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I had not been to Guyana since 2007, when I led Field Guides’s one and only “Super Shield: Suriname & Guyana” tour. I had, at that time, been to Guyana twice before, in 1997 and 1998, on reconnaissance trips for the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. So, when the opportunity came up to lead our second 2016 tour to Guyana during my annual, spring “off-time” at home, I decided to go for it! I’m really glad I did, because we had some fabulous birding experiences and lots of fun on this all-too-brief trip to the ancient forests and savannas of the Guianan Shield. At each of our several stops, we were met by friendly (and highly talented!) local guides and lodge staff, who contributed greatly to this excellent tour to Guyana.

The headlines in the Georgetown newspaper were all about the severe drought affecting the Rupununi savannas in the interior of the country. Animals were dying and entire villages were without water, wells having dried up. Fires were widespread and people were truly desperate and afraid for their lives out there, relying on trucks bringing water in one load at a time. But that first morning, in Georgetown (on the coast), it rained on us, the first decent rain they’d seen there in some weeks. Not an auspicious start, I must say, but we did the best we could, rejoicing in a soaked Rufous Crab-Hawk sitting on a phone pole and a few brilliant Scarlet Ibis blasting over on roaring tailwinds. Rain cleared by about 10:30, so our Mahaica River boat trip to see Hoatzins was ok, though very windy with few species seen worth a darn (except Hoatzin!), water spraying across us on the return. A break for brunch at Narish’s house was super! We revisited some mangrove stops on our way back to town, and picked up a handful of birds we’d lost earlier, like White-bellied Piculet (ridiculously close) and Bicolored Conebill.

Next morning was to be a later, “normal” breakfast at the lovely Cara Lodge before transfer to the in-town airport for our 10:00 charter to Kaieteur Falls, the highest single-drop waterfall in the world. When we got to the airport, we learned that Kaieteur was socked in, and the flight was indefinitely delayed. We finally boarded and took off about 12:30, arriving at the falls about 13:30. Seeing the falls out the window as we came in for landing was awesome in the truest sense of that (overused) word! We were going to have to rush to squeeze in everything, but managed to get fabulous views of a male Roraiman Antbird (Myrmelastes [Schistocichla] saturatus); take in the spectacular falls very fully at two overlooks; scope a handsome male Orange-breasted Falcon; see the Guianan Cocks-of-the Rock quite well; and hightail it back to the plane for a 15:30 departure (which the pilot had told me was the absolute last minute we could take off and make it to Surama, then get himself back to Georgetown). We saw few other birds around the falls, but… whew! The flight on south to Surama was gorgeous, great expanses of emerald forest out the windows. The newly refurbished airstrip was about to be paved, but the work hadn’t quite started and it was open for our landing – perfect! Check out the video of this exciting day, below.

The savanna around Surama did not look nearly as bad as I’d expected, which the people at the Surama Ecolodge told us was due to several good rains in the past 10 days or so. They had been in dire straits for water, however, and had recently called in Brazilians from Boa Vista to come across and dig a new, very deep well, which saved the day. Our first birding walk that afternoon was fun, with scope views of Great Potoo and several Finsch’s Euphonias. Unfortunately, the Buro-Buro River was too low for our planned boat trip the next day, which was disappointing and cost us several species, but probably no Guianan Shield endemics. We did, however, see one helluva fine bird at Surama, which I had seen only a couple of times ever...

Our walk to the Buro-Buro on a beautiful early morning along a good, wide trail was dreadfully quiet. The recent rain had apparently not been sufficient to stimulate birds to do much vocalizing. So, I cast around with whistles and recordings, pulling up some common stuff to keep us busy. I’d been asking our local guide, Ron (who I’d known since my first visit, in 1997) about rarer species, like Rufous-winged Ground-Cuckoo. A bit further down the trail, he said, “This is a good area for Rufous-winged Ground-Cuckoo,” that he’d seen one at an ant swarm there a month or so earlier. I played a great recording made by Paul Schwartz in Venezuela, and we waited a good five minutes, listening for a response. Nothing at all, so we moved ahead, around a curve in the trail. Then, Ron and I heard bill claps of two ground-cuckoos just a few meters off the trail – “OMG! People, we’re gonna SEE this bird!” Over the next half hour, everyone did indeed see the bird(s) at least a couple of times, for at least a few seconds each (and I may have seen a juv briefly as well). One of the birds even dashed across the trail. Then they fell silent, stopped responding to playback, and it seemed the show was over -- with mega-highfives all around! But just then, our excellent local guide, Kenneth, called to me that he had spotted the birds again, walking toward the trail. We hustled the 30 meters back and there, almost shockingly close, were two fabulous adult Rufous-winged Ground-Cuckoos very quietly walking around and through a vine tangle. The birds traced a route of about 10 meters back and forth for some five minutes, providing everyone with stunning views. They never called or did any further bill clapping. By the time I tried to make some video, the birds were starting to melt back off the trail, and I managed only several clips of a few seconds each that, together, show the birds pretty well (see above). I told y’all it was going to be reallllly hard to see anything on the rest of the tour to top those Neomorphus! Our great sighting of a half-dozen Gray-winged Trumpeters that morning, purple sequins glittering in the sun, was now a solid second-place.

