February 26-March 10, 2026 with Marcelo Barreiros & John Christian
It was another great Guyana tour, "land of giants", as they say in the country. Starting from the capital, Georgetown, we spent a couple of days birding nearby, with a visit to the Botanical Gardens, which is the best place to see a few rare birds in Guyana, like the Blood-colored Woodpecker, restricted to the coastal region, and White-bellied Piculet and Festive Parrot, which have a small population in the area. Besides those, we also found a few other nice species like Turquoise Tanager, Crimson-crested Woodpecker and Red-shouldered Macaw.
The following day, we went to the Mahaica area, where agriculture is growing fast, spreading throughout the flooded areas and, unfortunately, suppressing good habitat. Year after year, we see less habitat and wildlife along the Mahaica river. We did a nice boat trip for a couple of hours, looking for a few special birds, including many Hoatzin foraging on the vegetation along the Mahaica river, Silvered Antbird, Peregrine Falcon, nice looks at Spot-breasted Woodpecker, a gorgeous pair of Black-crested Antshrike, Green-tailed Jacamar and Long-winged Harrier. On the way back to our lodge, we stopped in a mangrove area for more adventure with Rufous Crab Hawk, Bicolored Conebill, Tricolored Heron and the stunning Scarlet Ibis. As we had more time in Georgetown this time, we visited a new area for me, to the west of the city, a new neighborhood with some forest still around and some interesting birds like Striped Cuckoo, Silvered Antbird, a huge population of Red-bellied Macaw coming to roost on the Moriche Palm trees, a couple of Russet-crowned Crake were heard but never came out and in the evening, we saw two Spot-tailed Nightjars very well, which is a bird we usually don't see on the tour.
Flying south, straight to Lethem, right at the border with Brazil, we only had one night at Manari Ranch this time, so we had to drive straight to Moco-Moco village to get some species that are harder further east, such as Black-headed Antbird, White-bellied Antbird, Copper-tailed Hummingbird and Amazonian Motmot. The next day, for some of the biggest targets on the tour, we took time to drive and bird in the riparian forests along the Takutu/Ireng river to get the Hoary-throated Spinetail, nesting this time. We also found a nice male Rio Branco Antbird and some other great species seen in the same habitat, like Rufous-tailed Jacamar, Streak-headed Woodcreeper, Pale-tipped Tyrannulet and on our way back to Manari Ranch, we made a couple of important stops to see the rare Bearded Tachuri. After lunch, we loaded up to head towards the Amazon forest with two very productive stops, the first one to get another Savanna bird, the elusive Crested Doradito and in the same habitat, we saw a couple of Pinnated Bitterns and another Bearded Tachuri. Further north in a riparian forest, we got lucky again with Pale-eyed Pygmy-tyrant, Finsch's Euphonia and Southern White-fringed Antwren.
The next destination was Surama, where savanna and humid forest meet and we found not too far from each other, White-naped Xenopsaris and Rufous-winged Ground-cuckoo. We were very lucky along the Buro-Buro trail where we heard a Ground-cuckoo singing not too far and after playing the recording, another one responded even closer, coming close to the road and showing itself for a couple of times. Besides that great bird, we walked along other good trails to see the gorgeous Rufous-backed Antbird, Painted Parakeet, Black-throated Antshrike, Plain-throated Antwren, Rufous-bellied Antwren, Black-headed Parrot, Great Jacamar, a nice Capuchinbird feeding, a pair of Dusky Purpletuft, two male Guianan Cock-of-the-Rock displaying and a great surprise, Todd's Nightjar, a bird with just a few records in Guyana, recorded by me three years ago and now seen, recorded again and photographed by the group in Surama. We also did a great night birding along the Linden-Lethem Road with both Spectacled and Crested owls and in the morning, leaving the lodge we were very lucky to find a tree with Purple-breasted and Spangled cotingas side by side.
We still had two great places to visit, Iwokrama and Atta lodges, both hotels surrounded by great forest and possibilities. From Surama, we drove to Iwokrama by the Essequibo River, and we took a nice boat trip to a place where a stunning male Crimson Topaz was coming to feed, and we had a chance to enjoy it very well. I always like the Iwokrama entrance road, especially in the afternoon, and it was no different this time, with Collared Puffbird, White-crested Spadebill, Lined Forest-Falcon, and Guianan Puffbird. Another nice morning was on the Turtle Mountain trail, starting through the flooded forest with Black-chinned Antbird, Guianan Streaked Antwren, Red-billed Woodcreeper, Long-billed Starthroat, Striped Woodcreeper and both Todd's and Spot-tailed antwrens moving together, as usual. Further up on the trail, a nice Cream-colored Woodpecker gave us a show, and later we saw Ruddy-tailed Flycatcher, Fulvous Shrike-Tanager, Red-necked Woodpecker, Brown-bellied Stipplethroat and Yellow-billed Jacamar. Before driving to Atta, we saw a single Grey-winged Trumpeter walking across the Iwokrama entrance road and with a couple of nice stops along the Linden-Lethem road, we managed to see Racket-tipped Coquette, another male Crimson Topaz, Black-spotted Barbet and three species of honeycreeper, Green, Red-legged and Purple.
Our last destination was Atta Lodge, with its amazing clearing surrounded by fruiting trees and we spent a lot of time looking at Spangled and Pompadour cotingas, Yellow-tufted Woodpecker and Purple-throated Fruitcrow. The night birding around Atta was also great, with both White-winged and Long-tailed potoos closing the evening.
Some of the other critters we saw included:
1) Guianan Red Howler Monkey
2) Weeper Capuchin
3) Savanna Deer
4) Greater Capybara
5) Common Red-rumped Agouti
6) Common House Gecko
7) Black-collared Lizard
8) Giant Ameiva
9) Spectacled Caiman
10) Black Caiman
11) Cane Toad
12) Giant Arapaima
13) Amazonian River Turtle
Thank you guys, for coming and let's do it again sometime!
You can see my complete trip report on eBird at this link: https://ebird.org/tripreport/529157
You can download a combined PDF of this page and the eBird report at this link: https://fieldguides.com/triplists/guy26bTRIPLIST.pdf
-- Marcelo Barreiros