Guyana: Jewel of the Guianan Shield (1 Viewer)

[kb57]

If that's what you can do with a point-and-shoot, I'm impressed - really good compositions, many with better gear produce worse results.

Taking up @pbjosh 's comments, I've thought of giving French Guiana a go one day - although it's true getting into the interior is very difficult, it seems relatively easy to get around the northern part of the country, and to do it independently with a rental car - definitely less birded rather than less explored. I've got one (or two) other 'outre-mer' departements to visit first though, but the prospect of completing my cock-of-the-rock collection is tempting...

 

[pbjosh]

the prospect of completing my cock-of-the-rock collection is tempting...

Andean Cock-of-the-Roxk is a f*cking Pigeon compared to Guianan Cock-of-the-Rock. Go see it, it’s one of the top 5 birds on earth in my book!

 

[lgonz1008]

I’m not sure I would call Guyana the final frontier in S America? I would say there are far more intrepid destinations to be had if you want - S Bolivia, areas in central Amazonia, particularly NW Amazonas province and parts of Acre and Roraima, Brazil, around Leticia and more of S Colombian Amazon, many of the remote mountainous regions of Peru, and lots of the remote Venezuelan Amazon are far less explored. I have the distinct impression that Suriname and Fr Guiana are also far less explored (or at least far less birded) than Guyana.

I definitely agree that Guyana is far less popular than one might expect given the quality of forest, the birds on offer, and the infrastructure in place.

I meant it more from the point of view of international tour companies, they seem to treat Guyana as this wild place that you can't find anything like it elsewhere and while that is true, it seems like they want to sell more the idea that you can visit a whole country in one trip as opposed to the ones you mention that clearly require many returns to one country.

There's also the infrastructure and safety factor, Venezuela is sadly closed down and many parts of Central Amazonia (where in Brazil or Colombia) are too hard to reach outside of the most extreme birder.

Guyana is treated horribly by the US Travel Advisory which seem to deter many to travel there, but honestly words cannot describe how safe I felt in the interior. I was honestly feeling more comfortable in some of these lodges than I am in my house/neighborhood! And like you said, the quality of forest and birds on offer are really hard to find in other places without doing more than one connecting flight within the country (I'm thinking of Mitu and Inirida here for two of the biggest targets of the Guiana Shield, the Guianan Cock-of-the-Rock and the Capuchinbird).

 

[lgonz1008]

If that's what you can do with a point-and-shoot, I'm impressed - really good compositions, many with better gear produce worse results.

Taking up @pbjosh 's comments, I've thought of giving French Guiana a go one day - although it's true getting into the interior is very difficult, it seems relatively easy to get around the northern part of the country, and to do it independently with a rental car - definitely less birded rather than less explored. I've got one (or two) other 'outre-mer' departements to visit first though, but the prospect of completing my cock-of-the-rock collection is tempting...

Andean Cock-of-the-Roxk is a f*cking Pigeon compared to Guianan Cock-of-the-Rock. Go see it, it’s one of the top 5 birds on earth in my book!

French Guiana is not on my radar due to the language barrier, however, if you want to go for temptation, I heard that you can get many of the targets from Guyana and French Guiana in Suriname with an easier time (especially that pesky Crimson Fruitcrow) and there's even a lodge in the interior where Zigzag Herons seem to forage between the cabins, so there's something else to make it tempting.

Haven't seen the Andean Cock-of-the-Rock yet, but I can say that the Guianan one ended up as one of my favorite birds of the trip because of how different the experience was spending an hour with them lekking as opposed to a short video or image that just don't do justice to this bird!

 

[lgonz1008]

If that's what you can do with a point-and-shoot, I'm impressed - really good compositions, many with better gear produce worse results.

That's maybe around 100 good photos out of 1700+, a lot of the time I just got blurs and bad outlines. I always say that good luck is more important than good camera equipment, except for flying shots, those my camera can't even dream of doing it in my settings.

 

[dandsblair]

Some great photos but with discussion above on Cock of the the Rock comparisons couldn't resist photos of male and female Guianan v Andean (Guinan is just so bright). Hope you don't mind

 

[kb57]

French Guiana is not on my radar due to the language barrier, however, if you want to go for temptation, I heard that you can get many of the targets from Guyana and French Guiana in Suriname with an easier time (especially that pesky Crimson Fruitcrow) and there's even a lodge in the interior where Zigzag Herons seem to forage between the cabins, so there's something else to make it tempting.

Haven't seen the Andean Cock-of-the-Rock yet, but I can say that the Guianan one ended up as one of my favorite birds of the trip because of how different the experience was spending an hour with them lekking as opposed to a short video or image that just don't do justice to this bird!

I have the opposite language issue - can't speak Spanish, but have ample French for travel purposes and can follow a conversation reasonably well, while my partner (a Swiss citizen) is fluent - so that makes places like Reunion (where we've been), Guadeloupe (where we hope to go later this year) and Guiana (on my bucket list, even more so after reading the cock-of-the-rock comments above...) relatively easy destinations. Set against this is the generic issue with mainland and overseas France in that birding is a fairly niche activity and birding tourism doesn't seem to be really well developed compared to other comparable countries.