Tropical Birding - Trip Report Mexico: Oaxaca and Chiapas custom tour, 19-26 Feb 2021 A Tropical Birding CUSTOM tour Mexico: Oaxaca & Chiapas 19 – 26 Feb 2021 TOUR LEADER: Alex Luna Rose-bellied Bunting was a colorful highlight in the Isthmus. Photo by Alex Luna Some photos in this report were taken by tour participants. Thank you for letting me them in this report. Oaxaca is the state of Mexico with the largest list of birds including a fantastic number of regional endemic species. Add to this its incredible gastronomy, a colorful native culture, rich history, and dramatic landscapes and you have a truly unique place that, without a doubt, should be on the bucket list of every single birder. This custom trip was six days long (plus the arrival and departure days) between the states of Oaxaca and Chiapas. Our set-departure tour is quite a bit longer, but despite being a relatively quick tour, we observed most of the specialties of this region. It is difficult to determine which were the “top five” since the list of these was quite long, but I went with these beauties: Rose-bellied and Orange-breasted Buntings, Pink- headed Warbler, Colima Pygmy-Owl, and Blue-throated Motmot. www.tropicalbirding.com +1-409-515-9110 [email protected] p.1 Tropical Birding - Trip Report Mexico: Oaxaca and Chiapas custom tour, 19-26 Feb 2021 During the whole tour, we covered many ecosystems. The most predominant was the scrub forest, then the pine-oak forest, and a bit of the tropical evergreen forest in Chiapas. By the end of the trip, we saw around 250 birds, a good bird list for such a short tour. Seven passengers formed the group plus myself as the tour leader, and the van driver. We started in Oaxaca City, where we spent three nights, where we visited different birding locations every day, such as Teotitlan del Valle, that gave us our first endemics birds like the Oaxaca and Bridled Sparrow, Ocellated Thrasher. In the afternoon outside of Yugal ruins, we got a Gray-breasted Woodpecker, a Beautiful Hummingbird, and more birds. The next day, we started a bit early to do our first owling, getting good views of Fulvous Owl and hearing a Flammulated Owl. At sunrise, we gradually found endemics such as Gray-barred Wren, enjoyed spectacular views of Red Warbler, Mexican Chickadee, and after a long search, Dwarf Jay. On our third day, we left the city of Oaxaca, but first visited one of the most important archaeological sites, Monte Alban, obviously keeping our binoculars at the ready. After visited this amazing place, , we headed towards Tehuantepec for one night. Before arriving at our hotel, we made a stop on the road to Guiengola for some quick but productive birding being, adding some more endemics such as Cinnamon-tailed Sparrow, Colima Pygmy-Owl, and Citreoline Trogon. The next day on the way to Tuxtla, we did several stops trying to get the superstars; the scarce Rose-bellied Bunting took us a few minutes to find, but Orange-breasted Bunting for some reason was not easy this time. Still, after searching for a long time, we got it. In Tuxtla, we did had more nights and did daily excursions to far reaching sites, One of the top birds was for sure the beautiful Pink- headed Warbler, but of course, the bird list went up with another bird species like Blue-throated Motmot, Long-tailed Sabrewing, Nava's Wren, Unicolored Jay, etc. February 19th Arrival in Oaxaca. Some of the participants arrived the previous day, giving themselves an extra day for birding or exploring Oaxaca's beautiful architecture. I arrived today and others participants as well. We went to sleep early to be ready for the next day. View of the scrub forest from the high part of Teotitlan del Valle. Photo by Dawn Mutz. www.tropicalbirding.com +1-409-515-9110 [email protected] p.2 Tropical Birding - Trip Report Mexico: Oaxaca and Chiapas custom tour, 19-26 Feb 2021 February 20th Teotitlan del Valle and Yagul. Our first day of the trip started early, as they did for most days of the trip. Today we headed out to the mountains above Teotitlan del Valle, in the transition zone of oak scrub and of pine-oak forest and. However, we did not have to wait for long, just before dawn arrived, a Fulvous Owl and Northern Pygmy-Owl were hooting last high up in the mountains but, we could not manage to find