Otus asio Tours is a small company owned and managed by Jan Hansen from North Carolina, USA.  I first met Jan in December 2000, when he was co-leading a birding trip to Panama for Ecoventures.
We’ve kept in touch since then, but due to my tight schedule Trinidad & Tobago has been the first time I’ve had a chance to be in one of his trips.

The Republic of Trinidad & Tobago is formed by two relatively small (1,700 and 110 sq miles, respectively) islands 10 miles off the coast of Venezuela, 10º north of the Equator.  Trinidad was attached to the Continent until 10,000 years ago, so it retains a significant amount of mainland fauna. Tobago has always been an island, and its birdlife is therefore more Caribbean than South American.

As a birding destination, T&T has the advantage of having a great variety and abundance of spectacular Neotropical species, without being overwhelming for the novice.
After one or two days it’s easy to familiarize with most of the species likely to be seen (with the exception of the ever-confusing flycatchers). The final birdlist amounted to 249 species, not bad at all for eight days of birding.

The trip included six nights at Asa Wright nature Centre and Lodge in Arima Valley in Trinidad, plus three at the Blue Waters Inn in Speyside, Tobago, plus one morning spent birding around  Miami residential areas, which produced Red-whiskered Bulbul (Pygnonotus jocosus) and Spot-breasted Oriole (Icterus pectoralis), apart from other commoner species.

The first location is a former plantation that turned into secondary forest, owned and operated by a scientific trust and funded by the WWF. The former plantation house has been turned into a pleasant and comfortable lodge, and the centre’s best-known natural attraction is the colony of Oilbird (Steatornis caripensis) in a cave not far from the hotel, one of the most accessible in the World. There is also a White-bearded Manakin (Manacus manacus) lekking ground next to one of the trails that traverse the forest from the hotel, where we could see up to fifteen males displaying simultaneously, creating an amazing spectacle on the dark forest floor. Manakin photos are kindly provided by Jerry Uhlman from Virginia, who with his wife Sylvia was one of the participants on the trip.

The other well-known feature of Asa Wright are the feeders in the front garden under a colonial-style veranda, that allow close looks of a wide array of birds that come to feed more or less permanently. Regular everyday visitors included Green Honeycreeper (Chlorophanes spiza), Purple Honeycreeper (Cyanerpes caeruleus), White-lined Tanager (Tachyphonus rufus), Blue-grey Tanager (Thraupis episcopus), Silver-beaked Tanager (Ramphocelus carbo), Bay-headed Tanager (Tangara gyrola) , Violaceous Euphonia (Euphonia violacea), White-necked Jacobin (Florisura mellivora), Copper-rumped Hummingbird (Amazilia tobaci), and the ever-present Bananaquit (Coereba flaveola). Occasional visitors included Red-legged Honeycreeper (Cyanerpes cyaneus), Chestnut Woodpecker (Celeus elegans) (one of my favourites of the trip), Tufted Coquette (Lophornis ornata), Green Hermit (Phaetornis guy)… Other very interesting species like Ornate Hawk-eagle (Spizaetus ornatus) and the very rare Black Hawk-eagle (Spizaetus tyrannus) were seen near the centre.

AWNC is an excellent location to spend a few days relaxing and watching wonderful tropical birds while sipping your tea. However, I found it a little too tame in details such as the trails being closed at night, which made impossible any mammal or amphibian watching. From AWNC we took daily field trips to visiting the many different habitats found throughout the island. A boat trip through Caroni Swamp allowed us to watch the wonderful spectacle of thousands of Scarlet Ibis (Eudocimus rubber) arriving at their mangrove roost.

The Blue Waters Inn was our base in Tobago, on a pleasant beach from which we took a boat trip to the islands of Little Tobago and St Giles, protected home of huge colonies of Red-billed Tropicbird (Phaethon aethereus), Magnificent Frigatebird (Fregata magnfiicens)  and Brown (Sula leucogaster) , Masked (Sula dactylatra) and Red-footed Booby (Sula sula). One of the trip’s highlights was an Audubon’s Shearwater (Puffinus lherminieri) nesting in its burrow.

We spent some time hiking along a trail through well-preserved highland rainforest, where we could see White-tailed Sabrewing (Campilopteurs ensipennis) in the only location where it can be found in the country, Blue-backed Manakin (Chiroxiphia pareola) and Great Black-hawk (Buteogallus urubitinga) among many other species.