Five days into my five-week South American adventure as a naturalist about the Hapag-Lloyd ship m/v HANSEATIC Inspiration and I finally had the opportunity to go birding—not that I haven’t been birding, literally, all the time—what I mean is REALLY go birding. No passengers, no colleagues. Just me and the birds. Well, and a guide and a driver, too. So, after a morning accompanying guests on a small bus tour of the Old City, six hours of daylight remaining, birding was clearly in the cards.

While vultures (both Black and Turkey) by the hundreds stippled the sky, Brown Pelicans haunted every lead of water, and the raucous calls of parrots and parakeets constantly alerted you to their presence, unseen in the palm trees, there was a surprising paucity of birds in Cartagena. How could that be? After all, Colombia is home to some 1,800 species of birds! Looking at a map, it was clear there were intriguing green spaces scattered throughout the city. But which to choose?

Given my limited time, I decided to take advantage of some local knowledge in the form of a taxi. Approaching the taxi stand, just beyond the security zone of the pier, one driver approached me, asking, “Do you want a taxi?” in near-perfect English (do I really stand out that much as an American?).

Despite his mastery of English, it took some effort to communicate that no, I did not want to see the Old City. Nor the ancient ruins. Nor the beach. Not even the bars. I wanted to go to a park, to see birds, not at an aviary, but in the wild, in nature. Once he understood, we quickly settled on a plan: for the next six hours, he would be my guide and there would be a driver, all for $60!

That settled, introductions were made. “Speedy” Gonzalez was his name—“Speedy” for the old cartoon character. And Ambrosio was the driver. First off, Parque Espiritu de Manglar, Spirit of the Mangrove Park.

Parque Espiritu de Manglar was a waterfront—the water was brackish—laden with mangroves. A network of paved paths made it easy to walk around. And there were plenty of pullouts overlooking the water. Although it was the heat of the day and bird activity was minimal, we slowly racked up list. Plain-breasted Ground Dove, Eared Dove, Large-billed Tern, Brown Pelican, Snowy Egret, Yellow-crowned Parrot, and Tropical Kingbird, all were among the commoner birds. Speedy proved enthusiastic, pointing out every bird. He knew the names of the more common and was keen to put names to the rest.

One path was blocked by a security guard. Speedy greeted him, chatted away rapid-fire, too fast for me to follow. Next thing I know, the guard motions for me to follow and we enter the closed area. A yellow passerine flew across the trail, landing just above eye level in a mangrove. Speedy grabbed my shoulders, positioning me, and then pointed: almost entirely a brilliant yellow with a strongly contrasting black eye, the underparts were white at the vent transition into a yellow chest. Prothonotary Warbler! And there was another! And another! Speedy was so pleased with himself for finding this bird.

A little further, a bird was loudly singing from the treetops. The guard, mimicking Speedy, grabbed my shoulders, bodily moving me, pointing. Bold white eye-stripes, bright yellow belly. Great Kiskadee.

This went on for species after species. I don’t know who was having more fun, me or my new Panamanian friends. I had not been formally introduced to the security guard, so at one point I turned to him and said, “Me llamo es Ricardo.” [My name is Richard.] “Javier,” was his reply.

I love traveling to foreign countries and finding ways to communicate when we don’t share a common language. My Spanish is so rusty, that it can be a challenge to clearly convey my meaning; but, somehow, we managed.

In the end, Javier was with us for half an hour. And he certainly helped me find birds. The total for this park was 28 species:

1.         Plain-breasted Ground Dove
2.         Eared Dove
3.         Spotted Sandpiper
4.         Large-billed Tern
5.         Common Tern
6.         Black Skimmer
7.         Magnificent Frigatebird
8.         Brown Pelican
9.         Snowy Egret
10.       Little Blue Heron
11.       Reddish Egret
12.       Black-crowned Night-Heron
13.       Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
14.       Black Vulture
15.       Turkey Vulture
16.       Osprey
17.       Ringed Kingfisher
18.       Red-crowned Woodpecker
19.       Orange-chinned Parakeet
20.       Yellow-crowned Parrot
21.       Great Kiskadee
22.       Tropical Kingbird
23.       Blue-and-white Swallow
24.       Mountain Bluebird
25.       Great-tailed Grackle
26.       Prothonotary Warbler
27.       Saffron Finch
28.       Bananaquit

Next up was Parque Centenario, Century Park. This was more what you expect in a city park. Where Espiritu de Manglar was heavily forested with the dense shrubbery beneath, forcing you to stick to the paths, the ground of Parque Centenario was wide open with a mixture of broad-leafed trees scattered about. This was clearly a park people come for communal activities.

We didn’t add any new bird species to the list, but a Brown-throated Sloth, one of the three-toed sloths, made my day!

If you are ever in Cartagena and want to go birding, I’ll give you Speedy’s contact information. Tell him I sent you.

A Northern Naturalist in Cartagena

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