Tikal National Park - Guatemala

We visited Tikal National Park on March 19, 2026. It is located in northeastern Guatemala about 40 miles from Flores, the nearest city of any consequence and 62 miles by road to the border with Belize. We drove in from Belize City to Flores, spent the night, then to Tikal NP the next morning. Tikal NP encompasses 222 square miles, but the central part of the ancient Mayan city covers about 6 square miles, which is where we spent most of our time, while there. The Maya settled in the area around 900 BC, but the massive Mayan temples were mostly constructed during the eighth century AD when it had a population of about 100,000. It fell into decline at the end of the ninth century and was virtually abandoned. The city was reclaimed by the jungle and it wasn't until 1848 that an expedition sent by the Guatemalan government discovered the ruins. The structures were restored to their current condition during the 1950s and 1960s and it was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1979. 

In 1990 the Maya Biosphere Reserve was created to protect the largest area of American tropical forest remaining north of the amazon, which encompasses 8,341 square miles. It covers much of northern Guatemala and includes Tikal NP,  El Mirador NP, Sierra del Lacandon NP, Laguna del Tigre NP and the San Miguel La Palotada Protected Biotope and makes the area virtually impenetrable to a casual tourist. See the blurry map below. The biosphere is in black and completely in Guatemala, Belize is to the east and Mexico is to the north and west. 

We arrived in Tikal NP about 6:00 a.m., spent time along the road looking for birds and eventually arrived at the area with the ruins where we spent the rest of our time until leaving about 11:30 a.m. The following are photos of animals we saw while we were there:

Brown jay

Black-headed trogon

Gartered violaceous trogon

Masked tityra

Yellow-throated vireo

Black-headed saltator

Ocellated turkey

White-crowned parrot

Orange-breasted falcon

Keel-billed toucan

Rufous-tailed jacamar

Lineated woodpecker

Red-lored amazon

Indigo bunting

Central American spider monkey - also below.

White-nosed coati

Black and white warbler

Golden-fronted woodpecker

Black vulture

Gray fox

Olive-throated parakeet

Turkey vulture

Yucatan squirrel

Plumbeous kite

Montezuma oropendola

Rose-throated becard

Wood thrush

Common squirrel-cuckoo

Rufous mourner

This is a culmination of a pretty amazing morning of exploring and discovery: 19 of the birds photographed above were lifers for me. Tikal NP is a place I would love to spend more time traipsing with a bird guide.