17 April 2023

Northern Oncilla

It’s a Wild Life! – Separate Post: Northern Oncilla

Hi everybody,

As many of you know Romy and I (Rob) are travelling South-America and are now in Colombia. Of course we will upload a trip report once we leave the country, but we came across something we wanted to share as soon as possible. Near Jardín, a town southwest of Medellín, is a place called Mirador el Roble. A Northern Oncilla has been coming to this place regularly since it grabbed his first chicken in October 2022. After that they have been giving it fish heads and chicken (but mostly fish as he seems to prefer that) and it comes more or less daily since then. We’ve been there 2,5 days and seen it multiple times; sometimes coming three times within an hour to not show up after that again for the whole day. Our first day it showed up just before dark, after it had come early that morning too. The other days it showed up end of the morning respectively in the middle of the day.

The place is located here: https://goo.gl/maps/Hs6PgyQRzi5nUe6V7

Reachable by a powerful high clearance vehicle via Jardín. We did it in a 2×4, but a 4×4 might be better choice if you want to have no worries at all. You can also let a 4×4 cab bring you to this place. The ride from Jardín to there is about 1.5h, as the road is not very good.

The phone number of the owner Lucia is +57 314 6837 549, she only speaks Spanish. You can also contact them via Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/miradorelroble/). She only speaks Spanish. You can stay at the place as well, but it is very basic. However, this will probably still be better than driving up and down from Jardín every day.

We would advise 2-3 full days to give yourself a good chance. So far it seems pretty reliable and even one full day should be enough, weather dependent of course.

For a day visit (including an Antpitta feeder) we paid 60.000COP p.p. (12EUR/13.5USD).

There are many birders going to this place, and many of them add their observation in the comment section on eBird. You could keep an eye on the eBird checklists: https://ebird.org/hotspot/L8210776/activity?yr=all&m=&sortBy=cl, https://ebird.org/hotspot/L8210763/activity?yr=all&m=

But better to just go quickly and ask the owners of the place. The cat is a male and looks a bit scruffy in the face. It does look healthy however (all teeth seem to be in tact for example). For more info or to see more pictures of our Colombia trip, go to my website: https://www.robjansenphotography.com/world-travel

All the best, Rob Jansen

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Post author

RobJansen
We, Rob & Romy Jansen, are two enthusiastic nature lovers who travel the world together to search for stunning birds, fascinating mammals and incredible nature. Our world travel started in October 2021 in Chile, where we bought a car to drive through South-America in search of birds and mammals for about 2-3 years.Rob Jansen is biologist and wildlife photographer, and thus has a lot of knowledge about species and ecology. He is enthusiastic about all that’s in nature, but mainly photographs birds and mammals.Romy Jansen-Houtzager is marketing professional. Our social media accounts, the look and feel of the trip reports and the website are her work. In the field, she is an excellent spotter and very patient (give me some of her patience …and hurry!).https://robjansenphotography.com/
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4 Comments

  • 18 April 2023
    ChrisD

    Holy cow Rob, unbelievable photos. Well done.

  • 4 May 2023
    RobJansen

    One update: it’s still coming, but for some reason it suddenly didn’t show for 3 days. Then again it showed the next morning again at 06.00. If anyone is planning on twitching this species, be sure to plan enough days and inform whether it is still coming.

  • 4 May 2023
    Antee

    Also for information.

    It is a baited one and it is fed at the lodge.

    1
  • 12 August 2023
    RobJansen

    Another update: it has been seen again the last week, but it seems to disappear for a month sometimes and then come back daily again. Not very reliable to plan a holiday around, but still worth checking if you are already heading to Colombia anyways:)

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