February 06: Fabrice Schmitt and Luke Seitz from their just-concluded tour to Guyana
The “top-five” birds elected by the group illustrate the amazing variety we encountered: a massive Harpy Eagle that perched for half an hour got all the votes for “Bird of the trip”
Our very accommodating Harpy Eagle Image: Luke Seitz
followed by a superb male Guianan Cock-of-the-rock seen at his lek, a mimetic Great Potoo seen on his day roost, the unique Capuchinbird displaying at a lek and giving that so bizarre song,
Capuchinbird Image: Luke Seitz
and a pair of the splendid Crimson Fruitcrows seen from the garden of one of our lodges tied with a cooperative White-bellied Antbird, coming very close to let us appreciate how handsome he was!
White-bellied Antbird Image: Luke Seitz
Guyana is known to be the best place to see trumpeters and we succeeded with repeated and good views on Gray-winged. We also had fantastic views of several other Guyanan specialties such as Black Curassow, Rufous Crab Hawk, Scarlet Ibis,
Scarlet Ibis Image: Luke Seitz
White-winged Potoo, Blood-colored Woodpecker, Dusky Purpletuft and Pompadour Cotinga, just to name a few! We also confirmed this is a wonderful tour for parrots as we saw no less than 18 different species, including many that are rare or local; Red-fan, Dusky, Caica and Blue-cheeked for example. We were also lucky to find an army-ant swarm attracting a group of stunning White-plumed Antbirds!
White-plumed Antbird Image: Luke Seitz
It was also a fine tour for other wildlife including several species of monkeys, a Pale-throated Three-toed Sloth, a Giant Otter, and reptiles including mutiple species of caimans including the rare Dwarf and several snakes.
Dwarf Caiman Image: Luke Seitz
We can also report that great accommodation can now be found on most of the tour and the Guyanan food is simple excellent.
Posted: February 06, 2016