Birding in Cali, Colombia:

The World's Most Bird-Rich City

QUICK FACTS

The headline	Cali has 561+ recorded bird species — over 30% of Colombia's birds in ~0.05% of its land
Official status	Named a 'Bird City' in Nov 2024 by American Bird Conservancy & Environment for the Americas
Why so many	City limits span ~950–4,100 m across a crossroads of three biogeographic regions
The three regions	Chocó (Pacific), the Andes, and the dry Cauca Valley — all within reach
Top sites	KM18/San Antonio, Farallones NP, Laguna de Sonso, Anchicayá/Doña Dora, San Cipriano
Signature bird	Multicolored Tanager (Chlorochrysa nitidissima), a dazzling Colombian endemic
Our tours	Day trips & multi-day tours from Cali — Essential & Photography

 

Birding in Cali, Colombia: The World's Most Bird-Rich City

Cali is famous around the world as the capital of salsa — but for birders, it holds an even more astonishing title. With 561 recorded bird species within its city limits, Cali has one of the longest urban bird lists on the planet: more species than all of Europe combined, representing over 30% of all of Colombia's birds packed into barely 0.05% of the country's land. In November 2024, that richness earned Cali official recognition as a "Bird City" from the American Bird Conservancy and Environment for the Americas. For birding in Cali, Colombia, there has never been a better time to visit — and as a Cali-based, Colombian-owned team, this is our home patch.

Why does Cali have so many birds?

The secret is geography. Cali's administrative boundary climbs from around 950 metres on the Cauca Valley floor to over 4,100 metres in the high Andes — an enormous elevational range that stacks ecosystem upon ecosystem. Even more importantly, the city sits at a crossroads of three great biogeographic regions: the hyper-diverse Chocó of the Pacific slope, the Andes themselves, and the dry inter-Andean Cauca Valley. Add a remarkable number of protected areas within and around the city, and you have a place where dry-forest birds, cloud-forest endemics, wetland waterbirds, and high-páramo specialists all live within an hour or two of downtown.

The best birding sites in and around Cali

You could bird the Cali area for weeks and not exhaust it, but a handful of world-class sites stand out — each covered in more depth in its own guide on our blog. Here is the essential map for birding around Cali and Valle del Cauca:

KM18 & the San Antonio cloud forest

Just 18 kilometres up the old road to Buenaventura, the KM18 area is a world-renowned stretch of cloud forest and the classic half-day trip from Cali. Its famous feeder stations — El Descanso, Finca La Florida, and the hummingbird mecca of Finca Alejandría — bring dozens of tanagers and hummingbirds to close range, including the endemic Multicolored Tanager and the endemic Chestnut Wood-Quail. It is one of the finest, most accessible cloud-forest birding sites anywhere in Colombia.

Farallones de Cali National Park

Rising directly above the city, Farallones de Cali National Park spans lowland forest to páramo and protects more than 450 bird species — a quarter of Colombia's avifauna — including the endemic Multicolored Tanager, Crested Ant-Tanager, and Chestnut Wood-Quail. Its sheer elevational sweep is a large part of why Cali's list is so long.

Laguna de Sonso: the Cauca Valley wetland

On the valley floor toward Buga lies Laguna de Sonso, a Ramsar-listed wetland and the last great marsh of the Cauca Valley. It adds a completely different set of birds to a Cali trip — herons, ducks, rails, and the extraordinary Horned Screamer — and pairs beautifully with the dry-forest endemics of the valley like Grayish Piculet and Apical Flycatcher.

Anchicayá, Doña Dora & San Cipriano: the Chocó slope

Descend the Pacific slope and you enter the Chocó, one of the wettest and most endemic-rich regions on Earth. The Anchicayá watershed — often called one of Colombia's most famous birding destinations — and the legendary feeders of Doña Dora deliver Chocó specialties like Toucan Barbet and Velvet-purple Coronet, while San Cipriano, reached by a famous rail-cart ride, opens up Pacific lowland rainforest. These sites make Cali one of the only places on the planet where you can bird two utterly distinct avifaunas in a single day.

When to go birding in Cali

The wonderful answer is: any time. Cali's resident birds and endemics are present year-round, so there is no bad season. Drier windows around December–March and July–August make the mountain roads easier, and North American migrants add to the lists from roughly October to April. Whatever month you come, an early start is key — the birds are most active from around 6 a.m. For a fuller breakdown, see our guide to the best time to go birding in Colombia.

Birding Cali with a local guide

Cali's sites are spread across rugged mountain roads, private reserves that require arrangements, and habitats where knowing a bird by its call is the difference between hearing it and seeing it. Colombian guides are among the best in the world, and a knowledgeable local team turns a good trip into an unforgettable one. As a Colombian-owned operator based in Cali, we run everything from half-day outings to KM18 to multi-day tours across the region and beyond — handling transport, reserve access, timing, and the local knowledge that puts you in front of the birds. Whether you want a relaxed introduction or a hard-core endemic hunt, we tailor the pace to you.