Asa Wright tropics
Spent three nights at Asa Wright in Trinidad. The veranda is famous in the birding world for a reason — you sit down with a coffee and birds come to you. Hummingbirds at the feeders by 6:30 AM. Tanagers and oropendolas by 8:00. Honeycreepers mid-morning. It’s barely a workout.
The hummingbirds were the show. White-necked Jacobins hogged the sugar feeders — they are aggressive and enormous for hummingbirds. Tufted Coquettes appeared like a rumor at first and then routine. Copper-rumped Hummingbirds everywhere. A single Ruby Topaz for one morning only.
The Crested Oropendola colony hangs out on a giant fig below the veranda. The calls are unreal — like a squeezed balloon and a dripping faucet at the same time. A Green Honeycreeper worked fruit for the whole morning. Purple Honeycreepers in a small mixed group. Bananaquits never stopped.
Off the veranda: I hiked the trails twice. Got a Bearded Bellbird (they ring like metal being struck), a Channel-billed Toucan (briefly), and a Trinidad Motmot that sat for one whole minute near a quiet junction.
Evening highlight was a Trinidad Piping-Guan on the far ridge — our guide had been watching the same pair for years.
