montanabirders: Venezuela-Caracas

Amy, Dan, Leonard, Carol

Three toed sloth

On January 31 we flew to Caracas for a 16 day birding trip to various areas of Venezuela that offered a great diversity of birds. The trip was through Victor Emanuel Nature Tours [VENT] and the leader was David Ascanio, a Venezuelan who was a co-leader on our trip to the Amazon of Peru last year, and an outstanding birder. We went with friends Carol and Leonard who we had been with on other birding trips. After flying all night [not my favorite thing] David picked us up at the airport and since we could not check into our hotel until 3pm we headed out to El Avila National Park [http://www.birdvenezuela.com/birding_el_avila.htm] in the mountains surrounding Caracas. We were tired from the long flight but that was soon forgotten when we immediately started finding new and colorful birds…and a sloth. We ended the day with 48 species, many of them common, but some difficult to find, including the black-throated spinetail and Caracas tapacoula which are both endemics.

Caracas is a city of 8 million people, with all the sights and sounds of a big city….including automobile exhaust fumes. The price of gas is 12 cents a gallon [huge government subsidies] and people drive everywhere and all the time. Plus, the gas is 91 octane and there are minimal pollution control devices on the vehicles so air quality becomes an issue. Traffic congestion is major and it takes a long time to get anywhere, so I was happy on day 2 when our group of 6 birders and 2 guides left the city and headed into the country for more birding adventures.