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This tour will next run in 2013 with Gavin Bieber and Hugo Enriquez Toledo as leaders Cost: £2040 plus about £750 for flights (2011) with Tikal extension: £3110 plus about £750 for flights (2011) Please click here for details and an explanation of the price breakdown Maximum group size: 12 with 2 leaders
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Lying in the heart of Central America, the highlands of Guatemala’s Pacific slope are famous worldwide for two birds: the improbable-looking Pink-headed Warbler and the bizarre and critically endangered Horned Guan. Less well-known are the astonishing concentrations of northern migrants, especially wood warblers, that share these cool montane forests with a vast selection of Central American specialities. Our tour will concentrate on seeing both the warbler and the guan, but we also take time to enjoy fully the diversity of the region’s birdlife and to appreciate the charm of baroque Antigua. Our short Tikal Extension takes us even further back in time and into tropical lowland habitats with a completely new suite of birds. Watching Ocellated Turkeys, parrots, and perhaps even the local Orange-breasted Falcon amidst the ruins of one of the greatest cities ever built in the New World is an experience no birder should miss. Day 1: The tour begins in London with a flight to Guatemala City. Day 2: After arrival we'll transfer to our hotel in Antigua, often described as the most beautiful city in all Central America. Night in Antigua. Day 3: After breakfast we’ll make the 15-minute drive to Finca El Pilar, a shady coffee plantation and nature reserve on the outskirts of Antigua. Our vehicle will take us up the mountainside to the lower cloud forest, home of Black-capped Swallow, Rufous-collared Thrush, Gray Silky-flycatcher, Crescent-chested and Red-faced Warblers, Rufous-collared Sparrow, and Black-headed Siskin. We’ll spend the morning walking easy, level trails and roads, and then later we'll be picked up by our vehicle and return to the lower portions of El Pilar, where we’ll enjoy an elegant buffet lunch among feeders frequented by Magnificent, Berylline (Deville’s), and Azure-crowned Hummingbirds and Violet and Rufous Sabrewings. After lunch, we’ll explore the trails leading up from El Pilar, where we hope to encounter Singing Quail, Green-throated Mountain-gem, Tufted Flycatcher, Slate-throated Redstart, and White-eared Ground-Sparrow. Anyone who wishes can stay behind and enjoy the hummingbird feeders. Dinner will be in one of Antigua’s many excellent restaurants. Night in Antigua. Day 4: After coffee and tea at our hotel, we’ll make the half-hour drive to Rincon Suizo. The open high-elevation forest here can be filled with a riotous mix of resident species and boreal migrants, Tennessee and Townsend’s Warblers roaming in mixed flocks with Crescent-chested and Red-faced Warblers, while Rose-breasted Grosbeaks and Indigo Buntings share the woodland edge with Rufous-browed Wrens and Elegant Euphonias. Our major target here, though, is one of the strangest and most beautiful of all the parulids, Pink-headed Warbler, a bird for which no painting or photograph can prepare the visiting birder. The species is common in these woods, but it may take us a couple of hours to find a flock with them in attendance. Once our search is complete, we’ll repair to the nearby restaurant for a lavish late breakfast, then return to Antigua for a leisurely tour of the city’s architectural monuments and shops. Night in Antigua. Day 5: We’ll have breakfast at our hotel, then make the leisurely drive to Los Andes, with stops along the way for lowland specialties such as White-throated Magpie-Jay. Our approach to Los Andes passes through vast rubber tree plantations. We’ll arrive in late morning at Los Andes, a private nature reserve that also produces organic tea, shade coffee, and quinine; we’ll have a short time before lunch to bird the lodge’s grounds, where the amazing variety of birds can include Pacific Parakeet, Blue-tailed Hummingbird, Yellow-winged Tanager, Red-legged Honeycreeper, Prevost’s Ground-Sparrow, and White-collared Seedeater. Following a short siesta, we’ll ride up the hill through the tea plantations to the promisingly named Quetzal Trail. In addition to the trail’s resplendent namesake, we’ll be looking here for Highland and Crested Guans, Spotted Wood-Quail, and Blue-crowned Motmot, along with flocks of wintering warblers. About a mile from the beginning of the trail is an area frequented by Cabanis’s (Azure-rumped) Tanager, as sought-after for its pastel beauty as for its rarity. On the ride back down to our lodge for dinner, we’re likely to see Pauraques and perhaps an owl or two as dusk falls. Night at Los Andes. Day 6: Fortified by an early breakfast at Los Andes, we’ll drive two-and-a-half hours to the shores of glistening Lake Atitlan, where a 30-minute boat ride will take us to the town of San Pedro at the foot of the eponymous