Grand Belize Feb 12—22, 2008
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 began our first morning at Hidden Valley with a short walk around the lodge grounds before breakfast. Birds were walking up in rapid procession. A family of Acorn Woodpeckers gathered on a dead snag. An Azure-crowned Hummingbird zipped into the hummingbird feeder outside the dining room. A pair of Hepatic Tanagers dropped into the fruit-covered tray nearby, while both Yellow-backed and Yellow-tailed orioles worked their way up the vine-covered antenna on the lodge roof to sing in the first rays of the morning sun. A pair of Ferruginous Pygmy-Owls began whistling a short distance down the driveway and were quickly spotted in a small sapling along the road; we had walkaway scope views from about 30 feet! From the thicket to our right, a group of Green Jays, several Melodious Blackbirds, and a pair of Black-headed Saltators clamored for our attention. A noisy pair of Red-lored Parrots passed overhead, as did a troop of raucous Brown Jays. A shrill rattle revealed the presence of a pair of Golden-olive Woodpeckers in the same tree as the saltators. Thirty minutes had passed and we had walked about 100 feet since we started! Finally, we managed to make some progress down the driveway, where we had excellent views of a pair of Rufous-capped Warblers, a singing Gray-crowned Yellowthroat, and a burly Rusty Sparrow—all this in the 40 minutes before breakfast!
As exciting as our pre-breakfast walk was, it was completely overshadowed by what was to come. We loaded up into the bus after breakfast to head toward scenic Thousand Foot Falls. We had driven about two miles when we stopped for a roosting Stygian Owl that our local guide had spotted earlier. This species is seldom seen anywhere, and Hidden Valley is perhaps the most reliable spot in the world to find one. We enjoyed fantastic scope views of this strange owl before pressing on towards the falls and our search for another rarely seen species, the Orange-breasted Falcon. More roadside birding delayed our progress, however, as a Lineated Woodpecker, dazzling Golden-hooded Tanagers, Plain Wren, Black-headed Siskins, Grace's Warbler, Yellow-faced Grassquits, and a rarely seen Red Crossbill demanded our attention. Finally, we arrived at the edge of the spectacular chasm that harbors the 1,600-foot waterfall. A scan of the dead snags above the falls revealed a pair of Orange-breasted Falcons surveying their domain. We had nice, though distant, views of these birds, and left elated.
We still had time to squeeze in one more stop before returning to the lodge for lunch, so we headed to nearby King Vulture Falls. As the name implies, this is a great spot for seeing magnificent King Vultures coming in to bathe and drink on the upper portions of the falls. As we approached the pullout we could see that several King Vultures were already gathering in the trees above the bathing area. Just as we were about to stop to put them in the scope, we spotted another pair of Orange-breasted Falcons no more than 100 feet away! What to look at first? Over the next half-hour or so, we alternated between the striking falcons so close by and the stunning black and white vultures with their multicolored heads at the falls. This would be a hard morning to top!
Our Grand Belize tour was filled with moments such as these. We began our trip at Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary where highlights included four Jabirus (one on a nest less than 100 yards away), two Agami Herons, Boat-billed Herons, a Crane Hawk at 30 feet, several Black-collared Hawks, Snail Kites galore, Yucatan Woodpecker, a pair of Yellow-headed Parrots, and a family of Yucatan Jays at about 15 feet! A quick flight out to nearby Caye Caulker yielded at least nine Rufous-necked Wood-Rails in view at once, in addition to regional endemics such as Black Catbird and Yucatan Vireo.
The final six days of our trip were spent at fabulous Chan Chich Lodge, thought by many to be one of the premier eco-tourist lodges in the world. Here, amidst over 300,000 acres of preserved forest, we encountered Black-and-white and Black hawk-eagles, White Hawk, Spotted Wood-Quail at 20 feet, Northern Potoo, Yucatan Nightjar, Pale-billed and Chestnut-colored woodpeckers, an ant swarm with Ruddy and Tawny-winged woodcreepers and Gray-headed Tanagers just feet away, regional specialties such as Gray-throated Chat and Rose-throated Tanager, bathing Purple-crowned Fairies, Great and Slaty-breasted tinamous actually seen, and a wonderful Sungrebe that came within 15 feet of the group.
In all, we totaled almost 300 species of birds, marveled at monkeys and tropical butterflies, and savored the treasures of Belize.