Listado de aves

Mis amigos Bill Thompson y Julie Zickefoose.

En Guatemala se pueden observar aves en todas partes. Siendo el país relativamente pequeño y con tantas especies de aves, casi en cualquier lugar se pueden ver al menos 10 especies.

Sin mucho esfuerzo se pueden observar en las Ciudad de Guatemala:
Zopilote de cabeza negra (Black Vulture)
Zopilote de cabeza roja (Turkey Vulture)
Zanate (Great-tailed Grackle)
Cenzontle (Clay-colored Robin)
Palomas de Castilla (Rock Dove)
Chocoyo (Pacific Parakeet)
2 especies de Coronaditos (Rufous-collared Sparrow)
(House Sparrow)
1 especie de Gorrión ó Colibrí (White-eared Hummingbird)
1 especie de Mosquero (Social Flycatcher)

Coronadito (Rufous-collared Sparrow)

El anterior es un listado de aves para la Ciudad de Guatemala (Bird Checklist en inglés) y no es más que la lista de las aves que se han observado con certeza en un lugar determinado, ya sea un parque, una ciudad, un departamento o un país.

Zanate (Great-tailed Grackle)

Los pajareros llevan meticulosamente listas de las aves que han visto en diferentes lugares, viajes y finalmente las que han visto a lo largo de su vida (Lifelist).

Zopilote de Cabeza Negra (Black Vulture)

Estos son auténticos ejemplos de aves citadinas.

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Nombres de las aves

¿Chiltote ó Chorcha?

Si tienen un par de minutos para ver las fotos que presentamos en este espacio, notarán que los nombres de las aves mostradas están en inglés. Para los conocedores del tema no es nada nuevo pero si usted está empezando a participar de la actividad de observar aves, déjeme explicarle.

Los nombres comunes de las aves varían de país a país, incluso de región a región en el mismo país. Durante mi infancia mi papá me enseñó el nombre común de algunas aves, por ejemplo, mientras visitabamos el oriente del país me dijo que un ave anaranjada de garganta negra, con alas negras y manchas blancas se llama Chorcha. Años después, viajando por la costa sur le pregunté a un administrador de una finca cafetalera si en el área se encontraban las Chorchas y me respondió que no. Al describirle el ave me dijo que Chorchas seguramente no, pero por la descripción lo que iba a encontrar eran Chiltotes. Al final es claro que se trata de la misma ave.

Por esta razón los científicos han utilizado un sistema de nomenclatura que llamamos Nombre Científico, para nombrar todos los seres que pueblan el mundo y para el caso se basan en un sistema en idioma latín que identifica el Género y la Especie de cada individuo. Esta forma impide que haya dos seres con el mismo nombre. Para el caso de las Chorchas del oriente de Guatemala o Chiltotes en la costa sur, el Nombre Científico de la especie es Icterus gularis.

Para muchas personas que no científicas y que disfrutan observando aves el uso del latín es un poco engorroso y tomando en cuenta que la mayor cantidad de observadores de aves provienen de países que hablan inglés, se estableció un sistema unificado que identifica los tipos de aves y sus características principales en un idioma que se conoce en todo el mundo. Así pues, el nombre en inglés para las Chorchas ó Chiltotes es Altamira Oriole.

Altamira Oriole (Icterus gularis)

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New 7 Wonders of Nature

Atitlan Lake

Photo by Maynor Ovando

Have you heard about the New 7 Wonders of Nature? It’s a global campaign to choose 7 nature sites to declare them Treasures of the World.
Atitlan Lake is a nominated candidate for this contest and it makes sense due to the beautiful views you can get in every angle you have of it. But birders have a better reason to support this nomination: the incredible bird diversity.

