-green Hummingbird · White-tipped-Sicklebill
El Color de mis reves
Manizales · Central Andes
As we move higher into the Central Andes, the birds and photographic possibilities change again.
Feeders and natural perches attract colorful mountain species, while the surrounding high-Andean forest provides a completely different photographic setting.
Photographic Highlights:
Black-billed Mountain-Toucan · Blue-capped Tanager · Sword-billed Hummingbird · Buff-tailed Coronet · Chestnut-naped Antpitta
Owl’s Watch
Río Blanco · Manizales
Inside the cloud forest, soft light, mist and natural vegetation create an intimate setting to photograph some of the more secretive birds of the Andes.
Antpittas are among the main photographic attractions, offering a completely different atmosphere from the colorful feeders and hummingbird sessions of previous days.
Photographic Highlights:
Brown-banded Antpitta · Chestnut-crowned Antpitta · Slate-crowned Antpitta · Cloud forest photography
Hacienda El Bosque
High Andes · Central Cordillera
At this elevation, the landscape, vegetation and birds change dramatically.
Feeders, natural perches and forest settings provide opportunities to photograph some of the most distinctive birds of Colombia’s high Andes, with both afternoon and morning sessions allowing us to work with changing light and bird activity.
Photographic Highlights:
Gray-breasted Mountain-Toucan · Crescent-faced Antpitta · Barred Fruiteater · Purple-backed Thornbill · Sword-billed Hummingbird
Termales del Ruiz & Los Nevados
High Andes & Páramo
The final part of our journey takes us into the high Andes and the páramo surrounding Los Nevados.
Volcanic landscapes, páramo vegetation, changing mountain weather and specialized high-altitude birds create some of the most distinctive photographic opportunities of the experience.
At Termales del Ruiz, feeders and gardens also allow us to work at close range with several high-elevation hummingbirds.
Photographic Highlights:
Buffy Helmetcrest · Rainbow-bearded Thornbill · Shining Sunbeam · Great Sapphirewing · Stout-billed Cinclodes · Many-striped Canastero · High-Andean landscapes
YOUR HOSTS
Niky & Mauro
We are Niky & Mauro, bird photographers and the people behind Birds Experience.
For us, photographing birds is about much more than getting the shot. It is about understanding the bird, observing its behavior, reading the light, choosing the background and knowing when it is worth waiting a little longer.
We created this journey around the way we enjoy photographing birds ourselves: small groups, enough time at each location and places where photography is truly part of the experience.
Throughout the 12 days, both of us will travel with the group, photograph alongside you and help make the most of every location and photographic opportunity.
Six guests. Two hosts. Twelve days photographing birds together.
BIRD PHOTOGRAPHY EXPERIENCE 2027
April 5–16, 2027
12 days · 11 nights
Limited to 6 guests
Hosted and guided by Niky & Mauro
Guaranteed departure with a minimum of 5 participants
This experience includes
- Small-group experience limited to 6 guests
- Personally hosted and guided by Niky & Mauro
- Private ground transportation throughout the journey
- Airport transfers in Cali and Pereira
- 11 nights accommodation in double occupancy
- Three meals per day
- Entrance fees to reserves and photography locations
- Access to feeders, photography areas and special photography setups where available
- Two full-time bird photography guides
- Contribution to Guardián de las Aves
- Birds Experience welcome gift.
YOUR JOURNEY LEAVES SOMETHING BEHIND
For every traveler joining this experience, Birds Experience contributes US$50 to Guardián de las Aves, our environmental education initiative connecting Colombian children with birds and nature.
Through birdwatching, photography and outdoor experiences, children discover the biodiversity of their own territories and begin to understand why protecting it matters.
By traveling with us, you are helping more children experience that connection.
US$50 from every traveler goes directly to Guardián de las Aves.
READY TO PHOTOGRAPH COLOMBIA?
12 days. 6 guests.
One journey created around bird photography.
April 5–16, 2027
Niky & Mauro · Birds Experience
birdsexperience.com
RNT 187229 · ACOTUR Member
