2006 Tour Narrative
We began our Chan Chich week with a short bit of birding in the outskirts of Belize City. Here we found a wide variety of species, several of which we didn’t see at Chan Chich, including Magnificent Frigatebird, Lesser Yellow-headed Vulture, Black-bellied Whistling-Duck, Osprey, Common Black-Hawk, Green-breasted Mango, Cinnamon Hummingbird, Tropical Mockingbird, Eastern Meadowlark, and Hooded and Yellow-tailed Orioles. Leaving the busy coast behind, we took a short flight to Gallon Jug and began to explore the wonders of Chan Chich. We were immediately impressed by the degree of activity right at the lodge where we saw Collared Forest-Falcon (hopping around on rooftops and perching in the bushes right by the verandah!), Ocellated Turkeys (we had to try not to step on them; and yes, they are wild!), Squirrel Cuckoo, Lesser Swallow-tailed Swift, Long-billed and Stripe-throated Hermits, Scaly-breasted and Rufous-tailed Hummingbirds, Wedge-tailed Sabrewing, Purple-crowned Fairy, Yellow-winged Tanager, and all three euphonia species. Later we took a walk to the Upper Plaza with Gilberto, who taught us about the ancient Maya and showed us a bunch of nice birds including Bat Falcon, Short-billed Pigeon, White-crowned Parrot, White-whiskered Puffbird, Chestnut-colored and Pale-billed Woodpeckers, Sulphur-rumped Flycatcher, Bright-rumped Attila (eating a frog), Rufous Mourner and Black-throated Shrike-Tanager. Not bad for the first day!
It’s difficult to pick highlights from a week at such a magical place. Each day was a little bit different as we explored all of the nearly nine miles of trails at Chan Chich and regularly ventured out on short drives to interesting nearby areas. On our trip to the Escarpment we found nine species of raptors including Double-toothed Kite, White Hawk and Black-and-white Hawk-Eagle, despite cloudy weather! On our night drive we found numerous Common Pauraques along with Common Potoo, a very close Yucatan Nightjar and a Central American Wooly Opossum, a rarely-seen arboreal species. On our trip to the Hillbank Road cacao plantation we found a White-necked Puffbird, had excellent views of a perched juvenile Great Black-Hawk and had our closest encounter with a group of Howler Monkeys, who seemed just as interested in watching us as we were in watching them. Other mammalian highlights included a roosting Greater White-lined Bat and a large, playful group of White-nosed Coatis. Among many North American migrants, we regularly saw both Northern and Louisiana Waterthrushes (together at times), providing an excellent ID lesson in surprising surroundings. One always delights in finding some of the local specialties in a region, and indeed we were thrilled to see such special birds as Great Curassow, Sungrebe, Tody Motmot, Collared Trogon, Scaly-throated Leaftosser, Plain Antvireo, Stub-tailed Spadebill, Yucatan Flycatcher, Gray-collared Becard, Lovely Cotinga and Gray-throated Chat. As always, however, no highlight beat mealtime at the verandah. The assortment of birds seen there was simply astonishing and the views superb. At virtually every meal, we were joined by such gems as White-collared and Red-capped Manakin, Yellow-throated and Olive-backed Euphonias, and an African Tulip Tree just full of hummingbirds like Purple-crowned Fairy and Wedge-tailed Sabrewing. Add to that some fine food and an incredibly friendly staff and it’s easy to see why everybody loves Chan Chich!
Michael O’Brien
Updated: February 2007