Los Llanos (the Plains) is a vast area comprised primarily of flat grassland, prairie, ranch land, dust bowl and, depending on the season, large expanses of marshes and flowing rivers (in the rainy season) to scattered waterholes (in the dry season).
Los Llanos extends from the eastern base of the eastern arm of the Andes in Colombia into the northwestern section of Venezuela. The two main cities in Colombia that serve as entry points to los Llanos from the west are Yopal in Casanare Province and, to the south, Villavicencio in Meta Province.
Much of los Llanos is privately owned and divided into "hatos", gigantic haciendas and ranches comprised of thousands of acres. Their size is most often described in hectares, the metric unit which equals slightly less than 2.5 acres.
Los Llanos is literally teeming with wildlife of every type: birds, fish, snakes (yes, the famous anaconda), and mammals. The two most interesting mammals are the anteaters (of which there are two species, including the Giant Anteater) and the ubiquitous Capybara. The Capybara is the largest living rodent and looks like a miniature, hair-covered hippopotamus. It is only found in South America and los Llanos has thousands of them. It is hard to find a spot where you will not see at least one of them, but more often 50-100 of them.
Isabel and I arrived in Yopal on March 18 and hit the ground running, exploring los Llanos until we departed from Yopal on March 23. We used a tour company called Wild Llanos. The company is operated full hands-on by Julia Buschmann and Andrés González, and I simply cannot recommend them highly enough. They were fantastic from the first email contact to the very last day of the tour. We opted for a private tour which was not that expensive and worth every cent.
For a quick introduction to the area our guide, Andrés, picked us up from the hotel around midday on March 18. We birded from the outskirts of Yopal to Vereda la Primavera in the eastern foothills of the Andes. Species seen included lifers such as Capped Heron, Fasciated Tiger-Heron, Amazonian Motmot, Brown Jacamar, Little Woodpecker, Black-tailed Tityra and Oriole Blackbird
Wow, amazing birds! Thanks for the info.