Belize

We took a short (8-day) birding tour to Belize with Field Guides, Inc. in February. The tour was very well run, with excellent leadership by Field Guides staff (Megan Crewe and Alex Sundvall) and two fine local guides. Although we generally prefer longer tours, and had relatively few new birds to see in Belize, we were looking for a simple tour to break up the lengthy, intensive process of planning for Australia (this being the reason for this blog post being so delayed and short).

Belize is a significant tourist destination, with Mayan archaeological sites; a selection of eco-lodges in tropical forests; and world-class scuba diving, snorkeling, and fishing on the planet’s second largest coral reef (after Australia’s Great Barrier Reef). It is a small country (about 175 miles north to south and 60 miles east to west) and is bordered by the Caribbean Sea, Guatemala, and for a short distance on the north by Mexico. Although deforestation is occurring, it is doing so relatively slowing compared to other tropical countries, and over one third of the country land area is protected to some degree.

We stayed in two eco-lodges for four nights each, Black Rock Lodge, near the Guatemalan border, and Lamanai Outpost, northwest of Belize City. The former had excellent lowland birding near the lodge and also served as a base from which higher elevations with pine forests could be explored. Our farthest point afield from Black Rock was the impressive Mayan archeological site of Caracol. This half of the tour was particularly good for raptors (birds of prey).

Lamanai was a lowland site with much of the time spent on the water, which provided good opportunities for birding, photography, mammals at night, and access to prime pine savanna. In the latter habitat, we saw six life birds in not much over an hour, and found the most striking plant of the trip, a densely flowering epiphytic orchid, Epidendrum stamfordiana. Another Mayan site was just minutes away by boat, including a visitor center with interpretive exhibits.

We had a number of memorable experiences on the trip. Eileen’s favorite was a clash between Central American Black Howlers, leading to a lengthy and loud territorial dispute (this genus of monkeys is the loudest land mammals, reaching 140 dB!). I was thrilled to finally see a major army ant swarm and the attendant birds, some of which are obligate ant-followers. These birds feed almost entirely on insects disturbed by the advance of the swarm, not on the ants themselves). We saw three such species, all life birds, in the space of a few minutes: Gray-headed Tanager, Ruddy Woodcreeper, and Tawny-winged Woodcreeper. Our least enjoyable experience was my taking a bad fall outside the airport, injuring my left knee, which caused me quite a bit of trouble on the trip. It took about five weeks to fully heal.

In total, we saw about 260 species of birds well, and got about 30 lifers, just as expected. Some notable highlights, in no particular order, were: enjoying fabulous views of Sungrebe, a usually secretive bird, and one of only three members of the Finfoot family; seeing and hearing the iconic Spectacled Owl multiple times; getting superb looks at both perched and flying White Hawk, of the especially pristine Snowy subspecies; having close views of the gorgeous Gray-throated Chat; spotlighting Yucatan Nightjar; seeing many adorable American Pygmy Kingfishers, some at night; and having close studies of the appealing Black-cheeked Woodpecker.

Our mammal list was quite decent for a short neotropical birding trip, with 14 species and 6 lifers. The biggest surprise was seeing a black-phase Jaguarundi quite well! This cat is roughly twice the size of a large domestic cat, and it resembles a miniature Puma. Another surprise was seeing Baird’s Tapir in our thermal detector, its distinctive shape evident even in a low-resolution infrared imager. More expected but seen unusually well twice was the arboreal Mexican Hairy Porcupine. Yet a fourth special new mammal was the smoky-colored Yucatan Squirrel, one of Eileen’s favorite sightings.

Overall, this was a very enjoyable trip, despite being on the short side and with a lesser variety of habitats than encountered on most tours. Belize would be a pretty easy country to visit on your own: the flights from the U.S. are short, English is the official language, and the tourism industry is significant and growing. It would be well worth considering for a winter-time tropical getaway.