Birdcation at Trinidad & Tobago

We have recently returned home after a two weeks birdcation in Trinidad & Tobago from 14th of July to 28th of July. We really enjoyed visiting Trinidad & Tobago where we saw some good birds and met many nice people.

At this time of year it is the wet season and we did have some heavy rain during our visit. It was rather humid and warm but most of the time the weather was fine for birding.

The first part of our trip was arranged by ourselves. We stayed at Alibaba Seabreeze (http://www.alibaba-tours.com/index.htm) in Castara, Tobago. This was mainly relaxation with most birding done from the guest house and the beach at Little Bay and in the village of Castara. With a very short notice we made arrangement with local birder Newton George (http://www.newtongeorge.com) and joined him and four others birders/photographers on a birding trip to the Main Ridge Forest Reserve one morning.
 
The second part of our birdcation was the 'Birding Ventures for Independent Travelers' arranged by Caligo Ventures (http://caligo.com). We stayed one night at Grand Riviere and six nights at Asa Wright Nature Centre (AWNC), Trinidad (http://asawright.org) and finally three nights at Blue Waters Inn, Tobago (http://www.bluewatersinn.com).

The 'Birding Venture' included a visit to the Dunston Cave at Asa Wright to see the fruit-eating nocturnal Oilbird Steatornis caripensis and a visit to Little Tobago with Frank's Glass Bottom Boat. In advanced we had booked additional birding tours to Aripo Savannah, Nariva Swamp and Caroni Swamp and Matura Beach. While we saw the Leatherback Turtles at Grand Riviere we changed the Matura Beach tour to the Blanchisseuse Road tour instead. We also joined two night walks at AWNC.

In total we saw and heard 188 identified species including Oilbird, Piping Guan Pipile pipile, Scarlet Ibis Eudocimus ruber, 14 species of hummingbirds, Bearded Bellbirds procnias averano carnobarba, Red-billed Tropicbirds phaethon aethereus mesonauta , three species of manakin and Trogons just to mention a few. We also saw and heard some birds we weren't able to identify.

And of course we have to mention The Verandah at AWNC - we loved it and had many great views of the birds - the hummingbirds, honeycreepers, toucans and many more. We loved birding the surroundings and also had some great tours extending away from the centre with some nice and good guides who really knows the birds and localities.

Getting there. From Copenhagen, Denmark we travelled with Scandinavien Airlines (SAS) to Frankfurt Airport, Germany. From Franfurt Airport we flew with Condor to ANR Robinson International Airport, Tobago. The return flight to Frankfurt Airport via Barbodos was again with Condor and the final leg to Copenhagen with Lufthansa. At Trinidad & Tobago the inter-islands flights was carried out by Carribean Airlines.

Below you can see a small selection of photos from our trip to Trinidad & Tobago - we hope you will enjoy :-)

All photos by Bente Steffensen (Twitter: @DkBest) and Uffe Damm Andersen (Twitter: @tumblingCandle).

Trinidad Motmot Momotus bahamensis, Castara, Tobago.

Magnificent Frigatebird Fregata magnificens, Castara, Tobago.

Yellow-crowned Night Heron Nycticorax nycticorax hoactli, Castara, Tobago.

Rufous-vented Chachalaca Ortalis ruficauda ruficauda, Castara, Tobago.

Rufous-tailed Jacamar Galbula ruficauda ruficauda, Main Ridge Forest, Tobago.

Collared Trogon Trogon collaris exoptatus, Main Ridge Forest, Tobago.

"Pawi" - Trinidad Piping Guan Pipile pipile, Grand Riviere, Trinidad.

Black Vulture Coragyps atratus, Grand Riviere, Trinidad.

Crested Oropendola Psarocolius decumanus insularis, Asa Wright Nature Centre, Trinidad.

Yellow Oriole Icterus nigrogularis trinitatis, Asa Wright Nature Centre, Trinidad.

White-necked Jacobin Florisuga mellivora (male), Asa Wright Nature Centre, Trinidad.

White-chested Emerald Amazilia brevirostris, Asa Wright Nature Centre, Trinidad.

Brown Violetear Colibri delphinae, Asa Wright Nature Centre, Trinidad.

Black-throated Mango Anthracothorax nigricollis (male), Asa Wright Nature Centre, Trinidad.

Purple Honneycreeper Cyanerpes caeruleus longirostris (male), Asa Wright Nature Centre, Trinidad.

Golden-headed Manakin Pipira erythrocephala erythrocephala, (male), Asa Wright Nature Centre, Trinidad. 

Channel-billed Toucan Ramphastos vitellinus vitellinus, Asa Wright Nature Centre, Trinidad.

Guianan Trogon Trogon violaceus violaceus, Blanchisseuse Road, Trinidad.

Barred Antshrike Thamnophilus doliatus doliatus, (male), Asa Wright Nature Centre, Trinidad.

Masked Cardinal Paroaria gularis nigrogenis, Caroni Swamp, Trinidad.

Common Black Hawk Buteogallus anthracinus anthracinus, Caroni Swamp, Trinidad.

Scarlet Ibis Eudocimus ruber, Caroni Swamp, Trinidad.