My wife and I took a birding trip in Colombia this January on our own and can pass on some information to anyone else interested in going on their own. First, everywhere we went was safe.We rented a car; Executive Rentacar was very helpful, though not cheap. We usually slept in the car. Many of the roads we took would've been bad without high clearance, but 4-wheel drive was not necessary.
We flew to Medellin, a hard city to drive in. We eventually found the Panamericana (Panamerican Highway)and headed north. ProAves directions to the Chestnut-capped Piha Reserve were unclear, but it's not hard to find. Heading north from Medellin you follow signs to Bello then to Barbosa then toward but not to Cisneros; turn N at a sign to Amalfi. After an hour or so turn left again at a sign to Anori. Where the pavement ends you fork left up (right is a closed road - to a dam, I think) and stay with this road for maybe another half hour. The Reserve lodge is beside the road on your right, 20 K before Anori. Arrangements must be made to stay at the lodge beforehand with ProAves and they want you to go with a guide; the one who lives there (the guardabosque - I think his name is Jose) was quite good. In addition to hiking up to the ridge, the road north has some good birds and could be birded on one's own.
It took at least a full day to drive to Las Tangaras Reserve. South of Medellin you turn west; some signs are to Amaga, others to Quibdo and Bolivar. After Bolivar you go over the mountain and the road gets unpaved and slow. After the small town of El Carmen at the bottom of the mountain it's about 5 K to the lodge, which is steep downhill on the left. Here too prearrangement with ProAves was necessary and we went with the live-in guide, whose name I think is Uver and who was quite good. Here though you could bird on your own. The road to the actual reserve goes left off the main road just east of the lodge, crosses the river, then goes up until you start down the other side (after about 8 K), at which point the reserve begins where forest starts, on the right of the road. There's a trail here where it begins which goes to hummingbird feeders, then a very steep long ascent with few birds. It's better to go on down 1 K or so to another, muddy trail also on the right, at a sharp bend left; this crosses a pasture, then enters good forest. It eventually goes up to the ridge where Gold-ringed Tanagers are.
About half an hour or more down the main highway to Quibdo is a valley with some lower altitude tanagers, etc; I think the place is called Santana, but there're no houses - it's just an area with trees on the left (south)below the road. We were also told that about 4 hours down the road toward Quibdo at El 20 there are good birds and the area is safe; we didn't go there.
To reach the Yellow-eared Parrot Reserve you go back east through Bolivar and eventually fork south to Jardin (I believe there was only a sign for westbound traffic; it's a paved road with considerable traffic.) At Jardin you continue the direction you came in on, but shift a few blocks left onto the street on the right side of the cathedral. Just stick with this street/road, avoiding turns, all the way up the mountain. The road becomes quite bad. At the top of the ascent, opposite the remains of a concrete building, is the track up to the guardabosque's residence, where one can stay. No prior arrangement was necessary. The guard was helpful. Below his building is a lookout platform, and below that is a trail into the woods. He puts out worms there and Rufous Antpitta came for them. The Yellow-eared Parrots were best viewed from near the building ruins, looking off to the downhill side of the road. 2 perched by a fairly distant wax palm in the evening. Next morning several flew over and a few perched nearby.
From here we continued on the same very bad road, not heading back to Jardin but going on some hours to Riosucio. When we reached a highway we turned left and went through Supia, then followed signs to Manizales. To reach the Rio Blanco Reserve you go east through Manizales, continuing the way you came in, passing the cathedral, and looking for the main highway east toward Bogota (avenida Kevin Angel). The Aguas de Manizales office is on the left of this divided road, east of the city center; you have to find a U-Turn to get to it. When we got there we explained we wanted to visit the reserve and were allowed to speak to Sergio Ocampo, the only person in Colombia who was not very helpful. To reach the reserve you take the road which turns off Kevin Angel to the Aguas entrance; it curves around right past a supermarket on the left and follows the stream on your right. This road was blocked when we were there and you had to detour up other roads on the left and come back down to the streamside road by a dirt alley. The road following the stream eventually goes up to the reserve. The last part of this road, after the ford, had some birds; we birded it because we weren't allowed into the reserve till the next day. Here again we were required to go with a guide. The main attraction is probably the pitta feeding stations the guide takes you to. Masked Saltator is supposed to nest in the bear enclosure just before the lodge, and some people saw it near the first pitta station; we never saw it. Lots of rain here.
Next we drove south to Popayan. On the north side of the city the road to Purace National Park was signed, and we turned east on it. Once you start entering the mountains you need to watch for a road that goes down to the left; the sign was almost all effaced. Don't go right to Coconuco; the road beyond here was closed. The left fork takes you through Purace village and then to some good elfin forest. At a sign (for Volcan Purace or Pilimbala)you can turn right, then after about 1 k left (signed to the Volcan?) to Pilimbala, where there are some buildings and guards. There were short trails here (in addition to the one up the volcano) in elfin forest with a few birds, but we found better birding by continuing going back to the main road and continuing east on it over half an hour and birding along that road. There is another park office on this road, but they were not helpful. There are said to be trails, but the only one we saw was too muddy for us. We failed to see Masked Mountain tanager here, but it seemed a good place for it.
