Bird Watching Guatemala Blog

Miguel Marin, an expert member of Bird Watching Guatemala Project Photo by Maynor Ovando San Miguel is a small village just five minutes in a boat ride from Flores Island in Petén lowlands. And like many places in Guatemala is a great birding hotspot. Miguel Marin is an extraordinary birder and a terrific birding guide who lives in this small bird paradise. Mangrove Swallow After years leading birding groups he has got an extra sense to find birds, sometimes people say that Miguel has a treat with birds because just in the moment he speaks about a bird, it comes in front of your eyes. He knows perfectly every bird that can be found in his domains and as members of the Bird Watching Guatemala birding staff I took a couple of hours to walk with him around the place. Northern Jacana I was thinking that my chances to get many birds were low because of the rainy weather but my expert friend had no problem to show me 52 bird species in this short visit. Miguel has been recording patiently ...

Lemuel, Melvin and me birding at Ixpanpajul Photo by Maynor Ovando A couple of weeks ago I joined to Melvin and Lemuel, two of the best birding guides in Guatemala, to an early birding walk in Ecological Park Ixpanpajul. We started at 6:00 in the morning and the sound of Blue-crowned Motmot, Clay-colored Robin and Great Tinamou was announcing the sunrise. Vermillion Flycatcher (female) The first bird in sight was a female Vermillion Flycatcher and then a complete flycatcher parade was in front of our eyes, including Yellowish Flycatcher, Social Flycatcher, Boat-billed Flycatcher, Great Kiskadee and Tropical Kingbird. Through the dense vegetation surrounding the trail we observed Green-backed Sparrow, Blue Grosbeak, Red-throated Ant-tanager, Tawny-winged Woodcreeper and Olivaceous Woodcreeper. Bronzed Cowbird Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, Yellow Warblers, Black-and-white Warblers, Blue-gray Tanagers, Bronzed Cowbirds and hundreds of Northern Rough-winged Swallows were easy to see. Two hour...

Bare- throated Tiger-heron Last days have been rainy and wet on Guatemala’s highlands and the direct effect on Peten lowlands is flood on areas along rivers. I went with my friends Melvin and Diego from Martsam Tour & Travel to birding around Ceibal and the experience was extraordinary. Hundreds of aquatic and shorebirds feeding on the extended ponds like Great-blue Heron, Snowy Egret, Cattle Egret, Great Egret and Bare-throated Tiger Heron. Gray-necked Wood-rail Through the bushes we saw Ruddy Crake, Mangrove Vireo, Gray-necked Wood-rail and Least Grebe. Over clean branches we had this great sight of the Amazon Kingfisher and a couple of Snail Kite. Amazon Kingfisher By the end of the day we had a bird list of 98 species. Posted by Maynor Ovando www.birdwatchingguatemala.com is a registered trademark of Martsam Tour & Travel Copyright® 2,008 www.birdwatchingguatemala.com www.martsam.com

Atitlan Lake Photo by Maynor Ovando Have you heard about the New 7 Wonders of Nature? It’s a global campaign to choose 7 nature sites to declare them Treasures of the World. Atitlan Lake is a nominated candidate for this contest and it makes sense due to the beautiful views you can get in every angle you have of it. But birders have a better reason to support this nomination: the incredible bird diversity. Resplendent Quetzal Only around Atitlan Lake you can tick in a couple of days an amazing bird list like this: Belted Flycatcher Azure-rumped Tanager Horned Guan Resplendent Quetzal Blue-tailed Hummingbird Slender Sheartail Rufous Sabrewing Bar-winged Oriole Bushy-crested Jay Pink-headed Warbler Hooded Grosbeak Highland Guan Green-throated Mountain-gem Blue-throated Motmot Rufous-collared Robin Black Robin Black-capped Swallow Rufous-browed Wren Black-throated Jay Chestnut-sided Shrike-vireo Prevost’s Ground-sparrow Unicolored Jay Yellow-eyed Junco Black-capped Siskin Northern Flicke...

A troop of birders in Peten lowlands Photo by Maynor Ovando As many of you already know there are more than 710 bird species from which about 200 are neartic migrants. The question many people is rounding their minds is: What are the best ticks I can expect to add in Guatemala during a birding trip? I like to have a top ten bird list in mind for these occasions: 1. Horned Guan 2. Pink-headed Warbler 3. Azure-rumped Tanager 4. Belted Flycatcher 5. Blue-throated Motmot 6. Resplendent Quetzal 7. Bushy-crested Jay 8. Bar-winged Oriole 9. Green-throated Mountain-gem 10. Rufous-browed Wren Blue-throated Motmot Bushy-crested Jay Rufous-browed Wren And there are like 25 more with almost the same restricted distribution that can be seen in Western and Central highlands.But if you are visiting Northern lowland of Petén the bird list should be: 1. Gray-throated Chat 2. Ocellated Turkey 3. Green-backed Sparrow 4. Orange-breasted Falcon 5. Yucatan Jay 6. Lovely Cotinga 7. White-fronted Parrot 8...

