Guatemala

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 Fourth Guatemalan Birdwatching Roundtable brought birders from around the world to Peten, the country’s northernmost department and the site of some fantastic birding. But it isn’t just birders and other nature-types who lick their chops at the thought of northern Guatemala; this region is also the site of some of the most awe-inspiring ruins [...]

We got to see Pale-billed Woodpeckers at a couple of sites in February; this fine individual was dismantling a tree right behind the Jungle Lodge at Tikal, where it drew, deservedly so, the attention of birders and non-birders alike.
For birders from the north, seeing this species or its congeners in the tropics is always bittersweet. [...]

February 24: I’ve been on birding trips where rising the final morning has brought a sense of relief. Not this one. I got up to start this last day with excitement unabated for the country and its birds, and admiration undiminished for the Guatemalans working to make them better known to the rest of the world.
Supper [...]

February 23, Tikal: What can anyone say about this place? We were up and out in the early morning fog, new birds coming at a bewildering rate even before the sun had risen. But what was most amazing, as every visitor must see, is the incredible juxtaposition of the natural wealth of the jungle with [...]