We then drove back north to Cali, which was difficult to find our way through, but we eventually got onto the Buenaventura Rd. Soon after El 18 at the pass, you can turn left at a sign for Queremal. This road eventually gets you to Danubio; keep on it, not turning left for Queremal. Danuabio isn't much, but you can buy a little food there and there's a primitive hotel. At Danubio there's a bridge across the river, but you need permission to go up this road, which we didn't have. Too bad; it looked good. However, the main road was good too, for quite a while before and after Danubio. One good spot was a small garden enclosure with a statue of the virgin on the left, west of Danubio. The old highway eventually comes out to the new highway near Buenaventura. The new highway was full of trucks and unpleasant; we'd've done better to go back on the old road.
We turned off the highway from Buenaventura to Cali, going left toward Buga instead, and this road goes through the Yotoco Reserve, whose buildings are on the left as you come down a hill. The people here did NOT require previous permission. There are 2 main trails. We didn't find much on the one above the buildings, but if you cross the highway from this headquarters to the right (south) side you can enter the other trail through a gate and go down into good woods. Chestnut-crowned Gnateater was near the bottom of the first steep descent.
Our next stop was at the top of the pass heading east from Armenia and Calarca toward Ibague. Where the highway tops out is called Alto de la Linea; there's a small store here. If you walk west down the highway a short distance there's a track up left (south) into some elfin woods, and we saw some birds here, though clouds kept blowing in.
On the highway north from Ibague toward Honda you can turn west and go up into hills to Libano. If you continue through town going up the same direction you entered by, you come to a road toward Manizales. A short way above Libano there's a hairpin turn to the left in a forested stream valley; it was just above this that we saw Yellow-headed Brush finch.
We then went back west to the highway from Ibague and continued north to Mariquita. There is a road to Victoria from the highway just west of Mariquita, and we saw Pearl Kite by the river on its first part; but the road was nearly undrivable. Instead the way to reach Victoria is to go from Mariquita east to Honda, then north toward La Dorada, looking for a turn west to Victoria. When you reach the outskirts of Victoria, turn right at a gas station up a very steep street, and follow this through the town center till you end at a street where you turn right and follow this up onto the mountain above town. At the top of the ascent up through woods, just before the end of the forest, there's a track off to the right by a shack, and this gave access to some good woods where Sooty Ant-tanager was easy to see.
Returning east again to the highway north, we continued through La Dorada, where you cross the river, and on north, turning west on the highway to Medellin. Maybe half an hour west of Doradal you come to Rio Claro Reserve, on the left (south) in a valley bottom; there's a gas station and other buildings. Rio Claro was pretty full of tourists even on a week day; the trail down the river wasn't much good except early in the morning. The campground clearing at the beginning had some birds, and another good spot was a short way up the entrance track, soon after a bridge, in a clearing on the left by a sawmill.
About an hour west of Rio Claro, El Palacio de los Frijoles restaurant on the right (well signed) let us watch the birds off their balcony. Beautiful Woodpecker came only very infrequently.
This is only a partial list, of birds that might be hard to find. Bear in mind we're only average birders and missed species in places where we had no guide, especially since we don't use playback.
Tiny Hawk - ridgetop at the Piha Res; mostly heard
Pavonine Cuckoo - Piha Res, on road; flew in to playback
Yellow-eared Parrot - 8
Golden-plumed Parakeet - flock around the main clearing at R Blanco
Barred Puffbird - by the first building after the campground on the track in to R Claro
Toucan Barbet - Tangaras
Spot-crowned Barbet - old Buenaventura Rd
White-mantled Barbet - R claro; the sawmill clearing
Black-billed Mountin toucan - distant flying at Y-E Parrot Res; at a papaya at R Blanco
Citron-throated Toucan - R Claro, sawmill clearing
Parker's Antbird - Piha Res
Bicolored and Chestnut-crowned and Brown-banded and Slate-crowned Antpittas - R Blaco
Yellow-breasted Antpitta - Tangaras
Rufous and Chestnut-naped Antpittas - YE Parrot Res, the latter around the clearings by the main building
Chestnut-crowned Gnateater - Yotoco; guide saw it Piha Res
Narino Tapaculo - glimosed Tangaras. Stiles's T heard Piha Res
Barred Fruiteater - Alto de Linea
Green and black Fruiteater - YE Parrot Res
Orange-breasted Fruiteater - Tangaras
Chestnut-capped Piha - Piha Res
Golden-winged Manakin - Piha Res
Slaty-capped Shrike-vireo - old Buenaventura Rd
Beautiful Jay - barely glimpsed Tangaras; very shy
White-headed Wren - Tangaras and old Buenaventura Rd
Rufous Wren - Purace
Sooty-headed Wren - Piha Res
Black Solitaire - Tangaras
White-capped Tanager - R Blanco, on entrance road outside gate (unusually low altitude). Heard YE Parrot Res and Alto de Linea
Scarlet and white Tanager - Piha Res, on road; and old Buenaventura Rd and below Tangaras
Crested Ant-Tanager - comes to yard at Tangaras lodge early AM.
Sooty Ant-tanager - above Victoria
Gold-ringed Tanager - Tangaras ridgetop
Black and gold Tanager - Piha Res and Tangaras
Mountain tanager sps seen Piha Res, Tangaras, YE Parrot Res, and Purace
Black-backed Bush tanager - Purace
Purplish-mantled Tanager - Piha Res
Multicolored Tanager - Piha Res
Gray and gold and Rufous-throated Tanagers - below Tangaras and old Buenaventura Rd
Yellow-tufted Dacnis - Palacio de Frijoles
Capped Conebill - R Blanco
Brush finches YE Parrot Res, Purace etc
Yellow-headed Brush finch - above Libano
Red-bellied Grackle - Piha Res