June 2010 - We completed a successful birding tour of Southern Ecuador with over 500 species recorded in 15 days. We saw some amazing birds, including the rare Orange-breasted Tanager in the Cordillera del Condor, Black-billed Mountain-Toucan and Jocotoco Antpitta at Tapichalaca, Gray-breasted Mountain-Toucan in the Cajanuma section of Podocarpus National Park, Subtropical Doradito in the central highlands, a male Long-wattled Umbrellabird booming on a lek plus a female feeding a chick in the nest at Buenaventura Reserve, Amazonian Umbrellabird in the Cordillera del Condor, several Masked Tanagers in the Cordillera del Condor, and a first record of Yellow-cheeked Becard at Jorupe Reserve. We also conducted an 8 day extension of areas around Macas in the east-central foothills followed by several days in the northwest. During the extension we saw several Esmeraldas specialties, notably Rose-faced Parrot, Barred Puffbird, Moustached Antwren, Black-headed Antthrush, Snowy-throated Kingbird, Scarlet-browed Tanager, Rufous-winged Tanager, and Scarlet-breasted Dacnis. We also had stunning looks at the normally secretive Barred Forest-Falcon perched on an open branch in a tree along the road. We added 60 species during the extension that were not seen on our southern tour. For full trip reports click on the highlighted links.
May 2010 - Guyana is the hot new birding destination. One of us (Jim Wittenberger) was an invited guest on a fam trip for tour operators in spring 2008 See trip report. He loved the birding so much that we both returned to Guyana at our own expense in October 2008 (See trip report. We're offering a Guyana Tour in March 2011, a prime time to see nesting Guiana Cock-of-the-Rock as well as many other endemic and specialty birds of northwest South America. By cutting out the middle man, we're able to offer this tour at a very competitive price. The tour visits all the primary locales in the interior, including Iwokrama, Surama, Rock View, and Karanambu. In addition, we're offering an extension that features not only the endangered Red Siskin at Dadanawa, but also the endangered Sun Parakeet, and the endemic Rio Branco Antbird and Hoary-throated Spinetail. Very few tours include the Sun Parakeet site on their itinerary and many don't include the Hoary-throated Spinetail and Rio Branco Antbird sites near the Brazil border, so this is a rare opportunity to see some true highlight species.
April 2010 - Species Abundance Data - We're gradually adding species abundance data to our bird checklists. Data are not available for all sites. We have added abundance (common-ness) codes for many birding locales in Costa Rica and Ecuador. These data are then consolidated on our birding tour checklists for those countries to indicate the locales where each species is most likely to occur. We hope this information will help serious birders when making their birding travel plans. We'll be adding data for other countries if available over coming months.
February 2010 - More Informative Color-coded Checklists - We've color-coded all the checklists on our website to indicate species status (critically endangered, endangered, vulnerable, near-threatened) according to the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature). We've also added codes on every checklist to indicate whether a species is migratory, very rare, vagrant, or accidental in each country. We've been constantly frustrated by vanilla checklists that don't provide that information, as such lists inflate expectations or mislead people on what species they might actually be able to see in a given country.
We've replaced our "Specialties" lists with "Regional" lists of species that are range restricted, locally distributed, or very scarce within a country. These should be more useful for tour planning purposes than our previous specialties lists. We provide regional lists for countries, tours, and specific birding locales within countries to give our clients a better idea of what species are of special interest in each place. To further highlight species of special interest, we continue to provide lists of target species. We expect to refine those in future to narrow their focus further.
Our global Neotropics Checklist, reached from the sidebar of most of our web pages, will give some idea of how widely or narrowly distributed each species is within the western hemisphere. Our Tropical Birding page, also reached from the sidebar, gives a comparison of species overlap between countries.
Details about terminology and notes on nomenclature and distribution are on a new page, reached from the sidebar, under Checklist Notes.
During the course of this effort, we've become extremely aware of the gross inaccuracies found in many species lists on the internet. We have done our best to remove the numerous inaccuracies that had crept into our previous lists. We're constantly striving to improve our accuracy, so please let us know of any errors you may find.
