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 birding...

         Central America

 







Copper-rumped Hummingbird Amazilia tobaci ©Ian Montgomery http://birdway.com.au

I have been lucky enough to visit Trinidad & Tobago and Panama in this region. Although my oldest friend has made a trip to Costa Rica.

Costa Rica has an economy geared to tourism so has managed to rise far up everyone's list of where I would most like to go birding not just because it has a very long list of very beautiful birds but also because it is a small country with many different avifaunal regions. Some of the rest of the istmus would, no doubt, be just as popular if those countries were better known to birders.

For example, Panama is less feted but has a list of nearly 1000 bird species and shares many of these with its more famous neighbour. Moreover, it is the fastest growing economy in Latin America and its good infrastructure and growing number of eco-lodges [such as Canopy Tower voted one of the top 50 eco-lodges in the world!] make it a terrific destination. I stayed at the Canopy Tower and at the equally well located (and certainly more luxurious) Canopy Lodge and have no hesitation in recommending them. It is also regarded as being as safe or safer than Costa Rica and devotes even more of its country [37%] to National Parks and other areas of conservation.

I found the people helpful and friendly and we fell in love with its beautiful wild areas. The birding was terrific and we hope to return to discover more as it too has distinct eco-regions with different avifauna that certainly warrant re-visiting. A photographer I met rated it as better than Costa Rica for photo-opportunities and liked the fact that it isn't yet swamped with eco-tourists.

The Islands of the Caribean are not just tropical paradises but many are home to large numbers of endemics in relatively small geographical areas. Cuba and the Domincan Republic have a lot of endemics and are increasingly common birding destinations.

Bridging two continents; central America shares many migratory birds with both and must be a wonderful place to be at such times. I saw more 'wood warblers' in Panama than in all my visits to their summer homes in the north, indeed, I have never seen Canada Warbler in Canada, but did so several times in Panama!

It is some time since I visited Trinidad and Tobago but can certainly recommend the birding there and it is easy to explore the islands from few bases as almost anywhere can be reached in an hour or two. The lurid local newspaper reports of crime were a bit intimidating but I cannot comment on tourist safety there.

In case your geography is as bad as mine... Mexico and Bermuda can be found on the North American pages.


Bahamas Cuba Jamaica Haiti Dominican Republic Netherlands Antilles Belize Guatemala El Salvador Honduras Nicaragua Costa Rica Panama Puerto Rico Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago Grenada St Vincent & Grenadines Barbados St Lucia Martinique Dominica Guadaloupe Monserrat Antigua & Barbuda Antigua & Barbuda St Kitts & Nevis Anguilla US Virgin Isles British Virgin Isles Cayman Islands Turks & Caicos

Anguilla | Antigua & Barbuda | Bahamas | Barbados | Belize | British Virgin Isles
Cayman Islands | Costa Rica | Cuba | Dominica | Dominican Republic | El Salvador
Grenada | Guadaloupe | Guatemala | Haiti | Honduras | Jamaica | Martinique | Mexico | Monserrat
Netherlands Antilles | Nicaragua | Panama | Puerto Rico | St Kitts & Nevis | St Lucia
St Vincent & Grenadines | Trinidad and Tobago | Turks & Caicos | US Virgin Isles

This page brought to you in association with:
Canopy Tower

 

 

  useful reading

 

A Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America

Steve NG Howell and Sophie Webb 851 pages, 71 colour plates, 39 line drawings, 1087 maps. Oxford University Press 1995
ISBN: 0198540124
Buy this book from NHBS.com

A Photographic Guide to the Birds of the West Indies

Mike Flieg & Allan Sander (Photographer) Paperback - 144 pages 2006 New Holland Publishers (UK)
ISBN: 1845375912
Buy this book from NHBS.com

Birds of Mexico and Central America

Ber Van Perlo. Princeton University Press, 2006 - Princeton Illustrated Checklists series - 98 color plates by the author - 336 pp. $29.95
ISBN: 0691120706
Buy this book from NHBS.com

Collins Field Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Central America

Ber Van Perlo 336 pages, 98 col plates. Harper Collins 2006
ISBN: 0007134908
Buy this book from NHBS.com

Helm Identification Guides: Birds of the West Indies

Herbert Raffaele, James Wiley, Orlando Garrido, Allan Keith, Janis Raffaele, Tracy Pedersen (Illustrator); Kristin Williams (Illustrator) Hardcover - 511 pages (29 May, 1998) Christopher Helm
ISBN: 0713649054
Buy this book from NHBS.com

Where to Watch Birds ? Central America & the Caribbean

by Nigel Wheatley and David Brewer ? Helm 2002
See Fatbirder Review
ISBN: 071364687X
Buy this book from NHBS.com

  useful information

 

