Former guerrillas learn about birding in Colombia

Diego Calderón Franco, a researcher and birding guide, was once kidnapped and held hostage by Marxist rebels in Colombia . Years later, he decided to introduce his former captors to bird-watching, thinking it might provide some of them with new careers as guides. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, a far-left group known by its Spanish acronym FARC, captured Calderón Franco in 2004 and held him hostage for 88 days. The group was embroiled in a decades-long conflict with the Colombian government. After reaching a peace agreement in 2016, nearly 10,000 fighters gave up their guns and started a search for work. Calderón Franco thought the former fighters might make good forest guides. So he introduced some of them to birding. "We totally forgot who we were. They weren't thinking, 'Oh, this is the guy we kidnapped, you know, 15 years ago,'" Calderón Franco said of the changed relationship. "Birds connect you so much and I think that's why they have this healing power." Why birding There are roughly 11,000 bird species around the world and some 2,000 of them can be found in Colombia, according to Calderón Franco. More species of birds live in the South American country than anywhere else in the world. Colombia's diverse geography, which includes the Andes mountains, Amazonian jungles, deserts and grasslands, contributes to the country's large bird population. Decades of fighting also play a role. …