From spider monkeys and toucans to jaguars and parrots, Guatemala’s Tikal National Park (Parque Nacional Tikal) has it all.
Most visitors come to the park, located in the rainforest of Guatemala’s Petén region, to see its expansive ancient Mayan ruins. But the array of wildlife draws tourists and bird-watchers from around the world.
Since we only had two days to spend in Tikal, we decided to maximize our experience by staying in the park rather than in town. We stayed in Jungle Lodge, a very basic bungalow-style hotel. There’s also camping inside the park. We watched the sunset from a Mayan temple and woke up with the animals at dawn. Here are photos of the animals we were lucky enough to spot.
Spider Monkey
As we hiked to a Maya temple, we heard a rustling in the trees above. Then, as bits of discarded monkey food rained down around us, we looked up and spotted a group of four spider monkeys swinging through the trees above us.
Blue-Crowned Motmot
What struck me most about the blue-crowned motmot was its unique tail, which looks like it’s missing a section at the end. According to my wildlife reference book, it’s called a “tennis racket” end.
Collared Aracari
Although Tikal National Park is home to a variety of toucans and toucan relatives, we only spotted the collared aracari. There was a group of five of these smallish birds high above us in the trees. They hopped around quite a bit so it was hard to get a good photo of them.
Gray-Necked Wood-Rail
This duck-sized bird was scouring the grass near a swamp for insects, then plunging its beak into the grass when it found one.
Orange-Breasted Falcon
The orange-breasted falcon is an endangered species in Guatemala (and likely in Belize), with only 50 breeding pairs left in the country. This one is nesting in Templo IV, and we spotted it guarding its nest from the scaffolding outside the temple.
Summer Tanager
When we ran under a tree to avoid the rain, we looked up and saw this male summer tanager. Its bright red color contrasted brilliantly with the green leaves behind it. These birds are seasonal migrants to Guatemala. Female summer tanagers look almost identical, but are yellow.
Red-Lored Parrot
It’s hard to miss parrots in the park, since they squawk obnoxiously as the fly around. They usually travel in pairs and this red-lored parrot flew in with another, then landed in the tree above us. It took me a while to spot him since his feathers are perfect camouflage in the trees.
Ocellated Turkey
This outgoing group of ocellated turkeys was hanging out near some picnicking locals, likely waiting for leftover food.
Great Curassow
We spotted a few of these large birds wandering around Mayan temples. We only saw males, though; females are brownish in color.
Flycatcher
After our early morning hike through the jungle, this small yellow flycatcher was perched on a pillar.
Coati (Pizote)
Just like the coati we saw in Iguazu Falls in Argentina, this guy was hanging out near people scavenging for food.
Baby Crocodile
This baby crocodile was swimming through a swamp near the visitors center in the park, taking in all of the tourists.
When we woke up at 5:00 AM on our second day in the park, we were greeted by the eerie calls of howler monkeys. We searched for them as we hiked through the jungle an hour later, but didn’t spot any. If I hadn’t seen a group of spider monkeys and some awesome birds, I might have been disappointed. But the wildlife I saw in Tikal National Park made our time in Guatemala the best part of this leg of our trip.
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i LOVED tikal. It was so amazing. I liked the indiana jones feel of it, especially in the morning when it is just you and the animals. I hope you spent a night inside the park ground!
@Nomadic Matt I agree — early morning and late evening are the best times to be there. We did stay inside the park ground for the night we were there, and I’d definitely recommend that to anyone going to Tikal.
It’s definitely my favourite place in the world so far – I was expecting to be wowed by the ruins, but as you say, the animals make it even better. The sound of the howler monkeys (which sound more like an eery roaring than a howl to me) make such a bizarre noise – but they are very elusive, I didn’t manage to get a picture of them either!
I was researching Tikal and trying to decide whether to stay overnight in the park or just commute from Flores. This post and the photos of the birds might have put us over the edge for staying in the park.