We had a picnic lunch at the Buro-Buro, then returned to the lodge for a short rest before driving a couple of miles out the main road to stop at some forested stretches I remembered having been productive. It turned out to be a pretty good, relaxing session, highlighted by Green and Black-necked aracaris, both big toucans, some super-responsive Red-fan Parrots, and a fine flyover view of 20+ Red-shouldered Parrotlets. Least and Lesser nighthawks appeared over the savanna at dusk, marking a nice close to a really fine day of birding.

Next morning was highly anticipated Harpy time. We walked in to the nest tree, scoping a fantastic Long-tailed Potoo on a day roost known to Ron, and saw a handful of other birds on another way-too-quiet morning. After a couple of minutes scanning the enormous nest tree with no sign of the Harpys, one of the adults (I think the female, by size) jumped off the nest and bounded out along a massive supporting limb! OMG! all over again! People were bumping heads and comically stumbling around trying to reposition for a clear view. We had the scopes on the bird in seconds, and we were gasping with delight as the massive raptor stared down at us and the wind picked up its crest. It moved a couple of more times over the next half hour, and at one point we could see a large brood patch, so the bird was almost certainly incubating. We all took one last, long look, I made a nice video through the scope (see below), and we left her in peace.

Birding our way east through miles of tall forest along the main road through the vast Iwokrama Rainforest Reserve, we arrived at Kurupukari just in time for an evening boat trip on the Essequibo River, for Ladder-tailed Nightjars. We dropped bags in our rooms, hustled to the boat-launch, and a few minutes later we had a male nightjar perched at close range, with a female in attendance as well. Also great out there was watching a bee-swarm-tight flock of perhaps 150 Black-collared Swallows suddenly dive out of the heavens to roost on rocky islands in the river. Before landing on the rocks, they and a few Barn Swallows with them whizzed around low overhead in a really impressive flight performance – thrilling stuff!

Our one full day at Kurupukari was dedicated to the hike up Turtle Mountain. The trailhead is a short boat trip down the Essequibo, and we took advantage of that to see Black-chinned and Silvered antbirds and Guianan Streaked-Antwren, and also our only Blue-and-yellow Macaws of the trip (good spot, Kathy!). Amazingly, Alex, our local guide, spotted another Long-tailed Potoo along the lower part of the trail! The trail was in fine shape and easy to walk, notwithstanding some pretty steep sections. Birding was very quiet, with few species seen, but we loved the overlook at the top, where we spent nearly an hour watching a pair of Orange-breasted Falcons at very close range, and a bunch of Swallow-tailed Kites soaring around at and below eye-level. After late lunch at the lodge, we walked the short trail into a known Capuchinbird lek. The birds were all around, but not vocalizing until one flew in to perch on a nicely exposed limb, and did its call and display several times, with others calling in the area – what a sound!

Next morning we packed up and left Kurupukari in the rain, stopping to bird several short stretches of the main road back toward Atta Rainforest Lodge. We saw a number of birds along the way, including Marail Guan, Blue-cheeked Parrots and Guianan Red-Cotinga, and spent nearly two hours walking a new logging road Ron had never checked out, but we hit not a single canopy flock (didn’t even hear a distant one). Mostly, this was just bad luck coinciding with rain too heavy for effective birding. Our destination was the Atta Rainforest Lodge, set in a small clearing within vast, undisturbed forest with multiple excellent birding trails right outside the door. What a great place! Highlights of our two days at Atta were many, including Black Curassows, an excellent White-winged Potoo, Black-banded Owl, Tawny-bellied Screech-Owl, Bronzy Jacamar, Black-throated Antshrike (what a killer pair of birds!), Purple-breasted and Spangled cotingas, five Dusky Purpletufts, the rarely seen Cinnamon Manakin-Tyrant (Neopipo), a stunning male Red-and-black Grosbeak, and an big army ant swarm that produced close views of White-plumed and Rufous-throated antbirds, and Red-billed and Black-banded woodcreepers.

Atta also features a nice canopy walkway and viewing platforms. Our early morning up there started real quiet, but I eventually managed to stir up some action, which produced fabulous, side-by-side views of Spot-tailed and Todd’s antwrens, Sooty-headed and White-lored tyrannulets, and Yellow-throated Golden-collared, and Waved woodpeckers, Black-spotted Barbets, et al., in and around the main platform tree. A Tiny Hawk flew by with a bird in its talons, which was thrilling to see. That afternoon, around the Atta clearing, lots of careful scanning and calling for Crimson Fruitcrow didn’t produce it (a pair was seen right above the rooms the day before, and it was our sorest miss of the entire trip). Ya gotta leave something for next time! A special thank you to local guide, John, who did a world-class job of helping us find the above suite of fabulous birds.

