If you’re looking for great birding near Bogota, but are limited on time or don’t want to travel far, look no further than Finca Suasie. Located only 2 hours from the airport, Finca Suasie could even be a long day trip from the city. If you have the time, definitely spend at least one or two nights. I stayed three nights and had two full days of birding, which I think was the perfect introduction to the country.

I stumbled upon Finca Suasie through Google Maps, and it turned out to be a fantastic find. Marcela and Lucho, the owners, are incredibly kind people. Marcela’s father originally owned the property and was a cattle rancher. For the last several decades, Marcela has worked to restore the land to benefit both wildlife and the community. She hosts educational workshops and runs the birding lodge, all while also being an artist!

Marcela is the main birder of the two, but Lucho is also learning and could certainly hold his own. They went out birding with me when they had time. We spent the evenings talking and I got to hear about their lives and thoughts on the country. We spoke in Spanish, but Lucho does speak English. To book your stay, contact them directly.

The lodging cost includes breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I prefer to eat mostly vegetarian and they were able to accommodate my preferences, but do make sure you let them know about any dietary restrictions ahead of time. The food was excellent and it was nice to have some traditional, homemade food!

I was supposed to land in Bogota by early in the afternoon, but had a couple of flight delays so I landed during rush hour. I had planned to take a bus to La Calera, a town to the east towards the mountains, but I decided to use Cabify (like Uber) instead since I was so late. The bus would’ve been around $2 (more info here). I paid $11 USD ($52,400 COP when the exchange rate was around $4800.) for a 1.5hr trip from the airport to La Calera.

Then a private driver met me in the town to bring me up the mountain on a long dirt road that took about an hour. There are parts where 4×4 is necessary. Generally I try to avoid private transfers to save money, but looking back this was a pretty good deal. It was ~$40 round trip.

Before arriving, Marcela had told me that somebody tried to have a Cabify driver bring them up from the airport. Shortly after getting on the mountain road, the driver got angry about the road conditions and the passenger was dropped off and had to hoof it all the way up–in the middle of the night! Tip for bike-packers: I did see people biking up the mountain.

I added 37 birds to my life list and saw 44 species total. It probably would’ve been a bit higher as there were several I couldn’t identify on my own because I forgot to download the local bird pack from Merlin.

Some highlights were the Muisca Antpitta and the Tawny-breasted Tinamou. Neither of which is very exciting in terms of looks, but they’re both pretty rare to actually see. I believe it was Marcela’s first time seeing the tinamou on the property.

My personal favorite was the Golden-fronted Redstart because it’s the only one I got a picture of.

Brown-bellied Swallow
Rufous-collared Sparrow
Masked Flowerpiercer
Scarlet-bellied Mountain Tanager
Golden-fronted Redstart