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Mamo Busingama, left, and his son-in-law, Karin, in their new hummingbird temple in Colombia's Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains.
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A Pittsburgh company helps Indigenous people in Colombia share the beauty of birds with the world

Edna van den Bosch

A Pittsburgh company helps Indigenous people in Colombia share the beauty of birds with the world

A shaman in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains of Colombia has built a mini temple with hummingbird feeders. Now he wants to show the beauty of these and other birds to the world via a live webcam from a Pittsburgh-area company.

The shaman, Mamo Busingaama, is the spiritual leader and guide of the Arhuacos, an isolated tribe of Indigenous people who live in the highest coastal mountain range in the world.

The Arhuacos are one of four Indigenous tribes who consider their mountain home a “divine communion between humans, animals, plants, rivers, mountains and the spirits of their ancestors,” according to the Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense.

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They believe the birds and their home on the Caribbean coast are sacred.

It certainly is unique. Colombia has the greatest variety of birds on Earth, with nearly 2,000 species, including more than 200 migratory and 80 endemic species, according to the Audubon Society.

”The connection between humans and birds reminds us of our responsibility to care for and protect the nature around us,” said Edna van den Bosch, a Dutch woman living in Pueblo Bello, a village renowned for growing coffee in the Sierra foothills.

She’s become a conduit for the tribe, offering ceremonies and both in-person and virtual sessions with shamans known as mamos. Her website BirdSouls is devoted to the birds of the Santa Marta mountains.

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“Mamos live in the jungle and on a mountain ridge with the most incredible views,” Bosch said.

The Pittsburgh connection

Two webcams are streaming live from the town in Colombia with plans underway for a camera installation at Mamo Busingaama’s hummingbird temple in the jungle in November.

“They found us,” said Bill Powers, owner of PixCams, a Murrysville-based small company. 

Bosch’s family found PixCams while surfing the internet and her daughter approached Powers earlier this year to buy equipment to livestream the birds. He ended up donating the equipment.

Colombia’s diversity of birds piqued his interest because his company operates 51 live nature webcams, including cameras at bald eagle nests in Pittsburgh’s Hays neighborhood and the U.S. Steel Irvin plant in West Mifflin.

Pennsylvania is home to about 448 species of birds, less than one-quarter of Colombia’s nearly 2,000 species. 

“We have mundane birds here compared to the tropics,” Powers said.

Cornell University’s webcam of a fruit feeder in Panama and other international bird cams showcasing exotic locations are popular.

Helping Colombia's indigenous people showcase nature was another great reason to get involved with the project, he said.

“The culture there is one with nature and they are spiritual about the birds,” Powers said.

“Our job with our large community of watchers is to help get out the message and introduce them to all these species of birds.”

Some knowledgeable birders are already weighing in on identifying the species picked up by the feeder webcams.

PixCam equipment has been installed at the base of the mountains near Bosch’s home because it has power and a good internet connection. She provides bananas and hummingbird feeders that attract a dizzying array of birds as well as bats.

Crazy for hummers

Until the mamos befriended Bosch, she was not planning to go deep into the mountains. Although skeptical, she found the Indigenous people intriguing and enchanting.

A project manager by profession, Bosch was tapped by the mamos to visit their secret villages and promote the importance of balance in nature.

The Arhuacos, known for growing coffee, remain an isolated people who protect their land from development. Recently, they warned about climate change melting mountain glaciers. 

Leonor Zalabata Torres, the leader of the Arhuaco people and the first Indigenous woman to be Colombia’s ambassador to the United Nations, spoke out recently about the melting glaciers. Now Bosch and others are helping them take their their message to the world stage.

Bosch started her BirdSouls website to raise awareness of the connection among people, nature and the wisdom of Indigenous cultures.

She just launched a GoFundMe campaign to support “Live Streams of Rare Birds & Ancestral Teachings.” She hopes to raise $23,500 for solar power units and other equipment. 

“Birds are seen as sacred messengers between the Earth and her people, reminding us of our responsibility to care for the planet and maintain balance with all living things,” she said.

Bosch discovered that the Arhuacos have a special reverence for hummingbirds. Colombia has 165 species of the tiny birds, the most in the world.

Bosch encouraged Mamo Busingaama to erect a hummingbird feeder station, and he agreed to film the birds to let the world know how special and integral these creatures are.

His feeding station doesn’t look like a traditional Western temple; it is constructed of tree limbs with a thatched roof.

The hummers took to their new temple and have been visiting regularly since it was finished.

Each hummingbird has its own story about life and balance in nature, Bosch said. A favorite among the Arhuacos is a small hummingbird known as Teruna, or the Santa Marta Woodstar, that symbolizes resilience and wisdom.

Teruna, called the father of sacred seeds, journeyed to a spiritual realm and brought the knowledge contained within the holy seeds to the Indigenous people, according to Mamo Busingaama.

“This cycle of transformation is an integral part of the Arhuaco worldview,” said Bosch, “reminding us of the interconnectedness of all beings.”

First Published: October 24, 2024, 9:30 a.m.
Updated: October 24, 2024, 4:17 p.m.

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Mamo Busingama, left, and his son-in-law, Karin, in their new hummingbird temple in Colombia's Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains.  (Edna van den Bosch)
A great kiskadee is captured on a live webcam still from a bird feeder set up in Colombia's Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta.  (BirdSouls/PixCams )
An Arhuaco town in Colombia's Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains.  (Edna van den Bosch)
A blue-gray tanager, left, and other birds at a feeding station via a live webcam in Colombia.  (BirdSouls/PixCams )
Edna van den Bosch, left, with Mamo Manuelito and his family from the Kogi community in Colombia's Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains.  (Courtesy of Edna van den Bosch)
A shaman known as Mamo Apolinar blesses people in Colombia's Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains.  ( Edna van den Bosch)
The Santa Marta woodstar is known to the Arhuaco Indigenous people as the Teruna hummingbird.  (John Nolley/Cornell Lab of Ornithology/Macaulay Library)
Edna van den Bosch
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