Caiman House, our next venue, required a drive of a couple of hours through the Rupununi savannas. A stop at a rice plantation was very productive, with birds packed in there because of the super-dry conditions away from these irrigated fields. Can you believe we saw FIVE Pinnated Bitterns in 20 minutes! That was a record for me! Caiman House provided access to extensive semideciduous and gallery forest in the Rupununi River basin and also the extensive, little-known savannas in that region. This forest is a rare habitat in South America. We enjoyed a late afternoon studying the differences among three species of elaenias and other flycatchers, plus great views of Blue-backed Manakins.

That night, the beginning of the rainy season we had been experiencing (which typically starts in late April/May) busted wide open. Shortly after midnight, rumbling thunder and wind stormed across the savannas, dumping a ton of water over the next 10 hours, in a true deluge before about 07:00. The parched earth, so desperately needing a recharge, simply couldn’t absorb it all, but that storm, and more over the next days, brought great relief to the land and people of the Rupununi. Winged termites emerging in the rain were all over the place along our early morning drive through the savannas, and we enjoyed great views of Least and Lesser nighthawks gobbling them down as they flew around us. A bit later, with umbrellas up, we walked slowly through a dry, brushy wash that is home to a couple of rare little tyrannids that had been located a couple of years earlier by our local guide, Manuel: Crested Doradito and Bearded Tachuri. Over the course of an hour or so, we found three or four doraditos and a dapper pair of Bearded Tachuris, the male doing spectacular aerial displays (I had never seen the display of this small, northern form, brevipennis). Very cool stuff! It was later that morning that Anteater Man -- newest member of the Avengers -- rode up literally out of nowhere and took us to see a mother Giant Anteater and her big baby! Our afternoon boat trip on the Rupununi River was much drier, which was welcome in those open boats. But had it not rained hard that day, I doubt we’d have had sufficient water in the river to make it very far, and, as it was, we had to pole through some very shallow, sandy stretches. Our efforts were rewarded with Green Ibis, Rufescent Tiger-Heron, Boat-billed Heron, Crane Hawk, Cream-colored Woodpecker, and assorted others, punctuated with an impressive show from 200+ Band-tailed Nighthawks foraging over the river at dusk.

Our final full tour day proved to hold several surprises, on both the positive and negative ends of the ledger. On the plus side, I improvised a morning of birding on the Ireng River to give us a chance of finding two highly localized endemic birds never before seen on a Field Guides tour: Rio Branco Antbird, and Hoary-throated Spinetail. We did things right to ensure we’d get there with plenty of time to devote to the hunt, and it was a good thing, because more rain that morning made for pretty tough birding – but we nailed both of these great birds birds by lunchtime. Perfect, thanks so much, Leroy! Also in the positive column was lunch that day – wow, what a nice spread of delicious foods, so welcome after our 04:00 breakfast! And the rain had stopped by noon, so we seemed to be set for an easy cruise to the finish line. Then the bugaboos took over. We learned that the flight back to Georgetown would be delayed for at least an hour. After waiting around for awhile, we decided to go to the airport and learn more about the situation. We were told that the flight was not coming at all, and that, even if there were a change of plans and it did operate, we would not be able to get seats to Georgetown because there was already a backlog of passengers ahead of us – all due to rainy weather the past couple of days, essentially all over Guyana. There would be no choice but to endure a 12-hour drive on dirt (= mud) roads all the way to the capital. I calculated that, if we left by 2:00 p.m., we’d arrive at Cara Lodge with an hour to rearrange luggage and clean up, then head straight to the airport for our early-morning flight to Miami. [Darwin, you’re the MAN!] To make a long story shorter, that’s what we did, and it worked, and we made it home…. pretty much. The negatives still held sway, and the Caribbean Airways flight arrived nearly three hours late, which caused several of us to miss homeward connections out of Miami. We finally broke even on that series of events with help from the Field Guides office and a couple of helpful agents at the American Airlines desk, who rerouted everyone as best they could.

The contrast of “old” (12 hours on dirt roads) and “new” (nice airplanes that run late and mess up your life) might be said – quite accurately -- to typify travel in Guyana. But I prefer to think of that contrast more in terms of remote, ancient rainforests that are nowadays remarkably accessible to the adventurous birder willing to accept the vagaries of travel in relatively unspoiled places, like beautiful Guyana. Thanks so much to all of you for coming on this tour, and I hope to see you again (probably in Brazil!) as soon as the timing permits!

-- Bret

KEYS FOR THIS LIST
One of the following keys may be shown in brackets for individual species as appropriate: * = heard only, I = introduced, E = endemic, N = nesting, a = austral migrant, b = boreal migrant

Pinnated Bittern, the closest of five we saw en route to Caiman House. Copyright Bret Whitney.

Long-winged Harrier, on our first morning afield. Copyright Bret Whitney.

Hoatzin, really nice on our Mahaica River boat trip. It is the single most ancient and distinctive bird in the New World. And, yes, it looks like it. Copyright Bret Whitney.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

Totals for the tour: 403 bird taxa and 15 mammal taxa