Resplendent Quetzal

Only around Atitlan Lake you can tick in a couple of days an amazing bird list like this:
Belted Flycatcher
Azure-rumped Tanager
Horned Guan
Resplendent Quetzal
Blue-tailed Hummingbird
Slender Sheartail
Rufous Sabrewing
Bar-winged Oriole
Bushy-crested Jay
Pink-headed Warbler
Hooded Grosbeak
Highland Guan
Green-throated Mountain-gem
Blue-throated Motmot
Rufous-collared Robin
Black Robin
Black-capped Swallow
Rufous-browed Wren
Black-throated Jay
Chestnut-sided Shrike-vireo
Prevost’s Ground-sparrow
Unicolored Jay
Yellow-eyed Junco
Black-capped Siskin
Northern Flicker (Guatemalan race)
Long-tailed Manakin and more than 150 bird species more…

Rufous-collared Robin

Do you agree? So please join us and vote for Atitlan Lake… for the right reason.

Bushy-crested Jay

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¿Bird Watching?

Observadores de Aves en Parque Ecológico Hun Nal Ye

© Maynor Ovando

La observación de aves o Bird Watching es una actividad relativamente nueva en Guatemala. Muchas veces hemos visto turistas de diferentes partes del mundo con cámaras y binoculares en mano, buscando en los árboles de parques y al lado de las carreteras, sin saber que tanto ven. Esta es una rama del ecoturismo en que las personas visitan parques para observar aves libres en la naturalesza.

Nuestro país tiene una gran riqueza de especies de aves, mas de 700, de las cuales alrededor de 500 viven permanentemente en nuestro territorio y las demás pasan el invierno boreal en estas tierras cálidas y regresan a sus territorios norteños para procrear.

Acompáñenos desde este sitio en nuestros diversos viajes de campo a “pajarear” y comparta los increíbles tesoros que la naturaleza del país tiene para ofrecer.

Golden-fronted Woodpecker (Cheje de frente dorada)

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Doves

Blue Ground-dove

Many times we have a poor concept of some bird species. Vultures have a bad reputation because they made the “dirty job” of nature. They are not good singers or colorful of pretty… but they are efficient.

Doves are seen almost in the same way because many hear the word dove and think in a Rock Dove. People even call them “air rats” because their abundance in almost every city in the world. But when you can show how diverse are members of Columbidae family they will start to think different.
Guatemala has 20 dove species and I digiscoped these doves in a birding trip to El Zotz Biotope in Petén lowlands.

White-tipped Dove

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Top ten birds in Guatemala

A troop of birders in Peten lowlands

Photo by Maynor Ovando

As many of you already know there are more than 710 bird species from which about 200 are neartic migrants. The question many people is rounding their minds is: What are the best ticks I can expect to add in Guatemala during a birding trip?

I like to have a top ten bird list in mind for these occasions:
1. Horned Guan
2. Pink-headed Warbler
3. Azure-rumped Tanager
4. Belted Flycatcher
5. Blue-throated Motmot
6. Resplendent Quetzal
7. Bushy-crested Jay
8. Bar-winged Oriole
9. Green-throated Mountain-gem
10. Rufous-browed Wren

Blue-throated Motmot

Bushy-crested Jay

Rufous-browed Wren

And there are like 25 more with almost the same restricted distribution that can be seen in Western and Central highlands.But if you are visiting Northern lowland of Petén the bird list should be:
1. Gray-throated Chat
2. Ocellated Turkey
3. Green-backed Sparrow
4. Orange-breasted Falcon
5. Yucatan Jay
6. Lovely Cotinga
7. White-fronted Parrot
8. Pale-billed Woodpecker
9. Rose-throated Tanager
10. White-collared Manakin

Ocellated Turkey

Orange-breasted Falcon

Pale-billed Woodpecker

Of course there are many beautiful and nice birds but these are authentic trophies for keen birders.

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Land of volcanoes

Lake Atitlan Guardians: Toliman, Atitlan and San Pedro

Photo by Maynor Ovando

Southern Guatemala has a chain formed by volcanoes. They shape the landscape of the foothills from Pacific slope to the highlands; this barrier is responsible for most of the endemism of northern Central America. Birds like Azure-rumped Tanager and Horned Guan are restricted to some volcanic areas between Mexico and Guatemala.

Atitlan Volcano

Photo by Maynor Ovando

Three from the 33 volcanoes in the country are active. Pacaya Volcano is the nearest to Guatemala City and is the most visited. Fuego Volcano is near Antigua Guatemala and Santiaguito Volcano in southwestern is the most active and dangerous.

