Colombia has more bird species than any other country and being in the tropics, it means that there is not a shortage of colorful ones. So we decided to visit the country and see if we could photograph some of them. We were not disappointed.
A focus of the trip was the hummingbirds. Hummingbirds are extremely beautiful, fast and small. For non-birders like us it is a challagene to tell one green hummingbird from other, but we did well enough to identify at least 25 different ones. While they are extremely small and fast, we were luckily enough to capture a few flying to and fro
And we got more photos when they slowed down to savor some of the nectar in the local flowers
Humingbirds were not the only pretty birds we saw. The tanagers, which are larger and just as colorful, were abundant
A highlight of the trip for Jon was seeing one of the weirdest birds around, the cock of the rock. These birds are bright red with black wings.
An unexpected photo opportunity occured on our last morning while waiting to go to the airport. A bike race (Vuelta a Antioquia 2018) ran right in front of our hotel. The 120Km race passed our hotel every 20 minutes or so, and the riders met two of our three criteria for perfect subjects – they were big and colorful – though they were not slow.
The security around the course was a little loose, so one Sunday rider got on to the course and the results were not good. It cost this rider 1 minute and 36 seconds to get back on the course again.
