Birding in San Miguel Village

Miguel Marin, an expert member of Bird Watching Guatemala Project

Photo by Maynor Ovando

San Miguel is a small village just five minutes in a boat ride from Flores Island in Petén lowlands. And like many places in Guatemala is a great birding hotspot. Miguel Marin is an extraordinary birder and a terrific birding guide who lives in this small bird paradise.

Mangrove Swallow

After years leading birding groups he has got an extra sense to find birds, sometimes people say that Miguel has a treat with birds because just in the moment he speaks about a bird, it comes in front of your eyes. He knows perfectly every bird that can be found in his domains and as members of the Bird Watching Guatemala birding staff I took a couple of hours to walk with him around the place.

Northern Jacana

I was thinking that my chances to get many birds were low because of the rainy weather but my expert friend had no problem to show me 52 bird species in this short visit.
Miguel has been recording patiently every bird since he’s able and to the date the bird list reaches 214 bird species, including Royal Flycatcher he found for the first time two days ago.

Social Flycatcher

I was thinking that my chances to get many birds were low because of the rainy weather but my expert friend had no problem to show me 52 bird species in this short visit.

Blue-gray Tanager

Miguel has been recording patiently every bird since he’s able and to the date the bird list reaches 214 bird species, including Royal Flycatcher he found for the first time two days ago.

This is San Miguel bird list updated to October 22th.