San Pedro Volcano

Photo by Maynor Ovando

Hiking and birding on volcanoes is just great. All volcanoes has been decalared protected areas and most of them are National Parks that offers services and security to visitors.

Fuego Volcano

Photo by Maynor Ovando

Pacaya Volcano

Photo by Lemuel Valle

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Colorful birds

A typical handicrafts store

Photo by Maynor Ovando

Guatemala is a unique place in the world; diversity is easily observed in our landscape, nature and people. With 23 ethnic groups and languages we have so many different ways to express ourselves and find the answer to our problems as birds do in a mixed foraging flock in the rainforest.

Textiles

Photo by Maynor Ovando

Something extraordinary about how we see life is the way craftsman use colors. Textiles and handicrafts are the best examples and birds are common motive of inspiration.

Bird motives in textiles

Photo by Maynor Ovando

It’s not hard to understand why if you have the chance to walk in a forest trail and enjoy the sight of amazing colorful birds like Ocellated Turkey, Scarlet Macaw, Keel-billed Toucan or Resplendent Quetzal.

Scarlet Macaw

Photo by Benedicto Grijalva

Keel-billed Toucan


Ocellated Turkey

Resplendent Quetzal

Even if you are not a birder you can’t miss them!

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MoSI

Black-throated Green-warbler (female)

Photo by Maynor Ovando

MoSI is the abbreviation for Monitoreo de Sobreviviencia Invernal - Monitoring Overwintering Survival Program is a research managed by the Institute for Bird Populations (IBP) along Latin America to estimate statistics of overwintering and survival rates and indices of physical conditions of a group of 25 target bird species.
The MoSI program is based in a protocol of 5 pulses of mist net operation in an area of at least 20 ha, called a “MoSI Station”. This station is placed in a habitat of interest where the target bird species can be captured in good numbers.

Wing feather examination

Photo by Maynor Ovando

A pulse is equivalent to 16 mist nets operated during 3 consecutive days; it means 15 days of work for a winter season. The protocol ask for specific information like weight, sex, age (determined by feather examination and skull pneumatization) and finally banding individuals to track them in future pulses.

All data collected are sent to IBP to analyze them and take the proper actions in conservation efforts.

Banding birds for monitoring

Photo by Maynor Ovando

Guatemala has been part of this program and many ornithologists an birders has been involved in training workshops to collaborate with this important task. These pictures were taken in a MoSI station in a pine-oak forest in Sierra de las Minas Biosphere Reserve.

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Funny bird pictures

Bronzed Cowbird

Taking bird pictures from nature is a real challenge. Most of us want to have a sharp and perfect image but it is hard to get because circumstances are changing always. Hundreds of shots are not good, even are not good enough to recognize the bird and we usually delete them, but many of them have a story behind or can be seen in a different perspective, artistic or funny…
I took this image of a Bronzed Cowbird in a birding walk around Uaxactun, a Pre Classic Maya City, the weather was stormy and the light conditions were incredibly poor, but looking at the bird trying to dry its feathers made me remember those days when I watched birds just in cartoons. It’s just like a funny bird in a cartoon.

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Birding around Flores, Peten

Peten Itza Lake

Photo by Maynor Ovando

Flores is the capital of the northernmost department of Guatemala, Peten. If you travel to visit any Maya city like Tikal or Yaxhá, you can’t miss this small and beautiful town. Flores is an island, bordered by Petén Itzá Lake and there’s a lot of options to take a tour on the lake or have a ride in a car to visit neighbor towns.

Last Wednesday I decided to go birding around Flores Island, so I tried to have the two sides of the coin birding in water and land.

