Guatemala 2008: Tikal

There really is no place like Tikal for a powerful experience of nature and culture all at once. The ruins are stunning, and I was fortunate this time to see them with an excellent Maya guide, Julio. And the birds!

Ocellated Turkeys were common and confiding, as usual, their blue and yellow heads as striking as the incredible gloss of their plumage.

We were also fortunate to have great looks at a Crested Guan just outside of Mundo Perdido (aptly enough, the only place I ended up lost and alone all week!).

But one bird in particular came to represent the very intersection past and present, human and natural. I’d missed them on my last visit, but this time we had success beyond hope. Hardly had we arrived at the grand plaza when we heard the whining chant of a large falcon, and a male Orange-breasted Falcon flew in with prey, landing in a bare tree next to Temple II. After much shrieking, the female flew out to take his perch; the male entered the temple, then flew back out with the prey still in his feet.

Then, in one of the most dazzling flight displays I’d ever seen, the prey item was passed to the female’s feet–and the male immediately stooped on a passing Red-lored Parrot. The parrot got away, but not without what must have been the start of a lifetime.

For the better part of an hour we watched the pair flying around the temple, occasionally pausing for long stretches to call from “their” dead snags. After he’d passed the food to his mate, the male spent considerable time cleaning gore from his huge toes and neatly hooked bill.

And all this while hundreds of tourists from around the world climbed the temple to admire the work of a long-past millennium. Tikal!