Grand Belize Feb 15—25, 2007
Posted by Barry Zimmer
Barry Zimmer
Barry Zimmer has been birding since the age of eight. His main areas of expertise lie in North and Central America, but his travels have taken him throughout much of the wo...Related Trips
We left Chan Chich Lodge early in the morning on the eighth day of our trip in order to head up to an area known as the escarpment. At one point this site was going to be the location of a second lodge on the property. A small area was cleared on the edge of a ridge that overlooks roughly 300,000 acres of protected forest and provides superb raptor-viewing in addition to the wonderful scenery. We wanted to arrive in time to see the first raptors get up out of the forest and sail along the ridge line, but we kept getting distracted along the way. A pair of Great Curassows (we would see 17 during our trip) strolled across the road in front of us demanding our attention. Near Gallon Jug, several White-fronted Parrots alit in a roadside tree necessitating another quick stop. Scissor-tailed and Fork-tailed flycatchers darted off the fence line in front of our bus. A short while later an adult Great Black-Hawk was spotted perched nearly over our heads.
Focused on getting to the escarpment, we continued on. We began to climb upward when a pair of White-whiskered Puffbirds appeared on some hanging vines to our left. I was beginning to think we would never arrive at our destination at the best time for raptor viewing, but fortunately it was a cloudy morning and the raptors would likely be a little late. Suddenly a large bird flushed out of the forest in front of us and sailed up to a limb right over the road in full view. Incredibly it was an adult Spectacled Owl, a bird I had never seen at Chan Chich before. Everyone got off “the birdmobile” and we enjoyed fantastic scope views of this magnificent bird for several minutes.
Although we had yet to arrive at the escarpment, our morning was already a wild success. We ascended one final hill, passing a huge mahogany en route that has periodically been used as a nesting tree for a pair of Ornate Hawk-Eagles, and before us lay an incredible sweeping vista. From this vantage point of more than 180 degrees we could see nothing but forest below?no roads, no houses, no villages. We set up our scopes, had a quick snack, and then waited to see what might pass by. Someone quickly spotted a perched Brown-hooded Parrot behind us and we enjoyed wonderful views. A Bat Falcon sailed by, followed quickly by two King Vultures. Then our local guide, Raul, called my attention to a distant raptor way out to the left. I got my scope on it and realized that it was a Black-and-white Hawk-Eagle, a species that is hard to see almost anywhere. It was so far out that a scope view was required to identify the bird, but gradually it began sailing our way. Within minutes it came cruising in and perched atop a large tree about a half-mile away. Now we had very good scope views of this incredible bird, only the third Victor had ever seen perched and only the fourth for me. Its snow-white underparts contrasted boldly with the blackish back, black mask, short black crest, and bright orange cere. Unbelievable luck!
Over the next hour we tallied a pair of Short-tailed Hawks (one light morph and one dark morph), a pair of Black Hawk-Eagles, two White Hawks, and a Double-toothed Kite. By 10:45 a.m. it was time to load up and begin heading back to the lodge for lunch. As we descended the hill, we made a stop to point out the old Ornate Hawk-Eagle nest in the mahogany tree. While pointing out an Olive-sided Flycatcher over our heads, I suddenly heard the distinctive calls of the Ornate just beyond the nest tree. Within a minute, this magnificent creature sailed up into the tree right in front of us; the nest was active again! We watched for over 15 minutes?spellbound, at what is surely one of the most beautiful raptors in the world. All three hawk-eagles and a Spectacled Owl in the same morning…such are the possibilities at Chan Chich!
Of course this was but one of many great mornings. For the trip we tallied nearly 300 species of birds. To the south near Hidden Valley we had walkaway views of Orange-breasted Falcon from about 30 feet, found a roosting Stygian Owl, watched eight King Vultures perched over King Vulture Falls, had twelve Swallow-tailed Kites in view at once, and had myriad colorful species such as Golden-hooded Tanager, Yellow-backed and Yellow-tailed orioles side by side, Green Jay, and Black-headed Siskin.
Other Chan Chich area highlights included Blue-crowned and Tody motmots, superb views of Mottled Owl and Vermiculated Screech-Owl on a night drive, the localized Rose-throated Tanager and Gray-throated Chat, and Collared Trogon. “Regular fare” such as toucans, jacamars, manakins (males of both Red-capped and White-collared were near daily fixtures at the restaurant), and Chestnut-colored Woodpecker also delighted the crowd. Great shows of Central American spider monkey and Mexican black howler monkey along with sightings of tamandua (lesser anteater) and tayra added to the fun.
Our tour ended with two days in the Crooked Tree/Belize City area. Here we added two Agami Herons, 15 Rufous-necked Wood-Rails at once, an unexpected covey of Black-throated Bobwhite, and a pair of Yellow-headed Parrots among others.
As is usually the case with all our Belize tours, this one was a wild success. This country remains on the must-do list of every birder interested in the tropics.