I started in a boat at 6:00 am to look for wading birds for 3 hours, this is my bird list:
Pied-billed Greebe
Neotropic Cormorant
Northern Jacana
Purple Gallinule
Limpkin
Green Heron
Little Blue Heron
Ringed Kingfisher
Snail Kite
Mangrove Swallow
Great-tailed Grackle
Laughing Gull
Amazon Kingfisher
Great Egret
Bat Falcon
Social Flycatcher
Rock Dove
Common Moorhen
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Olive-throated Parakeet
Yellow-throated Euphonia
Blue-gray Tanager

Juvenile Little Blue Heron and Northern Jacana

Mangrove Swallow

At 9:00 am I got back to have breakfast and then took a car to El Remate, a town midway to Tikal National Park.

El Remate

Photo by Maynor Ovando

This is the bird list I got on the road:
Roadside Hawk
Vermillion Flycatcher (in front of International Airport Mundo Maya)
Fork-tailed Flycatcher
Gray-breasted Martin
Tropical Kingbird
Gray Hawk
Groove-billed Ani
White-collared Seedeater
Ruddy Ground-dove
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Black-headed Trogon
Rufous-tailed Hummingbird
Plumbeous Kite
Bronzed Cowbird
Yellow Warbler

Ruddy Ground-dove

Tropical Kingbird

By noon I went back to Flores again. Just great birding!


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Birds and predators

Yellow-throated Euphonia (male)

Photo by Benedicto Grijalva

Last week I visited Ceibal by boat. Walking near the river looking for birds I saw a couple of Yellow-throated Euphonia flying fiercely near to me. My friend Benedicto told me we should be near their chicks, so we put our attention to neighbor trees. In the root of an epiphyte plant three chicks were perfectly hidden from predators.

Yellow-throated Euphonia chicks

Photo by Maynor Ovando

We walk 5 meters ahead and looked back to the nest when Benedicto told me again about something unusual in a tree branch… “Why does that branch look so strange?” and immediately answered “It’s a Mazacuata!”

A 6 ft. Boa constrictor taking the sun next to Euphonia's nest

Photo by Maynor Ovando

In Guatemala the common name for a Boa constrictor is Mazacuata. The snake was perfectly camouflage in a mango tree. Lay on a branch and taking a sun bath, just getting enough energy to look for the next food.

Mazacuata, the local name of Boa constrictor.

Photo by Maynor Ovando

If you pay attention enough each time you go outside for birding, you can find some other animal species that are looking for them too.

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The Horned Guan Quest...

Visitor Center at San Pedro Volcano Ecological Park

Photo by Maynor Ovando

Guatemala’s most wanted bird to see bird is definitely Horned Guan. One of the most threatened bird in the world, confined to some deciduous forest above 6000 ft. In field this means volcanoes and the easiest access place to look for it is San Pedro Volcano.

A wonderful groups of birding friends looking for the mythic Horned Guan...

Front: Maynor Ovando, Eduardo Galicia, Barbara Dowell, Bryan Bland, Alexis Cerezo

Back: Lemuel Valle, Jeff Gordon, Dave DeSante, Chandler Robbins

March 2007

Photo by Byron Gonzalez

This is me walking in the trails.

Photo by Benedicto Grijalva

The hike takes 4 hours at a birding pace because the site is full of birds; my bird list has more than 150 bird species including Unicolored Jay, Blue-throated Motmot, Bushy-crested Jay, Mountain Trogon, Prevost’s Ground-sparrow, Chestnut-sided Shrike-vireo, Yellow-eyed Junco, Gray-breasted Wood-wren, Slate-throated Redstart and many Neartic migrants…

Slate-throated Redstart

Photo by Benedicto Grijalva

Even though the physical effort is high and the trail has steps most of the path, but the amazing views of Atitlan Lake, the great birds on the way, the chance to observe this cracid and the adrenaline rushing in your blood makes the trip worth it.

Steps along the trail...

Photo by Maynor Ovando

Views of Atitlan Lake

Photo by Maynor Ovando

After 4 hours hiking this is a "good sign"...

Photo by Maynor Ovando

A priceless reward after hard hiking...

Photo by Lemuel Valle

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More than just birds

Atitlan Lake

Photo by Maynor Ovando

All of us enjoy birds… no doubts about it, but Guatemala has a particular advantage when you travel along the country, because there’s no birding site without an amazing complement to explore.

