Ptari Tepui — Photo: Steve Hilty

Unbeatable lineup of large, showy species, tepui mountain endemics, opportunities for Harpy Eagle, and rare Orinoco specialty birds. Lots of outstanding scenery.

Wild, remote, and begging for discovery, Eastern Venezuela is the setting for some of the most spectacular scenery and birding on the South American continent. The flat-topped tepuis are the most instantly recognizable landmarks in this portion of Venezuela, and the mystical lowland and highland forests cloaking them hold numbers of endemic bird species few birders ever see.

Our travels through this remarkable region of cloud forests, gallery forests, waterfalls, elevated grasslands, and mesa-like mountains offer immersion into a world of radiant tropical birding where macaws, cotingas, cocks-of-the-rock, and tanagers abound. Among the avian delights we will enjoy are more than 20 tepui endemic bird species, the incomparable Crimson Topaz hummingbird, the bizarre Capuchinbird, Peacock Coquette, Red-banded Fruiteater, Tepui Goldenthroat, and an enticing pageant of jacamars, parakeets, antbirds, and tyrant-flycatchers. We will also likely find Bearded and White bellbirds, both of which are favorites on this tour. Those with an interest in botany will find the trees and plants of this region fascinating.

We will visit the Rio Grande Forestry Reserve, an area with the largest density of Harpy Eagles in the world. In years past we have had the privilege of visiting active nest sites. In addition to Harpy Eagles, the list of birds for this area is immense, and includes as many as 5 guans and curassows, 13 parrots, 12 woodpeckers, 10 woodcreepers, over 30 antbirds, and more than 50 flycatchers! Many of the species found here are actually distinctly Guianan, such as Marail Guan, Painted and Golden-winged parakeets, Red-fan Parrots, Channel-billed Toucan, Paradise Jacamar, and White-plumed and Rufous-throated antbirds.

Our adventure will conclude with a day on the Orinoco River, one of South America's greatest landmarks. The numerous tributaries, marshes, and swamp forests of this mighty river offer superb birding. A full-day boat trip, in the vicinity of the delta, will take us to areas where hoatzins, macaws, and puffbirds all thrive. On previous VENT tours to this region, we have found several species either poorly-known, such as the Black-chested Tyrant, or even entirely new to science, including a softtail, a spinetail, and a wagtail-tyrant.

Our Eastern Venezuela tour is a "must" for the tropical birder. There may be no other tour to this country offering such an incredible avifauna that is so rich, yet so little-known.

Accommodations moderate to basic, possibly some shared doubles; travel by plane, bus, four-wheel drive vehicle, and boat; relatively easy walking but one or more longer, moderately strenuous rainforest walks sometimes necessary; warm and humid in lowlands and on the Orinoco, cool and damp in the mountains.