December 2009 - Updated Nomenclature on Checklists - We've updated all the species lists on our website to match Clements 2007 with modifications. We recognize some species not recognized by Clements, which is based heavily on the AOU committee and SACC and is intended to be more scientifically rigorous. Those organizations tend to lump species due to lack of published scientific evidence establishing a split, while we tend to split species based on the opinions of other sources such as the IOC, unpublished field observations of behavioral and vocalization differences, and traditional treatment in field guides absent more recent information to the contrary. For a few species we retained the original common name because we kept the species split (e.g. Northern Mountain Cacique instead of Mountain Cacique). Where common names have changed and are a likely source of confusion, we've provided the old common names in parentheses on our checklists. Species not recognized by Clements are indicated by a double asterisk.
December 2009 - New Birding Tours to Southeastern Brazil - We've added two birding tours to the SE Atlantic Forests of Brazil for September 2011. September is an excellent time to bird southeastern Brazil because it's early spring and the beginning of mating season for many species while being less rainy than October or November. Our first 2-week tour covers the region between Rio Grande do Sul near the southern tip of Brazil to Rio de Janeiro. Our second tour is a 1-week extension or stand-alone tour that covers several prime areas north of Rio de Janeiro. Those wishing to join us in Sao Paulo for the second half of our first tour combined with our second tour can do so by special arrangement.
The remnant forests we visit on both tours are home to numerous endemic and endangered birds threatened by pervasive habitat loss in this most populous part of the country. Fortunately, concerted efforts by numerous organizations are helping save what little remains of these habitats. The large number of range-restricted and endemic species in the region makes SE Brazil one of the most exciting birding destinations in South America. It's really not possible to see everything in 2 weeks, which is why we're offering the option to extend our 2-week tour for an additional week. To aid in trip planning, we've added information about every site we cover on our tours including target bird lists. These can be accessed by clicking the links on our Brazil webpages.
We're privileged to have one of the best birding guides residing in southeastern Brazil guiding both tours. He is an outgoing, personable Brazilian biologist born and raised in SE Brazil near Curitiba and speaks perfect English. We birded with him on our prior visit to Brazil and were very impressed with his guiding skills. With his help we expect to see 450+ species during our 3 weeks in Brazil.
December 2009 - Updates to Tropical Birding Page and Neotropical Checklist - We've added several additional countries to the tables reached by clicking on the Tropical Birding link on the sidebar. These tables show how many species are in common and how many are different between countries. They're intended as an aid while deciding which country one might want to visit next based on where one has already gone birding before. We've also expanded our checklist of Neotropical Birds, reached from the sidebar link, to cover most countries in Central and South America. This checklist shows the countries where each species can be found.
December 2009 - New On-Line Magazine Article - We've published a new article in our on-line magazine about the techniques Laura uses to capture the images shown on our website. We hope the article is useful for bird nature photographers.
October 2009 - Expanded Target Bird lists - We've added lists of target birds for various birding locales in Ecuador. We've also added consolidated target lists for all birding tour pages we offer to Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guyana, and Panama as well as for each of those countries. They can be accessed from the tabs on the country pages or birding tour pages. These target lists are intended to help participants focus on which species they should especially try to see at each location they visit while on tour as well as help them decide which tour would be most suitable for them.
September 2009 - Target Bird Lists for Guyana - We've now added lists of target birds for various birding locales in Guyana. To find them click on the link to the Guyana page or our 2010 Guyana tour page. Then click on the "Birding Locale" links at the bottom of the sidebar on those pages. The Guyana page has links to all the locales we have researched, while the tour page only contains links to locales we actually visit while on that tour. Most birders have target birds in mind when they join a tour. Our target lists are meant as an aid for those visiting a country for the first time to give them an idea of what species they should especially hope to see in each locale as well as an idea of their chances of seeing them.
September 2009 - Target Bird Lists for Panama - We've now added lists of target birds for various birding locales in Panama. We've also added information about several additional birding locales that we visit while on tour in Panama. Please feel free to contact us regarding any additions or corrections you may wish to make regarding our target bird lists.
August 2009 - Target Bird Lists - We've started creating lists of target bird species for the locations we visit while on tour and selected other sites within our destination countries. These target bird lists are reached from our country pages or tour pages from the left sidebar links under BIRDING LOCALES. The first country we're covering is Costa Rica. We'll be adding similar lists for other countries during the next few weeks. Our target species lists are intended to be an aid for birders visiting each area. Our tour participants will hopefully find these lists useful while on tour as they provide a basis for asking our guide questions about seeing target species. Each list indicates likelihood of seeing every target species. We would appreciate any feedback or corrections our visitors care to provide.
