Special Birding Week with Birds of Belize Author Lee Jones

January 2nd - 9th, 2010

Join Lee Jones, author of Birds of Belize, and the Belize Audubon Society for this special birding itinerary. Participate in the 10th Annual Punta Gorda Christmas Bird Count and explore some of southern Belize’s most remote and rewarding birding sites with the experts. Non-birders are welcome, with plenty of alternative activities like caving, waterfalls, village tours, and Mayan ruins available for partners and children through Cotton Tree Lodge.

The P.G. CBC records on average more than 250 species (record 267), consistently more than any count north of Costa Rica. In addition to the count, participants will also visit several of southern Belize’s hottest birding spots, such as Red Bank Village where a flock of Scarlet Macaws feeds each year from January to April. Nearby is an extensive pine woodland and savanna with such specialties as Aplomado Falcon, Stygian Owl, Striped Owl, Azure-crowned Hummingbird, Fork-tailed Flycatcher, Rusty Sparrow, Yellow-backed Oriole, and distinctive subspecies of Yellow-headed Parrot and Sedge Wren, Belize’s only true endemics.

The itinerary includes an overnight stay at BFREE on the eastern flank of the Maya Mountains where a nesting pair of Harpy Eagles was discovered last year. Other species include King Vulture , Gray-headed and Double-toothed kites, Bicolored Hawk, Black, Ornate, and Black-and-white hawk-eagles, Barred Forest-Falcon and a number of what elitist raptorologists indignantly refer to as dickie birds (e.g., Green Honeycreeper, Golden-hooded Tanager, Orange-billed Sparrow).

Finally, on a trip to the remote villages of southwestern Belize search for Band-tailed Barbthroat, Black-crested Coquette, Bare-crowned Antbird, Paltry Tyrannulet, Chestnut-headed Oropendola, and White-vented Euphonia, species that reach their northern limit in southernmost Belize.

Day-by-Day:
2 January: Arrival; evening “get acquainted” social; group assignments for tomorrow’s bird count.
3 January: Christmas Bird Count 5:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; post-count compilation dinner 6:00 to 7:30 p.m.
4 January: Local birding around lodge, San Felipe, and Santa Anna.
5 January: Moho River trip and Aguacaliente Lagoon.
6 January: Trip to Blue Creek and Pueblo Viejo.
7-8 January: Trip to Red Bank (depart pre-dawn) and BFREE; overnight stay at BFREE.
8 January: Birding at BFREE in a.m.; return trip to Cotton Tree Lodge, birding along the way.
9 January: Departure.

Rates begin at $1365 per person based on double occupancy, and include accommodations, all meals, soft drinks, bottled water, all tours in the itinerary, and transfers between Punta Gorda and Cotton Tree Lodge. Alternative activities as scheduled by the lodge, including caving, Mayan ruins, and village tours, are also included in these rates. All rates are in US dollars and subject to a 9% hotel tax. Gratuities are not included.

THE CBC: A BRIEF HISTORY

The Christmas Bird Count (CBC) was started by Frank Chapman in 1900 in the eastern United States as an alternative to a sport at the time called the Side Hunt. The objective of the Side Hunt was to see who could shoot the most kinds of birds during a traditional Christmas Day hunt. The objective of the Christmas Bird Census (as it was called then) was to record as many birds as possible without shooting them. Little did Mr. Chapman know then that his Christmas Bird Census would become the immensely popular event that it is today.

The first CBC on Christmas Day 1900 had 27 participants. In 1999, the 100th anniversary of the CBC, 52,471 participants counted nearly 79 million birds on 1,823 counts throughout North and Central America and the West Indies, and the number continues to grow each year.
The first count in Belize was conducted in 1972 near Belize City. With this year’s count, the Belize City CBC will be 37 years old. Belmopan joined Belize City with its first count in 1975. The third count was begun in Gallon Jug in 1990. With the addition of Punta Gorda in 2000, four of the six districts in Belize are now represented.

HOW IT ALL WORKS

The area covered on a CBC must be within a circle 15 miles across. The objective is to record all the birds that the count participants can see or hear in one calendar day within that circle sometime between 14th December and 5th January. For each species recorded, an estimate of the number of individuals of that species is also tallied. The results are published each year in a special issue of the National Audubon Society called American Birds. Information from the CBC has been used in the past by ornithologists and ecologists to assess long-term trends in early winter bird populations. In fact, the CBC has been considered not only the best, but the only, tool available for making such assessments. Where possible, these trends are correlated with changes in the local and regional environment (such as the effects of deforestation and development on the one hand, and the creation of wildlife reserves and parks on the other).