The area of Chicoral is located in the southernmost part of the township of Bitaco and within the municipality of La Cumbre in the Valle del Cauca Department of

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

. It is home to the Hindú Tea Plantation, a major part of the Bitaco River Forest Reserve, and many small estates and farms. This region is only accessible by unpaved roads by way of La Cumbre from the north, the Cali-Buenaventura Road from the west and

Dapa DAPA may refer to: * Defense Acquisition Program Administration, an executive branch of the South Korean government * Deferred Action for Parents of Americans, a U.S. deferred action In United States administrative law, deferred action is an immigr ...

from the east through a forested pass at . The Bitaco River Forest Reserve was created in 1985 to protect a sizable portion of

cloud forest A cloud forest, also called a water forest, primas forest, or tropical montane cloud forest (TMCF), is a generally tropical or subtropical, evergreen, montane, moist forest characterized by a persistent, frequent or seasonal low-level cloud c ...

and the headwaters of the Bitaco River, which flows northwest and drains into the

Dagua River The Dagua River (''Río Dagua'') is a river in Valle del Cauca. Colombia. It generally flows north by northwest from the Farallones de Cali into the Pacific Ocean next to Buenaventura, Valle del Cauca, Buenaventura. In recent years illegal mini ...

. The reserve is located on the west slope of the West Andes. This is an area of high biodiversity with a high number of bird species including the endemic and highly sought after

multicolored tanager The multicoloured tanager (''Chlorochrysa nitidissima'') is a species of bird in the family Thraupidae. It is endemic to the mountains of Colombia, and as of 2010 has been categorized as vulnerable (VU) by the IUCN. Description The multicolor ...

. Other important avian species include sickle-winged guan, scaled fruiteater, golden-winged manakin and purplish-mantled tanager. In 2008 there was a sighting of cloud-forest pygmy owl, a rare and vulnerable species of the northern

Andes The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...

References

{{Reflist Populated places in the Valle del Cauca Department