1 Great Tinamou
2 Thicket Tinamou
3 Slaty-breasted Tinamou
4 Least Grebe
5 Pied-billed Grebe
6 Brown Pelican
7 Neotropic Cormorant
8 Bare-throated Tiger-Heron
9 Great Blue Heron
10 Great Egret
11 Snowy Egret
12 Little Blue Heron
13 Cattle Egret
14 Green Heron
15 Black-crowned Night-Heron
16 Boat-billed Heron
17 Black Vulture
18 Turkey Vulture
19 King Vulture
20 Black-bellied Whistling-Duck
21 Osprey
22 Hook-billed Kite
23 White-tailed Kite
24 Double-toothed Kite
25 Gray Hawk
26 Roadside Hawk
27 Black Hawk-Eagle
28 Laughing Falcon
29 Bat Falcon
30 Plain Chachalaca
31 Great Curassow
32 Ruddy Crake
33 Gray-necked Wood-Rail
34 Sora
35 Purple Gallinule
36 Common Moorhen
37 American Coot
38 Limpkin
39 Black-necked Stilt
40 Northern Jacana
41 Laughing Gull
42 Black Skimmer
43 Rock Dove
44 Scaled Pigeon
45 Red-billed Pigeon
46 White-winged Dove
47 Ruddy Ground-Dove
48 Blue Ground-Dove
49 White-tipped Dove
50 Gray-headed Dove
51 Olive-throated Parakeet
52 Brown-hooded Parrot
53 White-crowned Parrot
54 White-fronted Parrot
55 Red-lored Parrot
56 Black-billed Cuckoo
57 Yellow-billed Cuckoo
58 Squirrel Cuckoo
59 Groove-billed Ani
60 Central American Pygmy-Owl
61 Mottled Owl
62 Lesser Nighthawk
63 Common Pauraque
64 Whip-poor-will
65 Vaux's Swift
66 Stripe-throated Hermit
67 Scaly-breasted Hummingbird
68 Wedge-tailed Sabrewing
69 Green-breasted Mango
70 Canivet's Emerald
71 White-bellied Emerald
72 Rufous-tailed Hummingbird
73 Buff-bellied Hummingbird
74 Ruby-throated Hummingbird
75 Black-headed Trogon
76 Violaceous Trogon
77 Collared Trogon
78 Blue-crowned Motmot
79 Ringed Kingfisher
80 Belted Kingfisher
81 Green Kingfisher
82 American Pygmy Kingfisher
83 Rufous-tailed Jacamar
84 Collared Aracari
85 Keel-billed Toucan
86 Golden-fronted Woodpecker
87 Smoky-brown Woodpecker
88 Golden-olive Woodpecker
89 Chestnut-colored Woodpecker
90 Lineated Woodpecker
91 Pale-billed Woodpecker
92 Plain Xenops
93 Tawny-winged Woodcreeper
94 Ruddy Woodcreeper
95 Olivaceous Woodcreeper
96 Northern Barred-Woodcreeper
97 Ivory-billed Woodcreeper
98 Great Antshrike
99 Barred Antshrike
100 Plain Antvireo
101 Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet
102 Greenish Elaenia
103 Yellow-bellied Elaenia
104 Northern Bentbill
105 Slate-headed Tody-Flycatcher
106 Common Tody-Flycatcher
107 Yellow-olive Flycatcher
108 Stub-tailed Spadebill
109 Royal Flycatcher
110 Greater Pewee
111 Eastern Wood-Pewee
112 Tropical Pewee
113 Least Flycatcher
114 Bright-rumped Attila
115 Dusky-capped Flycatcher
116 Great Crested Flycatcher
117 Brown-crested Flycatcher
118 Great Kiskadee
119 Boat-billed Flycatcher
120 Social Flycatcher
121 Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher
122 Piratic Flycatcher
123 Tropical Kingbird
124 Eastern Kingbird
125 Rose-throated Becard
126 Masked Tityra
127 White-collared Manakin
128 Red-capped Manakin
129 White-eyed Vireo
130 Mangrove Vireo
131 Yellow-throated Vireo
132 Warbling Vireo
133 Philadelphia Vireo
134 Red-eyed Vireo
135 Yellow-green Vireo
136 Lesser Greenlet
137 Green Jay
138 Brown Jay
139 Yucatan Jay
140 Purple Martin
141 Gray-breasted Martin
142 Mangrove Swallow
143 Northern Rough-winged Swallow
144 Barn Swallow
145 Spot-breasted Wren
146 Carolina Wren
147 House Wren
148 White-bellied Wren
149 Long-billed Gnatwren
150 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
151 Tropical Gnatcatcher
152 Swainson's Thrush
153 Wood Thrush
154 Clay-colored Robin
155 Gray Catbird
156 Olive Warbler
157 Blue-winged Warbler
158 Golden-winged Warbler
159 Tennessee Warbler
160 Northern Parula
161 Yellow Warbler
162 Chestnut-sided Warbler
163 Magnolia Warbler
164 Yellow-rumped Warbler
165 Black-throated Green Warbler
166 Blackburnian Warbler
167 Yellow-throated Warbler
168 Bay-breasted Warbler
169 Black-and-white Warbler
170 American Redstart
171 Prothonotary Warbler
172 Worm-eating Warbler
173 Ovenbird
174 Northern Waterthrush
175 Kentucky Warbler
176 Common Yellowthroat
177 Hooded Warbler
178 Wilson's Warbler
179 Yellow-breasted Chat
180 Gray-throated Chat
181 Red-legged Honeycreeper
182 Gray-headed Tanager
183 Red-throated Ant-Tanager
184 Summer Tanager
185 Western Tanager
186 Crimson-collared Tanager
187 Blue-gray Tanager
188 Yellow-winged Tanager
189 Scrub Euphonia
190 Yellow-throated Euphonia
191 Olive-backed Euphonia
192 Blue-black Grassquit
193 White-collared Seedeater
194 Yellow-faced Grassquit
195 Green-backed Sparrow
196 Botteri's Sparrow
197 Grayish Saltator
198 Black-headed Saltator
199 Northern Cardinal
200 Rose-breasted Grosbeak
201 Blue-black Grosbeak
202 Blue Bunting
203 Indigo Bunting
204 Dickcissel
205 Red-winged Blackbird
206 Eastern Meadowlark
207 Melodious Blackbird
208 Great-tailed Grackle
209 Giant Cowbird
210 Black-cowled Oriole
211 Orchard Oriole
212 Yellow-tailed Oriole
213 Baltimore Oriole
214 Yellow-billed Cacique

Posted by Maynor Ovando

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Ixpanpajul

Lemuel, Melvin and me birding at Ixpanpajul

Photo by Maynor Ovando

A couple of weeks ago I joined to Melvin and Lemuel, two of the best birding guides in Guatemala, to an early birding walk in Ecological Park Ixpanpajul. We started at 6:00 in the morning and the sound of Blue-crowned Motmot, Clay-colored Robin and Great Tinamou was announcing the sunrise.

