Arriving in Minca, Colombia

We arrived in the Santa Marta airport and were met by a taxi driver arranged through the Hotel Minca. This took us along the highways and to the winding roads up to the small mountain town. Along the road there was natural cactus scrubland with many vultures circling in the sky above.  It was a scene straight out of an old west movie.

The scenery drastically changed as we went up the winding roads of the Santa Marta Mountains. The city shrunk into the distance but you could still see it over the steep drop over the side of the road. The trees were tall and old and the houses we passed were literally hanging right off the the side of the mountain.

Hotel Minca

When we arrived at Hotel Minca it was the prefect time for some late afternoon birding. We didn't even have to go anywhere though. The hotel itself was a hotspot for birds. We saw over 20 species very quickly and a fair number of them were ones I had never seen before.

Hotel Minca

The gardens around the hotel were lush and birds were abundant in the trees and gardens. A few were even going for a quick dip in the pool. The hummingbird feeders were bustling. The most common were White-vented Plumeleteers, Steely-vented Hummingbird and Rufous-tailed Hummingbird but there was also the odd Brown Violetear and White-necked Jacobin.

Hotel Minca

The total list of what we saw:
White-tipped Dove
Eared Dove
Squirrel Cuckoo

Squirrel Cuckoo

White-necked Jacobin
White-vented Plumeleteer

White-vented Plumeleteer

White-vented Plumeleteer

Steely-vented Hummingbird

Steely-vented Hummingbird

Steely-vented Hummingbird

Rufous-tailed Hummingbird

Rufous-tailed Hummingbird

Black Vulture
Red-crowned Woodpecker
Orange-chinned Parakeets

Orange-chinned Parakeet

Yellow-bellied Elaenia

Yellow-bellied Elaenia

Yellow-bellied Elaenia

Great Kiskadee
Boat-billed Flycatcher
Social Flycatcher

Social Flycatcher

Tropical Kingbird
Bicolored Wren

Bicolored Wren

Bicolored Wren

Pale-breasted Thrush
Grayish Saltator

Grayish Saltator

Grayish Saltator

After a few hours of relaxing we walked around the town but the birding hardly compared to the area around the hotel. Despite the small size Minca is quite busy with people. There are motor taxis everywhere and even the small dirt roads on the outskirts are full of people coming back from swimming in the waterfall or river.

Iglesia Minka

By night you can see the light reflect off the eyes of spiders and noctural mammals. I saw a large rabbit that looked more like an escaped pet and a long skittish mammal that reminded me of a large ferret. There were lots of the typical house geckos running along the walls of the hotel (much less insect diversity than I would have expected and only a few moths were around the lights) and I did manage to find one large gecko and an anole in the shrubs around the hotel.

Turnip-tailed Gecko (Thecadactylus rapicauda)

Turnip-tailed Gecko (Thecadactylus rapicauda)

Turnip-tailed Gecko (Thecadactylus rapicauda)

Neotropical Green Anole (Anolis biporcatus)