Hi All,

Delia and I got back from a trip to Belize late last night, (this was written Thurs. but my email is malfunctioning) and I wanted to file a report. ?Our Belize trip had been planned with to be with Delia?s parents-in-law, but they ended up not being able to go. ?The result was an itinerary that involved staying in only one place for eight days, the famous Chan Chich Lodge. ?After landing in Belize City, we took a single engine Cessna that flew about 500 feet above the trees due west to a small cleared agricultural area called Gallon Jug. ? From there, a driver/birder drove us the eight miles to the Chan Chich Lodge. ?The next eight days we birded hard both with and without the help of Chan Chich?s staff of guides, including Gilberto, Raoul, and Luis, who were a great help with their encyclopedic knowledge of songs and the jungle. ?Anyway, here is our list:

1. Great Tinamou ?
2. Neotropic Cormorant
3. Anhinga
4. Pinnated Bittern
5. Bare Throated Tiger Heron
6. Great Egret
7. Snowy Egret
8. Cattle Egret
9. Green Heron
10. ?Black Crowned Night Heron
11. ?Black Vulture
12. ?Turkey Vulture ?(This great soaring specialist was our first and last Belizean bird, Dian McCrae might be happy to know)
13. ?King Vulture
14. ?Swallow Tailed Kite
15. ? White Tailed Kite
16. ? Plumbeous Kite
17. ? Black Collared Hawk
18. ? Gray Hawk
19. ? Roadside Hawk
20. ? Ornate Hawk Eagle ? (Seen four times.)
21. ?American Kestrel
22. ?Bat Falcon
23. ? Plain Chachalaca ?
24. ? Crested Guan
25. ? Ocellated Turkey
26. ? Sungrebe
27. ? Northern Jacana ?
28. ? Spotted Sandpiper
29. ? Scaled Pigeon
30. ? Red Billed Pigeon
31. ? Short Billed Pigeon
32. ? Ruddy Ground Dove ?
33. ? Blue Ground Dove ?
34. ? Gray Headed Dove
35. ? Ruddy Quail Dove ?
36. ? Aztec Parakeet ?
37. ? Brown Hooded Parrot ?
38. ?White Crowned Parrot
39. ? Red Lored Parrot ?
40. ? Mealy Parrot
41. ? Common Barn Owl
42. ?Common Pauraque
43. ?Common Nighthawk ?
44. ? Vaux?s Swift
45. ? Lesser Swallow Tailed Swift
46. ? Long Tailed Hermit
47. ? Little Hermit
48. ? Scaly Breasted Hummingbird
49. ? White Necked Jacobin
50. ? Green Breasted Mango ?
51. ? White Bellied Emerald
52. ? Rufous Tailed Hummingbird
53. ? Purple Crowned Fairy ?(Puts on a fantastic show, like a fairy in the forest)
54. ? Black Headed Trogon
55. ? Violaceous Trogon
56. ? Collared Trogon
57. ? Slaty Tailed Trogon
58. ? Blue Crowned Motmot
59. ? Ringed Kingfisher
60. ? Green Kingfisher
61. ? Pygmy Kingfisher ?
62. ? White Whiskered Puffbird
63. ? Rufous Tailed Jacamar
64. ? Emerald Toucanet ?
65. ? Collared Aracari ?
66. ? Keel Billed Toucon ?
67. ? Black Cheeked Woodpecker ?
68. ? Smokey Brown Woodpecker ?
69. ? Golden Olive Woodpecker ?
70. ? Chestnut Colored Woodpecker
71. ? Linneated Woodpecker
72. ? Pale Billed Woodpecker
73. ? Plain Xenops ? (twice, good views. ?This bird, made famous by Tweeters?-own Ken Knittle lives life upside down grabbing onto branches upside down and then sliding down them in search of insects).
74. ? Tawny Winged Woodcreeper ?
75. ? Ruddy Woodcreeper ?
76. ? Olivaceous Woodcreeper
77. ? Barred Woodcreeper ?
78. ? Ivory Billed Woodcreeper ?
79. ? Pain Antvireo
80. ? Dot Winged Antwren ?
81. ? Greenish Eleania
82. ? Ochre Bellied Flycatcher ?
83. ? Northern Bentbill
84. ? Eye Ringed Flatbill ?
85. ? Yellow Olive Flycatcher
86. ? Royal Flycatcher ?
87. ? Sulphur Rumped Flycatcher
88. ? Tropical Pewee
89. ? Rufous Mourner
90. ? Great Crested Flycatcher
91. ? Brown Crested Flycatcher
92. ? Dusky Capped Flycatcher ?
93. ? Boat Billed Flycatcher
94. ? Social Flycatcher
95. ? Sulphur Bellied Flycatcher
96. ? Piratic Flycatcher
97. ? ?Tropical Kingbird
98. ? Eastern Kingbird
99. ? Scissor Tailed Flycatcher ?
100. Fork Tailed Flycatcher ?
101. Empidonax genus flycatcher ? (Subtract one from the total species count.)
102. Cinnamon Becard ?
103. Rose Throated Becard ?
104. Masked Tityra
105. Black Crowned Tityra
106. Lovely Cotinga ?
107. Thrush-like Shiffornis ?
108. White Collared Manakin ?
109. Red Capped Manakin ?
110. Gray Breasted Martin ?(Apparently all the Purple Martins had already headed up to Seattle to try out the new Kevin Li boxes)
111. ?Mangrove Swallow ?(just like our Violet Greens, these birds are desperate for nest sites and our pilot said two were trying to get into the wing vent holes on the Cessna, which wouldn?t be a good place to raise swallow babies.)
112. Barn Swallow ?
113. Brown Jay
114. Spot Breasted Wren ?
115. House Wren
116. White Breasted Wood Wren
117. Long Billed Gnatwren ?
118. Wood Thrush
119. Clay Colored Robin
120. White Throated Robin ?
121. Gray Catbird
122. Tropical Mockingbird
123. Yellow Throated Vireo
124. Red Eyed Vireo ?
125. Yellow Green Vireo ?
126. Lesser Greenlet ?
127. Golden Winged Warbler ?
128. Yellow Warbler
129. Chestnust Sided Warbler ?
130. Magnolia Warbler ?
131. Black and White Warbler
132. American Redstart
133. Worm Eating Warbler
134. Blackburnian Warbler
135. Northern Waterthrush
136. Louisiana Waterthrush ?
137. Kentucky Warbler
138. Common Yellowthroat
139. Gray Crowned Yellowthroat
140. Hooded Warbler ?
141. Yellow Breasted Chat
142. Green Honeycreeper ?
143. Red Legged Honeycreeper
144. Yellow Throated Euphonia ? ?
145. Olive Backed Euphonia ?
146. Yellow Winged Tanager
147. Black Throated Shrike Tanager ?
148. Red Crowned Ant Tanager
149. Red Throated Ant Tanager
150. Summer Tanager
151. Scarlet Tanager ?
152. Black Headed Saltator
153. Black Faced Grosbeak
154. Blue Black Grosbeak
155. Blue Grosbeak
156. Dickcissel ?
157. Blue-Black Grassquit
158. White Collared Seedeater
159. Melodious Blackbird ?
160. Great Tailed Grackle
161. Giant Cowbird ?
162. Black Cowled Oriole
163. Orchard Oriole
164. Yellow Tailed Oriole
165. Baltimore Oriole
166. Montezuma Oropendola ?

