Bird Watching Guatemala Blog

Lake Atitlan Guardians: Toliman, Atitlan and San Pedro Photo by Maynor Ovando Southern Guatemala has a chain formed by volcanoes. They shape the landscape of the foothills from Pacific slope to the highlands; this barrier is responsible for most of the endemism of northern Central America. Birds like Azure-rumped Tanager and Horned Guan are restricted to some volcanic areas between Mexico and Guatemala. Atitlan Volcano Photo by Maynor Ovando Three from the 33 volcanoes in the country are active. Pacaya Volcano is the nearest to Guatemala City and is the most visited. Fuego Volcano is near Antigua Guatemala and Santiaguito Volcano in southwestern is the most active and dangerous. San Pedro Volcano Photo by Maynor Ovando Hiking and birding on volcanoes is just great. All volcanoes has been decalared protected areas and most of them are National Parks that offers services and security to visitors. Fuego Volcano Photo by Maynor Ovando Pacaya Volcano Photo by Lemuel Valle Posted by Ma...

Visitor Center at San Pedro Volcano Ecological Park Photo by Maynor Ovando Guatemala’s most wanted bird to see bird is definitely Horned Guan. One of the most threatened bird in the world, confined to some deciduous forest above 6000 ft. In field this means volcanoes and the easiest access place to look for it is San Pedro Volcano. A wonderful groups of birding friends looking for the mythic Horned Guan... Front: Maynor Ovando, Eduardo Galicia, Barbara Dowell, Bryan Bland, Alexis Cerezo Back: Lemuel Valle, Jeff Gordon, Dave DeSante, Chandler Robbins March 2007 Photo by Byron Gonzalez This is me walking in the trails. Photo by Benedicto Grijalva The hike takes 4 hours at a birding pace because the site is full of birds; my bird list has more than 150 bird species including Unicolored Jay, Blue-throated Motmot, Bushy-crested Jay, Mountain Trogon, Prevost’s Ground-sparrow, Chestnut-sided Shrike-vireo, Yellow-eyed Junco, Gray-breasted Wood-wren, Slate-throated Redstart and many Neartic mig...