volcano. We’ll then be picked up for the 12-minute drive to the San Pedro Volcano Visitor Center, where we will begin our (optional) ascent in search of the mountain’s famous Horned Guans. This trail is notoriously and relentlessly steep, but we will take about three hours to cover the less than two miles to the most reliable area for the guan, pausing repeatedly to bird or to catch our breath; a roofed pavilion at the half-way point provides spectacular views of volcano-ringed Atitlan and an opportunity to enjoy a packed lunch. Any participants who would prefer not to take this hike (a total of five hours up and back) have the option of spending that time along the first, relatively easy stretch of the trail with one of the leaders. Along with impressive concentrations of wintering warblers, this area can produce such species as Lesser Roadrunner, Squirrel Cuckoo, Golden-olive Woodpecker, Rufous-capped Warbler, Stripe-headed Sparrow, Elegant Euphonia, and Black-vented Oriole. The higher stretches of the walk, nearer the locality favoured by the Horned Guans, also offer the possibility of such forest species as Fulvous Owl and Emerald-chinned Hummingbird. The guans themselves - one of the most severely threatened birds in the Americas - are usually found feeding quietly in the canopy, where their otherwise striking black-and-white plumage affords them a surprising degree of 'disruptive' camouflage. If we’re fortunate, we’ll not only see several birds but also hear their buzzy, grunting booms. From the visitor centre, we will ride back down to San Pedro, then take the boat across the lake and our bus to Los Tarrales, where we should have a couple of hours to bird or rest before dinner. Night at Los Tarrales Private Nature Reserve. Day 7: We’ll sleep relatively late this morning and enjoy a leisurely breakfast in the garden at Los Tarrales, watching Orange-chinned Parakeet, Cinnamon Hummingbird, White-throated Magpie-Jay, Rufous-naped Wren, Red-legged Honeycreeper, Yellow-throated Euphonia, and Spot-breasted Oriole among the range of species visiting the lodge grounds. After breakfast we’ll enjoy a leisurely walk along the reserve’s trails. Lower than the sites we visit earlier, the trail network at Los Tarrales will add an entire suite of new species to our tour list, including possibilities such as Orange-fronted Parakeet, Long-billed Starthroat, Barred Antshrike, Common Tody-Flycatcher, Yellow-olive Flycatcher, Masked Tityra, White-throated Thrush, and White-winged Tanager. Tody Motmot is also a distinct possibility. The real star here, though, is Long-tailed Manakin, colourful and generally conspicuous along the trails, where its loud whistles are a characteristic sound. We’ll return to Los Tarrales for a late lunch, then drive to Guatemala City, where we will have dinner at our hotel. Night in Guatemala City. Day 8: After breakfast those not doing the extension will transfer to the airport to connect with a flight back to London where the tour ends on Day 9.
Tikal extension:
Day 8: Those taking the extension will fly north from Guatemala City across impressive stretches of forest to Flores, a charming town on beautiful Lake Petén Itzá. On arriving in Flores, we’ll make the drive to Yaxha, just southeast of Tikal. Named for its proximity to the sparkling turquoise waters of the nearby lagoons, Yaxha ('Yax' = green, 'Ha' = water) was occupied for some 1,500 years up to about the year 900. The impressive ruins of the Maya city are aligned along an arrow-straight axis nearly a mile long, and culminate in the monumental buildings of the Eastern Acropolis. The fine forest surrounding the site abounds with tropical birds, including the dramatic Pale-billed Woodpecker and a variety of colourful parrots, trogons, toucans, hummingbirds, and tanagers. King Vulture is expected overhead, and the resident Laughing Falcon is likely to greet us, too. We’ll continue in the late afternoon to Tikal where we will spend the night. Day 9: Simply put, Tikal is one of a kind, a combination of nature and culture without parallel. Orange-breasted Falcons nest on breathtaking pyramids, and Ocellated Turkeys and Plain Chachalacas wander between the ancient houses just as they likely did in the days of the classical Maya. We also have a good chance at seeing Crested Guan and another of the prizes among the cracids, Great Curassow, which is relatively confiding under the protected conditions of the national park. White-collared Manakin, Olive-backed Euphonia, and Montezuma Oropendola are just some of the many tropical species to be encountered here. Night in Tikal. Day 10: We’ll have another morning with the marvels of Tikal before our return flight from Flores to Guatemala City. Night in Guatemala City. Day 11: We'll connect with a flight back to London where the tour ends on Day 12.
The ground arrangements for this tour are organized by our American associates WINGS.
E-mail or phone +44 (0)1767 262522 for availability.
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