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!

Posted by Maynor Ovando

http://www.birdwatchingguatemala.com/ is a registered trademark of Martsam Tour & Travel Copyright® 2,008
http://www.birdwatchingguatemala.com/
http://www.martsam.com/

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

http://www.birdwatchingguatemala.com/ is a registered trademark of Martsam Tour & Travel Copyright® 2,008
http://www.birdwatchingguatemala.com/
http://www.martsam.com/