5 Questions with Carlos Bethencourt by Jason Frederick

Some people have the ability to light up a room when they enter it, that is Carlos. He has the charisma, talent, and the caring heart that makes him one of the top birding tour guides. He is a tour guide for Canopy Tower in Panama. You can check it out at the following link, http://www.canopytower.com/.

Every year at the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Fest I have to make sure I see him. He always has a big smile, a kind word, and a handshake for you. He was kind enough to sit down and let me ask him a few questions and here is the transcripts of that interview:

How did you encounter your spark bird?
My spark bird was a Clay-colored Robin.  I found this bird, actually I found the bird’s nest when I was 8 ½ -9 years old and I climbed the tree and I saw this beautiful turquoise egg and I said, “wow, this must be something very colorful!” So, I came down the tree and wait to see who was coming to the nest. All the sudden I see this brown bird and I think, “What is the brown bird doing here?” All the sudden I thought about grabbing a rock throw at the bird to scare it a way, but I didn’t do that. So, I was surprised when I saw the bird sitting on the nest and I watched the whole process. The birds hatching, the 3 chicks coming out, the mother will come feed them, and I would pick up some worms and feed some of the babies. That was my spark bird, a Clay-colored Robin. Not a colorful bird, but an amazing one.

Who was the person to get you into birding?
This is a very long story, but I would say my grandmother. Thanks to her, I am doing birding. She gave me some very good lessons about birding and about what you need to see and what you need in the forest. I have a little story about that and that without my grandmother’s advice and lessons, who knows what I would be doing today. She gave me good lessons about birds and that’s when I started chasing birds. My grandmother is the person who got me into birding, she is 96 years old. God bless her.

You have an all-expenses paid 14 day trip to go birding, where are you going and why?
Wow, this is a very good question. I always wanted to go to Pantanal in Brazil.  Mainly because when I was a little boy, maybe not a little boy, I was 12 or 13 year old, there was a soap opera in Panama called Pantanal. When the soap opera was starting, there was an image of the Pantanal. So, I thought it was a commercial. I thought it was a nice commercial coming out. All of these nice birds, jaguars, all of this beautiful wildlife. So, ever since then I have always wanted to come to the Pantanal.

What would you consider your greatest birding trip?
Every day that I am out in the forest, every day that I am able to wake up in the morning and come home in the afternoon and been able to make people smile and say, “Wow, what a great day. What a great trip.” That is my greatest bird trip. It is every moment, every opportunity I have to go out in the forest for birds. It can be active. It can be quiet. It can be slow. I am just glad to be out and to do what I do for a living. I love my job. So, that is what I consider my greatest bird trip.

Why do you bird?
(Laughing) Because I love it. I have been lucky to have a job where I can do my hobby. Sometimes I work, you know, I have a nice time and I love to work. I am very fortunate to do birding and also to have a family that supports my hobby, which is the main thing. Because my family is everything I have and they support what I do, they understand what I do, and my daughter is becoming a birder. She is 9 years old. My wife likes birding. Then I have my son who is 6 years old, might turn into a birder. I don’t push them, but we will see. I love it. I just love nature. I love birding in general.