Antigua Guatemala

Photo by Maynor Ovando

Guatemala has over 720 bird species, 35 regional endemic birds to southern Mexico and northern Central America, 21 Maya descendent ethnic groups who share their culture everyday; Antigua Guatemala, one of the most famous Colonial City in America; an endless list of Maya archaeological sites, an incredible ecosystems diversity, amazing natural treasures like Atitlan Lake and the most modern and biggest city in Central America.

Guatemala City

Photo by Maynor Ovando

So you can find a lot of possibilities to combine a birding trip with extraordinary complements like living Maya cultures in the western highlands visit ancient Maya Cities like Yaxha in northern lowlands or look for one of Guatemalan star, the Horned Guan, and enjoy sunset with a cup of the best coffee in the world at Lake Atitlan shores.

Archaeology, history, live culture, textiles, handcrafts, landscapes, splendorous nature and Guatemalan friendship plus birds… sounds like paradise, in this corner of the world we like to call “Eternal Spring Country”.

Orchid

Photo by Maynor Ovando

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American Ornithologists’ Union

American Ornithologists' Union Website

This organization commonly called AOU is the oldest one in America dedicated to the formal study of birds. This year the AOU celebrates its 125th Anniversary, during these years its members have developed an extended and diverse ornithological society open to scientific ornithologists, students, conservationists and birders.

The AOU website provide excellent information about birds in North America and one of the most important work shared is the Check-list of North and South American Birds. The Committee on Classification and Nomenclature of North and Middle American Birds produces an official Check-list of North American Birds, with the purpose of creating a standard classification and nomenclature.

Actually the check-list includes 2046 bird species known in the geographic area from North Pole to boundary shared by Panama and Colombia, including Hawaiian Islands and some Antillean Islands.

Every year Guatemalans check the publication proposed for AOU Committee in order to maintain update our bird lists, because in the last two years changes have affected birds regional endemic to North Central America, like splitting genera Megascops from Otus, which means that the new scientific name of the Bearded Screech-Owl is Mesgascops barbarus; or genus Asturina merged into Buteo which changes the scientific name of a common raptor in Guatemala, GrayHawk, to Buteo nitidus.

Gray Hawk (Buteo nitidus)

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Foothill birds

Guatemalan Pacific Slope

Many of the most captivating birds in Guatemala are found in foothills forest in south western Guatemala. This area is placed in the middle of western highlands and the pacific slope, around 3,000 ft. asl, the humidity and warm temperatures makes this zone ideal for walking in the trails and birding all day long.

Foothills vegetation

Picture by Maynor Ovando

Birds like Yellow-naped Parrot, White-bellied Chachalaca or Blue-tailed Hummingbird are fairly common and a diversity of other tropical birds makes the experience unforgettable.

Yellow-naped Parrot

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Birding in the Pacific Slope

Xetulul Park

Photo by Maynor Ovando

Last weekend I visited Guatemalan Pacific Coast. This is always a good chance for birding even if you don’t plan to visit Private Nature Reserves or National Parks.

I went to a theme park named Xetulul and the trip took 3 hours from Guatemala City, so I decided to account only the species that I could observe on the road or inside the park.

This is my bird list:
Great-tailed Grackle
Gray Hawk
Turkey Vulture
Black Vulture
Crested Caracara
White-throated Magpie-jay
Chestnut-collared Swift
White-collared Swift
Melodious Blackbird
Altamira Oriole
Pacific Parakeet
Cinnamon Hummingbird
House Wren
Tropical Kingbird
Social Flycatcher
Cattle Egret
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Lineated Woodpecker
Clay-colored Robin
House Sparrow

Crested Caracara

Golden-fronted Woodpecker

Clay-colored Robin

Photo by Benedicto Grijalva

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Birds everywhere

Do you see any bird?

Photo by Maynor Ovando

When do you realize you are a keen birder? There is no an easy answer, but if you are really looking birds everywhere, even if they are not present, you should have a little suspicious…

Working in a MoSI station in Sierra de Las Minas last winter I took a lot of pictures but my favorite is this with a pelican form…

Do you see another bird form?

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