Vermillion Flycatcher (female)

The first bird in sight was a female Vermillion Flycatcher and then a complete flycatcher parade was in front of our eyes, including Yellowish Flycatcher, Social Flycatcher, Boat-billed Flycatcher, Great Kiskadee and Tropical Kingbird.
Through the dense vegetation surrounding the trail we observed Green-backed Sparrow, Blue Grosbeak, Red-throated Ant-tanager, Tawny-winged Woodcreeper and Olivaceous Woodcreeper.

Bronzed Cowbird

Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, Yellow Warblers, Black-and-white Warblers, Blue-gray Tanagers, Bronzed Cowbirds and hundreds of Northern Rough-winged Swallows were easy to see. Two hours later the bird list included 52 of the 250+ bird species found in this park.

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Birding in the rain

Bare- throated Tiger-heron

Last days have been rainy and wet on Guatemala’s highlands and the direct effect on Peten lowlands is flood on areas along rivers. I went with my friends Melvin and Diego from Martsam Tour & Travel to birding around Ceibal and the experience was extraordinary. Hundreds of aquatic and shorebirds feeding on the extended ponds like Great-blue Heron, Snowy Egret, Cattle Egret, Great Egret and Bare-throated Tiger Heron.

Gray-necked Wood-rail

Through the bushes we saw Ruddy Crake, Mangrove Vireo, Gray-necked Wood-rail and Least Grebe. Over clean branches we had this great sight of the Amazon Kingfisher and a couple of Snail Kite.

Amazon Kingfisher

By the end of the day we had a bird list of 98 species.

Posted by Maynor Ovando

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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

Posted by Maynor Ovando

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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.

Posted by Maynor Ovando

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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!


Posted by Maynor Ovando

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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

Posted 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)

Posted by Maynor Ovando


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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

Posted by Maynor Ovando

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Ebird Guatemala

Ebird is an extraordinary tool for birders and a great opportunity to share with all the World the bird richness in Guatemala. This is a program from Cornell Lab of Ornithology and started as a mechanism for US birders to report what they found in their birding fieldtrips and started to grow to the most important birding hotspots out of the United States. A few months ago a group of birders in Guatemala led by Carol C. Anderson implemented Ebird Guatemala in order to report accurately observations made in our country.
This portal let you send your observations in each place and keep a record of your lifelist, bird list for that place, historical reports and let other birders use that information to prepare charts with frequencies, distributions, etc.
Please visit the website and join us to have better information of bird populations in Guatemala.

Posted by Maynor Ovando

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Resident birds

Great-tailed Grackle

Each time you decide to go birding, even if you think you are not, you wish to see unusual species… and nothing else, but one of the most rewarding experience is to check out for common species. Guatemala City is a place nested in highlands, five thousand feet level, and sometimes in the proper time you can find something extraordinary like a Red Crossbill but when you put your attention in how many species are living near your house you hardly believe it at first time.

Walking and looking 2 hours in the small parks thru Historic Center I listed 21 species:

Great-tailed Grackle
Melodious Blackbird
Bronzed Cowbird
Clay-colored Robin
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
House Sparrow
Rufous-collared Sparrow
White-winged Dove
Rock Dove
Azure-crowned Hummingbird
White-eared Hummingbird
Turkey Vulture
Black Vulture
Gray-silky Flycatcher
Social Flycatcher
Blue-gray Tanager
Yellow-winged Tanager
House Wren
Black-headed Siskin
Pacific Parakeet
Northern Rough-winged Swallow

Visiting forested parks bordering the city you can have a lot more… and I will tell you soon my experience in Cayalá and Cerro Alux…

Posted by Maynor Ovando

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