WHOEVER SAID a bird in the hand is better than two in the bush hasn’t been to the cloud forests of Colombia’s Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains. As the 7 a.m. light breaks through the canopy near the town of Minca, I spy a keel-billed toucan croaking from a mossy pine tree. A flowerpecker darts around a giant fern, and a pair of military macaws fly in formation overhead. About a dozen species of amethyst, emerald and sapphire hummingbirds hover like bejeweled drones over a marmalade bush. In just 30 minutes, we’ve already seen more than 20 species, most of them “lifers” to me—i.e., birds spotted for the first time.

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Persons: Cristian, we’ve Locations: Colombia’s Sierra Nevada, Santa Marta, Minca