August 2009 - New On-line Magazine - We are now publishing occasional articles about bird photography on our website for those wanting more in-depth treatment of various subjects pertaining to style and techniques. Our first articles are about Laura's vision of capturing birds as they go about their lives in the natural world. Later articles will discuss techniques that Laura uses to capture the beautiful images she has displayed on our website.
April 2009 - New Photo Galleries - We've added new galleries of photos taken during our spring 2009 tours. Just click on the sidebar link under 2009 Photos.
April 2009 - 2010 Birding and Photo Tour Schedule - Our spring 2010 tour schedule is now posted on our website. We're offering both birding and bird/nature photo tours to Costa Rica and Panama. In addition, we're offering a birding tour to Guyana in March 2010. We'll be adding a Belize birding tour for April 2010 and a Belize-Tikal bird/nature photo tour for May 2010. We're currently designing a dynamite tour itinerary for southern Ecuador, which we plan on offering during early June 2010.
March 2009 - Black Hawk-Eagle Photo - Our Panamanian guide who has been leading birding tours for many years had never seen a Black Hawk-Eagle perched in a tree. So when he whispered to Laura, "come quick", she couldn't believe her eyes. There just 30 feet away was the amazing sight she captured for our home page and 2009 Panama Photo Gallery. Those who were with us during our 2009 Panama birding tour were treated to a once-in-a-lifetime view of this incredibly majestic bird.
Jan 2009 - Guyana Bird Photos We just updated our website with many photos from our recent scouting trip to Guyana. Photos can be found on both the Guyana Gallery page and on our newly offered Guyana Birding Tour pages.
Dec 2008 - Guyana Birding Tour - We are offering a new birding tour to Guyana in March 2010. We have developed the tour itinerary based on two scouting trips to Guyana during 2008, and are thrilled to offer this tour to an exciting and little known destination in northeastern South America.
Nov 2008 - Guyana Scouting Trip - We spent Nov 10-22, 2008 scouting the prime birding locales in Guyana, all the way from the savannas of Dadanawa Ranch in the south to the rainforests of Iwokrama Forest Reserve in the country center to coastal areas in the north. It was a very productive trip, and we are now fully prepared to do a Guyana tour right. We'll be adding images from this trip to our website in future and have begun making plans for a March 2010 tour. We feel March is a better time of year to visit than November based on our first-hand experience for several reasons. One is that Guianan Cock-of-the-Rock is in full breeding plumage in spring but not in November. Another is that the best part of the Mori Scrub trail at Iwokrama was still underwater in November but is dry by April. A third reason is that we found bird activity to be somewhat better in April, though that was only our own personal impression. For a complete report of this trip, CLICK HERE.
Oct 2008 - Website Update - we have just updated our website with new photographs from our spring tours. We have also re-designed our gallery pages, eliminating thumbnails and adding tabs. Our galleries are now organized by country and are accessible from the sidebar links.
Apr 2008 - Guyana Scouting Trip One of us (Jim Wittenberger) visited Guyana on a familiarization tour in April 2008 at the invitation of the Guianan Tourism Ministry and funded in part by USAID with a group of other tour operators from Europe and the US. He was enthralled with the birding opportunities in this as yet little known birding destination. The group saw or heard 319 species during 9 days, including specialty birds and endemics such as Black Curassow, Harpy Eagle, Little Chachalaca, Gray-winged Trumpeter, Black-headed Parrot, Caica Parrots, Tepui Swift, Crimson Topaz, Guianan Puffbird, Guianan Toucanet, Blood-colored Woodpecker, Rufous-bellied Antwren, Todd's Antwren, Yellow-throated Flycatcher, Guianan Cock-of-the-Rock, Capuchinbird, Tiny Tyrant-Manakin, Cayenne Jay, Finsch's Euphonia, and Red Siskin. For a complete report of this trip, CLICK HERE.
May 2008 - Spring Photo Tours - We began offering bird and nature photo tours to some of our favorite destinations in spring 2008. On our Costa Rica tour we made numerous excellent photographs of forest birds including Resplendent Quetzals and hummingbirds at famed Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, water birds including Jabirus during a boat trip through Palo Verde National Park, and various lowland tropical birds at Carara National Park. On our Panama tour we made photographs of numerous tropical birds along famed Pipeline Road, on the Caribbean side of the Canal Zone, and in the western highlands of Chiriqui Province. Some of the notable birds we photographed were Harpy Eagle, Mealy Amazon, Spectacled Owl, Black-throated and Western White-tailed Trogons, Ocellated Antbird, White-whiskered Puffbird, and several species of hummingbirds.
