Guyana is an exciting, less traveled birding destination featuring over 70 Guianan Shield endemics and about 100 other species found almost exclusively in northeastern South America. Our Guyana birding tour is carefully designed to see a majority of the speciality birds found within the readily accessible areas of the country during 8 days of birding. The tour features the Georgetown area, Iwokrama Forest Reserve, the Rupununi Savanna, and Karanambu Ranch. The best time to take this tour is October-April. Accommodations are generally good except quite rustic at Surama.

The tour begins with a focus on coastal specialties at Hope Beach and near Mahaicony and Abary Rivers where we'll get our first taste of Guiana endemics along with some coastal specialties. We'll spend our first afternoon outside town birding along the Demerara River and later at the Garden of Eden in Georgetown. Early next morning we'll visit the Georgetown Botanical Gardens where we'll be looking for target birds such as Blood-colored Woodpecker before taking a late morning flight across the vast and largely unspoiled rainforest of the northern Amazon Basin to Lethem. Following our arrival there, we'll drive the 5-6 hours to Iwokrama Forest Reserve. We'll spend most of 3 days there birding this reserve. Birding will be along several trails and along the main dirt road through the reserve as well as in the southern sector at Atta Rainforest Lodge, where a canopy walkway offers special access to canopy birds. We'll be up very early during our last morning there to visit a Guianan Cock-of-the-Rock lek before continuing on to Surama Lodge, where accommodations are very basic but birding in the forest and during a short boat trip on the Burro-Burro River offers up numerous Guianan Shield endemics. From Surama we drive south through the Rupununi Savanna to Karanambu Ranch, where several endemics of open savanna await. After spending two days birding there, we drive south to Lethem to catch an afternoon flight back to Georgetown, where we'll spend a last night before catching our flights home.

Tour Considerations

PACE - Easy

DIFFICULTY - Birding during this tour is generally easy. Much of the birding is along roadsides. The hike up Turtle Mountain is somewhat long and requires an early start. The first part of the trail is somewhat level and eventually up a moderate incline. The trail becomes steeper near its end, but we generally don't hike very far up that part of the trail. The hike at Surama is along a level jeep track.

DOMESTIC FLIGHTS - Flights into the interior are by small aircraft, typically 16-passenger planes. There is a strict baggage limit of 10kg (20 lbs) plus 4.5kg (10 lbs) carry-on. Extra baggage is subject to space availability and incurs an extra charge.

CLIMATE - Dry season in Guyana is from September to April, with September and April being transitional months. Temperatures are generally warm to quite hot (75-90 degrees). Rainy season is from April to September. During rainy season, roads and savannas south of Karanambu are subject to flooding and may become impassable.

BIRD ACTIVITY - Birds are generally active during dry season, especially in the mornings. Fruiting trees and flowering plants attract large mixed flocks. Breeding behavior and lek displays such as with Guianan Cock-f-the-Rock begin in January. Birding is excellent from October through April. Birding during wet season is more difficult due to dense cloud cover and often heavy rains. Also, the road between Lethem and Iwokrama may be impassable during those months due to flooding.

PHOTOGRAPHY - Opportunities for bird photography are reasonably good as forest understories are generally fairly open and birds in the savanna sometimes perch conspicuously. There are no bird feeders so photography is opportunistic.

 

 

 

 

 

• Photos from Past Tours
• Travel Information

BIRDING LOCALES
FOR THIS TOUR

• Abary River
• Atta Rainforest
• Georgetown
• Hope Beach
• Iwokrama Reserve
• Karanambu Ranch
• Mahaicony River
• Rupununi Savanna
• Surama Village