Mammals:

Black Howler Monkey seen and heard constantly particularly at night.
Spider Monkey ?These seemed so people-like, and very large. ?At one point a troop passed overhead at high speed, making spectacular crashing sounds and knocking down branches and small trees in the process. ?Another time a mom was crossing over the road and first ordered her baby onto her back, then clearly counted to three (rocking back and forth) before making perhaps an 18 foot leap to a palm frond below.
Tayra
Raccoon
River Otter
Others saw Ocelot twice while we were there, and there were lots of credible big cat sightings in the very recent past, as there is a relatively huge population of jaguars and cougars there.

We also saw ?two Morelet Crocodiles, the freshwater crocodile there that gets to be over 12 feet long but isn?t known to attack humans.

There were almost no bothersome insects, it being the dry season, which was great for us but no doubt not so great for the vast number of insectivorous birds down there.

At Gallon Jug there was an area planted in coffee and this was the first time I had ever seen shade coffee growing. ?It certainly looked like good habitat.

Belize is a country where some citizens are clearly making a significant internal effort to develop in the ecotourism direction. ?It is clearly at a crossroads, wiht still alot of forest but also a lot of burning and clearing in some places and a dam going in that NRDC is trying to fight. ? The local staff working the lodge are really warm and nice, and the local staff is very knowledgeable. ?There are also other lodges in the area that offer ?slightly different approaches and emphases, and may charge less or more. ?(Belize is kind of expensive in general). ?Chan Chich is a bit formal and has a swimming pool, but coming from Seattle and not being acclimated to the heat, we really appreciated that on a daily basis. ?Anyone who is interested in heading down that way is welcome to email us privately if there is anything we might know.

Ed Newbold, newboldwildlife at netscape.net ?Beacon Hill Seattle, where one warbler we couldn?t find in Belize, the Yellow Rumped just took a bath in our backyard.





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