A one-week trip designed for those with limited vacation time but seeking a full-throttle birding experience in a region where birds are particularly abundant and easy to see. Highlights should include several species of macaws, the endangered Blue-throated Macaw, lots of marsh and water birds, raptors, and passerines and non-passerines large and small. Some good photographic opportunities.

This short but action-packed trip will be based partly in the city of Trinidad and partly at a ranch where there should be opportunities to observe the Blue-throated Macaw, now one of the world's most endangered macaws. With an estimated population of only about 350 individuals surviving in the wild, conservation efforts have accelerated to stabilize the current population. In addition, the marshes, grasslands, scrub, palm-dominated forest islands, and humid riverine forest harbor a spectacular array of birds, many of which are surprisingly easy to see. Several years ago we set a VENT record here, seeing 213 species in a single day, an indication of just how readily birds can be seen here. The area is home to seven species of macaws, as well as Greater Rheas, many waders, waterfowl, and raptors. Lightly-wooded habitats teem with an interesting mix of small and large birds ranging from woodpeckers, nunbirds and furnariids, and antbirds to seedeaters, finches, and blackbirds.

This trip provides an exciting precursor, as well as a striking contrast, to our second trip which focuses on the Andes.

Good accommodations in city of Trinidad, more basic with shared but clean rooms at ranch; food surprisingly good and exceptionally well-presented; superb birding right at our doorstep; flat and easy walking; travel by bus and/or 4-wheel drive; some muddy conditions possible (weather dependent).