Peten Itza Lake Photo by Maynor Ovando Flores is the capital of the northernmost department of Guatemala, Peten. If you travel to visit any Maya city like Tikal or Yaxhá, you can’t miss this small and beautiful town. Flores is an island, bordered by Petén Itzá Lake and there’s a lot of options to take a tour on the lake or have a ride in a car to visit neighbor towns. Last Wednesday I decided to go birding around Flores Island, so I tried to have the two sides of the coin birding in water and land. I started in a boat at 6:00 am to look for wading birds for 3 hours, this is my bird list: Pied-billed Greebe Neotropic Cormorant Northern Jacana Purple Gallinule Limpkin Green Heron Little Blue Heron Ringed Kingfisher Snail Kite Mangrove Swallow Great-tailed Grackle Laughing Gull Amazon Kingfisher Great Egret Bat Falcon Social Flycatcher Rock Dove Common Moorhen Black Vulture Turkey Vulture Olive-throated Parakeet Yellow-throated Euphonia Blue-gray Tanager Juvenile Little Blue Heron and No...

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...

American Ornithologists' Union Website This organization commonly called AOU is the oldest one in America dedicated to the formal study of birds. This year the AOU celebrates its 125th Anniversary, during these years its members have developed an extended and diverse ornithological society open to scientific ornithologists, students, conservationists and birders. The AOU website provide excellent information about birds in North America and one of the most important work shared is the Check-list of North and South American Birds. The Committee on Classification and Nomenclature of North and Middle American Birds produces an official Check-list of North American Birds, with the purpose of creating a standard classification and nomenclature. Actually the check-list includes 2046 bird species known in the geographic area from North Pole to boundary shared by Panama and Colombia, including Hawaiian Islands and some Antillean Islands. Every year Guatemalans check the publication propo...

Xetulul Park Photo by Maynor Ovando Last weekend I visited Guatemalan Pacific Coast. This is always a good chance for birding even if you don’t plan to visit Private Nature Reserves or National Parks. I went to a theme park named Xetulul and the trip took 3 hours from Guatemala City, so I decided to account only the species that I could observe on the road or inside the park. This is my bird list: Great-tailed Grackle Gray Hawk Turkey Vulture Black Vulture Crested Caracara White-throated Magpie-jay Chestnut-collared Swift White-collared Swift Melodious Blackbird Altamira Oriole Pacific Parakeet Cinnamon Hummingbird House Wren Tropical Kingbird Social Flycatcher Cattle Egret Golden-fronted Woodpecker Lineated Woodpecker Clay-colored Robin House Sparrow Crested Caracara Golden-fronted Woodpecker Clay-colored Robin Photo by Benedicto Grijalva Posted by Maynor Ovando http://www.birdwatchingguatemala.com/ is a registered trademark of Martsam Tour & Travel Copyright® 2,008 http://www.b...

Ebird is an extraordinary tool for birders and a great opportunity to share with all the World the bird richness in Guatemala. This is a program from Cornell Lab of Ornithology and started as a mechanism for US birders to report what they found in their birding fieldtrips and started to grow to the most important birding hotspots out of the United States. A few months ago a group of birders in Guatemala led by Carol C. Anderson implemented Ebird Guatemala in order to report accurately observations made in our country. This portal let you send your observations in each place and keep a record of your lifelist, bird list for that place, historical reports and let other birders use that information to prepare charts with frequencies, distributions, etc. Please visit the website and join us to have better information of bird populations in Guatemala. Posted by Maynor Ovando http://www.birdwatchingguatemala.com/ is a registered trademark of Martsam Tour & Travel Copyright® 2,008 http...

Great-tailed Grackle Each time you decide to go birding, even if you think you are not, you wish to see unusual species… and nothing else, but one of the most rewarding experience is to check out for common species. Guatemala City is a place nested in highlands, five thousand feet level, and sometimes in the proper time you can find something extraordinary like a Red Crossbill but when you put your attention in how many species are living near your house you hardly believe it at first time. Walking and looking 2 hours in the small parks thru Historic Center I listed 21 species: Great-tailed Grackle Melodious Blackbird Bronzed Cowbird Clay-colored Robin Golden-fronted Woodpecker House Sparrow Rufous-collared Sparrow White-winged Dove Rock Dove Azure-crowned Hummingbird White-eared Hummingbird Turkey Vulture Black Vulture Gray-silky Flycatcher Social Flycatcher Blue-gray Tanager Yellow-winged Tanager House Wren Black-headed Siskin Pacific Parakeet Northern Rough-winged Swallow Visiting f...