Guyana: Neotropical Wilderness Birding

• Exceptional, high quality birding and wildlife viewing in a range of habitats.
• Picturesque and spectacular scenery, from huge waterfalls to stretches of unbroken forest, open savanna and scenic rivers.
• Exciting experiences, from canopy walkways, a boat ride, a Makushi village and ecolodge, lots of endemics and endangered species, possible Harpy Eagle, Giant Otters and Giant Anteaters.

Tour Overview

Guyana, an English-speaking country in northern South America, has a small human population concentrated along the coast. The rest of the country is a marvelous stretch of unbroken, mostly untouched rainforest blending into savanna on the Brazilian border. It is home to Kaieteur Falls, where the Potaro River plunges 741 feet in the single longest drop of any waterfall; this is a site for Guianan Cock-of-the-Rock. The vast Iwokrama Forest Reserve offers miles of forest roads and trails, affording some of the best viewing of cotingas in the world (including the weird and wonderful Capuchinbird). If we encounter any ant-swarms, we have a very good chance of seeing surely the coolest-looking antbird – White-plumed.

Early in the tour we travel along Georgetown’s local rivers for Hoatzin and Rufous Crab-Hawk; from the Rainforest Lodge at Iwokrama we have access to the unique and restricted white-sand forest habitat with several Guianan Shield endemics; further south we take in the Amerindian village of Surama – a fascinating experience, potentially with an active Harpy Eagle nest nearby. Large expanses of untouched forest are a welcome sight, offering hope for the continued survival of those species that require large unfragmented habitats – Harpy and Crested Eagles, big cats, tapirs, macaws, parrots, cotingas and much more.

Leaving the rainforest, we spend a couple of days exploring the savanna and take in rivers on the border with Brazil for some very range-restricted and scarce endemics – Rio Branco Antbird and Hoary-throated Spinetail. We travel west to an area where the spectacular and highly endangered Sun Parakeet occurs. Our tour has a sense of adventure – we drive sparsely used roads through miles of forest and savanna, fly over large expanses of near pristine rainforest to land beside huge waterfalls, and stay in lodges far removed from other habitation.