BirdPlanner.com


http://www.birdplanner.com
BirdPlanner is a free site that enables you to generate bird lists for any place in the western hemisphere…

Proact


Coordinator Honduras and Central America: Dean Milverton
Members: 4
Join us at http://www.proact-campaigns.net/team
Contact your coordinator via mailto:info@proact-campaigns.net

  clubs

 

Caribbean Conservation

http://www.caribbeanconservation.org
Welcome to CaribbeanConservation.org. Our site is designed to offer the latest and most useful information about the efforts focusing on Caribbean Conservation. This is purely an informational site and does not promote or endorse any specific brand, product or company...

InfoNatura

http://www.natureserve.org/infonatura/
Welcome to InfoNatura, a source for conservation information on the birds and mammals of Latin America and the Caribbean—more than 5,500 common, rare, and endangered species in 44 countries and territories. InfoNatura is a product of NatureServe in collaboration with Conservation Data Centers in 12 Latin American and Caribbean countries...

Neotropical Migrant Birds

http://www.neotropicalbirds.org
Neotropical migrant birds are the songbirds that represent over 50%, more precisely, 340 of the 600 species, of North American birds...

Optics for the tropics

http://www.opticsforthetropics.org/
Optics for the Tropics, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) charity organization providing quality optical equipment in the Caribbean and Latin America where resources are very limited. We distribute equipment to ornithologists and educators working to further bird conservation...

Society for the Conservation and Study of Caribbean Birds

http://www.scscb.org/
The Society for the Conservation and Study of Caribbean Birds (SCSCB) is the largest single regional organization committed to the conservation of wild birds and their habitats in the Greater Caribbean region, including Bermuda, the Bahamas and all islands within the Caribbean basin. The overarching objective of the SCSCB is to increase the ability of Caribbean ornithologists, resource managers, conservation organizations, institutions, and local citizens to conserve the birds of the Caribbean and their habitats...

  trip reports

 

Travelling Birder
http://www.travellingbirder.com
The Travellingbirder.com birding trip report search engine guides you to 7,000+ birding trip reports on the Internet. You can search for trip reports from a specific country and time of year. Not all these reports are in English. So, if you can’t find the trip report you want on this Fatbirder page… give them a try!

1991 [April] Michiel de Boer

http://home.zonnet.nl/michiel.1/centralam/centralam.htm
This is a report of a birding holiday of four weeks in Mexico, Guatemala and Belize...

  tour operators

 

Birding Ecotours

http://www.birdingecotours.co.za/SouthAmerica/southcentralamerica.php
Custom-made and set itineraries to Latin America...

Caligo Ventures

http://www.caligo.com/about/index.html
Since 1983 Caligo Ventures has specialized in group travel for natural history clubs and organizations; principally to Trinidad & Tobago, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Panama, Belize, Ecuador, and Peru, as well as Kenya...

Ecocolors

http://www.ecotravelmexico.com
This unique eco-tour is specially design for bird watchers. We will be able to visit the main protected areas in the Yucatan peninsula such as Sianka`an, Holbox, Coba, and El Eden, as well as Guatemala and Belize rainforest. Mexico has around 1,040 different bird species, just in the Yucatan peninsula there are 509 different species in 62 families, from which 12 are endemic, with 4 subspecies, 2 morphos and 14 hipotetical registers. Belize and Guatemala have also more than 550 species of birds.

Lost World Adventures

http://lostworldadventures.com
Lost World Adventures arranges specialised tours and expeditions in South America and other exotic New World destinations. Our company was founded in 1986, when we pioneered our first adventure trips into Venezuela. We now arrange travel throughout Latin America, including Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama, Ecuador and Galapagos Islands, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile and Argentina.

Toucan Birding Tours

http://www.toucantours.co.uk
Toucan Birding Tours operates top class birding holidays throughout the Tropical Americas. If you enjoy seeing your birds in a small friendly group led by an experienced expert bird tour leader then look no further...

Wildside Nature Tours

http://www.wildsidetoursinc.com/
Adventure Camera, Incs. Wildside Birding Tours offers scheduled, guided small group tours to Central & North America (10 people maximum plus two leaders) as well as custom tours, guided or unguided, for any number of people.

  places to stay

 

Ecotourism in America

http://www.ecotourisminamerica.com/
This is a website entirely devoted to nature based travel in the Americas. Here you can find a detailed description of each establishment organized by name, country or activity...

  other links

 

Latin America Bird Song

http://www.xeno-canto.org
…a community site for the collection of sounds from all of Central and South America...

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