Hummingbirds of Finca Montezuma

As previously stated in my prior posts - Tatama and the region of Risaralda is one of the major thresholds when it comes to biodiversity.  Ever since peace was established in Risaralda between the government and militias many bird enthusiasts from around the world shortly began to visit Tatama just to get a glimpse of the many rare and unique birds that are endemic only to this particular part of the whole region and thus has increased Colombia's eco-tourism.  One may ask why Colombia but the answer is actually pretty reasonable being that Colombia on it's own holds close to 20% of the planet's birds and still is the best to see majority of species that are usually difficult to see elsewhere in South America.

I did manage to see a handful of rare species especially the multi-colored tanagers but since I was more focused on plants I let my friend Jaime educate me on many of the ones we came across.  I'll be honest after those 3 days I have made it a point to pay more attention to the birds around me whenever I go somewhere as they can be key indicators of various environmental factors that are sometimes poorly misunderstood or unknown.  Since I did not have a high grade camera unfortunately I missed out on photographing most of the rare birds we saw however there were some hummingbirds I did manage to get a few of and that was more than enough for me since they happen to be in my top favorites of birds.  What's special about Tatama and Finca Montezuma is that the hummingbirds that call the mountain home are all very rare species that cannot be found on any nearby mountain and have never been recorded elsewhere in the Choco.

Urochroa Bougueri, White-Tailed Hillstar

Possibly a Jacobin 

These hummingbirds are so special the government regularly patrols these lands and have even taken the task to establish specific feeding stations for these birds that are cared by both rangers and locals who have a fond admiration for these beautiful little jewels.  Who could not love them for their little noises they make?  They remind me of little children having a little playful battle with imaginary weapons that make little laser sounds and like little jets flying all over you when you happen to walk in the middle of their squabble. 

It tuns out and not to my surprise once I tested my theory that many of the endemic blueberries and fuchsias are solely dependent on these birds in order to properly reproduce and it doesn't stop with just the hummingbirds - many other species of plants depend on the other birds to spread seeds or transplant moss that may contain seeds/pollen or even young plants onto other trees or wet surfaces in order to grow into more places in their environment.  I  noticed that many of the flowering plants had unique shapes of flowers where it would take a very long tongue to reach the nectar of it and several times I observed only the hummingbirds being able to feed on them.  While butterflies and moths are fully capable of doing the same since they too have long tongues I noticed that they are not really abundant in the mountains and I think the main reason why was due to the climate.  Tatama in the higher elevation is more cool but also very wet.  With such heavy precipitation I'm sure would make for a very rough life for such delicate insects.