SUEE Birding: Inside Colombia's Newest Reserve in Yotoco

Every so often a new site opens in Colombia and, for a year or two, it belongs to the birders who get there first. Right now that site is SUEE Birding, a private reserve in the municipality of Yotoco, Valle del Cauca, that almost no trip report has caught up with yet. Search for it and you will find an eBird hotspot and very little else. Meanwhile the manakins are already displaying.

We added it to our Deep Cauca Valley itinerary as soon as it opened, and it has earned its place. Here is what the site is, which birds it holds, and how to bird it properly.

Where SUEE Birding sits, and why the location matters

SUEE Birding in Yotoco lies on the eastern slope of the Western Andes, in the same municipality as the well-known Yotoco Forest Reserve. That reserve has long been the reference point for this elevation band: about 519 hectares between roughly 1,300 and 1,600 metres, the largest surviving block of montane forest at these heights on this side of the Cauca Valley, with a list of around 350 species including nine Colombian endemics.

The forests at these mid elevations in Valle del Cauca are badly fragmented, which is exactly why a new protected patch on the same slope is worth paying attention to. SUEE is not competing with Yotoco Forest Reserve; it is extending the habitat that makes this corner of the department work. Birds that have been squeezed into a handful of fragments now have another place to be, and birders have another angle on a slope most itineraries visit only once.

For anyone based in Cali, it slots neatly into the list of birding reserves near Cali that can be birded in a morning: about 90 minutes out, roughly an hour from Yotoco Lodge, and on the way to or from Laguna de Sonso.

The manakins: four species, one morning

SUEE's signature is manakins. Four species are on the list, and the one that brings people here is Yellow-headed Manakin (Chloropipo flavicapilla), a near-endemic of the Colombian and Ecuadorian Andes that is genuinely scarce and patchily distributed. It is not a feeder bird and it will not come to you; it has to be worked for in the understory, usually by sound first.

Alongside it: White-bibbed Manakin, Striolated Manakin and Golden-collared Manakin. Four manakin species in one site is unusual, and it says something about the structure of the forest here. Get there early — lek activity drops off sharply once the morning warms up, which is why we plan the day around a 5:00 a.m. departure and a 6:30 arrival.

The endemics and the other prizes

The headline endemic is Parker's Antbird (Cercomacroides parkeri), a Colombian endemic of the Western and Central Andes. On our itinerary, SUEE is the second chance at it after Río Bravo, which matters: it is a skulker, and two mornings at two sites is a much better proposition than one.

Chestnut-crowned Gnateater is the other bird that makes people happy here — a small, upright, ground-loving bird that sits still long enough for a photograph if you find it before it finds you. Sharp-tailed Streamcreeper works the forest streams, and Moustached Puffbird and Black Hawk-Eagle are both realistic.

The supporting cast fills out a solid morning list: Ruddy Quail-Dove, Barred Parakeet, Squirrel Cuckoo, Rufous-breasted Hermit, Stripe-throated Hermit, Long-billed Starthroat, White-vented Plumeleteer, Great Antshrike, Cocoa Woodcreeper, Slaty Spinetail, White-throated Spadebill, Ochre-bellied Flycatcher, Yellow-crowned and Sooty-headed Tyrannulet, Piratic Flycatcher, Cinereous Becard, Rufous-naped Greenlet, Speckle-breasted Wren, White-breasted Wood-Wren, Long-billed Gnatwren, Golden-crowned Warbler, Guira Tanager, Golden-rumped Euphonia, Ultramarine Grosbeak and Laughing Falcon.

Birding a site nobody has written about yet!

Why a new reserve matters more than one more bird

It is easy to treat a new birding reserve in Colombia as a line on a checklist. It is worth seeing it the other way around. Private reserves at these mid elevations exist because a landowner decided that forest was worth more standing than cleared, and birding visits are a large part of what makes that arithmetic work. Every group that pays an entrance fee at SUEE is a direct argument for keeping the trees.

That is not a sentiment we tack onto the end of an article. It is why we build itineraries around community and family-run sites — Doña Dora's feeders, the San Cipriano community reserve, Finca La Florida — rather than around whichever sites are easiest to reach.

How to visit SUEE Birding

•      On a set-departure tour: SUEE is Day 7 of our Deep Cauca Valley Birding Tour (8 days, maximum 6 birders, departures April 11–18 and November 14–21, 2027).

•      As a private day trip from Cali: a full morning at SUEE, often combined with Laguna de Sonso on the way back down into the valley.

•      What to bring: rubber boots or shoes with grip, rain gear, and patience for the understory. This is a listening site more than a looking site.

•      Timing: leave Cali around 5:00 a.m. to be on site by 6:30. Manakin lek activity and gnateater song both fall away by mid-morning.

•      Access: the reserve is private, so visits are arranged in advance. We handle the arrangement as part of any tour or day trip.

Related reading on Piculet Birding

•      One Week of Birding in Colombia: The Deep Cauca Valley Tour Explained → /blogs/birding-colombia-blog/one-week-birding-tour-colombia-cauca-valley

•      Deep Cauca Valley Birding Tour — full itinerary → /blogs/birding-and-bird-photography-tours-colombia/deep-cauca-valley-birding-tour

•      Laguna de Sonso: Wetland Birding in the Cauca Valley → /blogs/birding-colombia-blog/laguna-de-sonso-wetland-birding-in-the-cauca-valley

•      Birding & Bird Photography Day Trips from Cali → /blogs/birding-colombia-blog/birding-day-trips-from-cali

•      Anchicayá & Doña Dora: Chocó-Slope Birding Near Cali → /blogs/birding-colombia-blog/anchicaya-dona-dora-birding

•      Río Bravo (Series 3 #5) — link once published

•      Where to stay: Yotoco Lodge → yotocolodge.com (cross-brand, lodging intent only)