Do you remember where you stayed? Some of the prices I’ve seen online for lodges are pretty spendy, so I was wondering if there’s a more budget alternative. Thanks!
Hayy i am trying to find some animals from tikal, and i can’t find a list of them!!!! HELP ME PLEASE!
Just to follow up from my earlier comment and question about budget accommodation at Tikal. Jaguar Inn rents out tents with air mattresses inside (pretty cush, actually) for 140Q ($18) for two people. You can’t reserve one in advance, but if you get the 3 PM shuttle from Flores to the park, you shouldn’t have a problem securing one.
It’s a little spooky listening to the howler monkeys all night. And, the birds do go crazy in the early morning – I’ve never heard such a combination of bird songs. A great experience – highly recommend staying over at Tikal.
I was in Tikal in the 70′s.
I crossed paths with a black jaguar coming off the bus. (And yeah it was humid really bad there)
We didn’t stay overnight, and were lucky we didn’t cause the next day in Guatemala, we saw in the paper the plane that goes down that dirt road crashed in the jungle and everyone died.
It’s true, you can research it, (that there was a crash in the 70′s on that dirt runway on take off. It was around Christmas, cause I remember the bull fights and the guys lighting fireworks out of their hands on the church steps.
Wish I had a Nikon D4 back then. ;o)
Just came back to the state from Tikal. I visited Tikal on Christmas eve. The place was amazing. The Mayans were so advanced for their time.
Blue-Crowned Motmot is beautiful. Thank you for the pictures.
Learning about the culture is one of my favorite parts of travel. Interesting post.
Come to Sarawak, and I am sure you will see a lot more of this
Could you help me find a list of Tikal Fauna (animals)!!!
Great pictures and what a lot of good sightings, Tikal is amazing and one of the best places to see so many rare animals. Sounds like you trip was as good as mine, i have not heard anything bad about Tikal or Beliza in general
nice pictures and it was so amazing to be there early morning and late evenings.
Very nice photos and a least you gave us something about each animal you took a picture of. I would guess you had a great time in Tikai Park.
I’m not really fond of animals but since you featured it on your blog somehow I learned to see them as a part of our nature and appreciate them as they are.
It’s really wonderful, like heaven.
You can see all colors of animals. It’s amazing adventure.
I was in Guatemala…nice flora and animals of all kind…pretty nice!
I live in Cancun, in a area near of a jungle and in my backyard very often appear the Coati/ Pizote trying to steal my garbage, here we call them “Tejon”
Prettyy animals , there colorful and stuff !
The Orange-breasted Falcon is such a beautiful creature, and inevitably, will soon be such an incredibly sad loss from the country. Had the pleasure of seeing one of these guys myself in Guatemala, something I’ll likely never forget.
Hi……….my name is Hm Adnan um form Bangladesh. i am bird lover. Red lord parrot is my fevarate birth. i have saw the also bird in this website really this great…thanks
Dear Hm, really i love you because you are a bird lover. Many people does not like bird and they killed many bird at our country. .
some photo is very nice. i will take it into my background desktop
its real picture……. and wild life is always looking different.. i really interesting this blog…. its awesome……
No lie, a monkey tossed his poop at me near Tikal. But it was a good looking monkey and I got some great pictures of him. Decent trade off.
I feel terrible crocodile! I don’t dare to close it…
Nice wild picture post. Wild life is looking very nice all time.
So beautiful of the Nature. Unluckily, human are destroying them by the way they live. Hope to keep this beauty for our next generation, let say 100 year from now
I agree, we must do everything we can to preserve the environment for the next generation. That’s what motivated us to create Go Green Travel Green.
it’s good such a nice lines for birds and also such a nice picture ….
thanks …..
I could not be more jealous, looks like you’re hainvg an amazing time guys!! I’m looking out over a cloudy and wet Monday morning in Manchester and wishing I was there!! x