Guyana is South America's little-known curiosity. It shares borders with Venezuela, Brazil, and Suriname, yet remains well-off South America's beaten tourist track. The English speaking locals and colonial past make for a culture that is decidedly more Caribbean than Latin, but the muddy Atlantic shores offer little draw for beach worshippers. There are 83,000 square miles but 90 percent of the sparse 750,000 inhabitants live along the coast, leaving Guyana's forested interior--80 percent of the landmass--relatively unpopulated outside of Amerindian villages.

Guyana is where the Guiana Shield (one of four pristine tropical rainforests left in the world) converges with the Amazon Basin. The unique geography creates a myriad of habitats for birds, ranging from coastal waters to mangroves, marshes, savannahs, mountains and tropical rainforests. Just over 800 species of birds have been recorded in Guyana, making it an ideal destination for birdwatchers the world over. >> More 

Hoatzin: Guyana's Prehistoric Throwback

The Hoatzin is a strange primitive bird. The Hoatzin's plump body and reddish-brown feathers may not appear antediluvian, but the bird's blood-red eyes set in patches of bright blue skin and unruly crest of long feathers are throwbacks to another time. Hoatzins are also born with two prehistoric claws protruding from their wings, a characteristic that lead many to believe that it's a direct link to the Archaeopteryx, the first known bird. Hoatzins are found along rivers and creeks in the Upper Demerara River-Berbice area in Guyana, and are easily seen because they often live in large groups and rarely stray far from their principal locals, probably due to the fact that they're poor fliers. Indeed, Guyana's national bird is such a bizarre species that it was put in its own order, the Opisthocomidae. >> More