Eastern Venezuela: Rainforests, Tepuis & the Grand Savanna: Feb 25—Mar 07, 2008

Harpy Eagle — Photo: Kevin Zimmer

Unbeatable lineup of large, showy species, tepui mountain endemics, and perhaps the best opportunity anywhere for Harpy Eagle. Tepui region notably scenic.

This tour has become known as the "Harpy Eagle tour" and we have had excellent success in finding this magnificent eagle here, but eastern Venezuela also offers a stunning lineup of large, showy birds, and some of the most spectacular scenery on the continent. It is the tepui mountains, with their sheer, vertical sides and flat tops, that give this ancient landscape—this legendary land of "El Dorado"—its distinctive appearance. Further, the tepuis harbor one of the highest degrees of avian endemism in all of South America.

We begin this remarkable tour with a drive south to the vicinity of the tepuis; later we'll visit the Grand Savanna, and then travel all the way to the Brazilian border. We'll stay several days at a pleasant hotel near the foot of the tepui country. The scenery is legendary. In places, sheer cliffs rise hundreds of feet above the forest. Sweeping forested landscapes are broken by mesa-like mountains, bluish in the distant haze. Ribbons of waterfalls drop hundreds of feet.

Among the endemic birds we may see are Fiery-shouldered Parakeet, Peacock Coquette, Velvet-browed Brilliant, Streak-backed Antshrike, Roraiman Antwren, Rose-collared Piha, Scarlet-horned Manakin, Flutist Wren, Tepui Redstart, Golden-tufted Mountain-Grackle, and Tepui Brush-Finch. In the lowlands and foothills the list seems endless: Black-and-white Hawk-Eagle; Blue-cheeked Parrot; Guianan Cock-of-the-rock (we have never missed it); Sharpbill, Crimson Topaz, Spangled, Pompadour, and Purple-breasted cotingas; both bellbirds; and Capuchinbird, to name a few.

Last on our itinerary is the Rio Grande Forest Reserve. This is probably one of the best places on the continent to see large birds, for it contains many raptors, cracids, parrots, woodpeckers, fruitcrows, and oropendolas. It is arguably the single best place we know to see a Harpy Eagle. With access to several nest sites, we have been able to find this magnificent eagle on most visits for more than a decade now.

For a combination of magnificent scenery and great rainforest birding, eastern Venezuela is among the best on the continent. Prospective visitors should be aware that, given the frontier nature of the region, some accommodations are spare.

Accommodations moderate to basic, possibly some shared doubles; travel by plane, bus, and four-wheel drive vehicle; relatively easy walking but one or more longer, moderately strenuous rainforest walks sometimes necessary; warm and humid in lowlands, cool and damp in mountains.