them, only registered as heard. As soon as the sun came up, we started adding our first target birds to the list like Red Warbler, Red-faced Warbler, Golden-browed Warbler, Chestnut-sided Shrike-Vireo, Audubon’s Oriole, Mexican Violetear, Rufous-capped Brushfinch, and a quick view of Collared Towhee. After that great start, we walked a mile lower to a good Oaxaca Sparrow territory. Once there, it took just a few minutes to find them, getting a nice view of a pair. After added this nice species to the list, we were almost ready for our first field breakfast, but it was delayed because of an Ocellated Thrasher vocalizing in the far distance. It caused us a headache until we finally spotted out it in the middle of the bushes, thanks to a group of Gray Silky-Flycatchers that were hunting insects near it and revealed its position. As soon as we finished the breakfast, we moved a bit lower in search for Bridled Sparrow, which was more or less easy to find, and at the same spot we found species like White-throated Towhee and Boucard’s Wren. By noon we arrived at the lake where a good number of birds are found, adding American Pipit, Least, and Pied- billed Grebes, and Yellow-rumped Warbler, Ruddy Duck, Blue-winged Teal, and Belted and Green Kingfishers. Bridled Sparrow one of the many endemic species we saw during this tour. Photo By Alex Luna. After the magnificent morning, it was time to visit a local restaurant for lunch, and everybody was curious to try the local cuisine. While we waited for them to prepare the food, we did a quick tour in the mezcal distillery, which taught us more about this traditional beverage. After our first traditional Mexican lunch, we didn’t hesitate to go for more lifers. www.tropicalbirding.com +1-409-515-9110 [email protected] p.3 Tropical Birding - Trip Report Mexico: Oaxaca and Chiapas custom tour, 19-26 Feb 2021 Yagul ruins are considered part of our itinerary, but, today due to Covid restrictions, it was not open; however, there is suitable habitat before the gate, and we were able to find some nice endemics. The first one was a group of Gray-breasted Woodpeckers and next there was a female of Beautiful Hummingbird visiting cactus flowers. Other more widespread species included Streak-backed and Black-vented Oriole, Red-tailed Hawk, Northern Mockingbird, and Curve-billed Thrasher. Black-vented Oriole, making good use of flowering cactus. Photo by Matthew Hysell. February 21th. La Cumbre. We set off very early, heading out to Cerro San Felipe (La Cumbre), a mountain dominated by pine-oak forest vegetation. We left extra early to have a lengthy owling session, the extra time was useful since our first attempt was not successful; we tried another area where a Fulvous Owl gave us a surprise, singing just above us. Not content with only one owl species, we looked for more, hearing Mexican Whip-poor-will and a distant Flammulated Owl. We tried to get closer, but a deep ravine cut off our attempt to see it. By the time the sun came up, our excellent driver Rafael had the table prepared with a rich breakfast. However, as usual, birds interrupted us, and we added a flock of the endemic Gray-barred Wren, Russet Nightingale-Thrush, and other species like Spot-crowned Woodcreeper, Brown Creeper, Tufted Flycatcher, Black Thrush, Chestnut-capped Brushfinch, Olive Warbler, a bunch of Red Warblers, Mountain Trogon and the almost endemic Mexican Chickadee. www.tropicalbirding.com +1-409-515-9110 [email protected] p.4 Tropical Birding - Trip Report Mexico: Oaxaca and Chiapas custom tour, 19-26 Feb 2021 Fulvous Owl, one of targets of our owling. Photo by Alex Luna After a morning of birding we took a well-deserved break, or at least tried to, but the hoots of a Northern Pygmy-Owl got us back on our feet, but was complaining and we had nice views. We had spent all morning watching birds, and unlickily we had not yet seen the endemic Dwarf Jay, so we decided to try again after lunch; this time and after a lengthy search, we finally observed a single individual as well as a Hairy Woodpecker and Golden-browed Warbler. Gray-barred Wren, a common endemic of the Mountains in Oaxaca. Photo by Alex Luna www.tropicalbirding.com +1-409-515-9110 [email protected] p.5 Tropical Birding - Trip Report Mexico: Oaxaca and Chiapas custom tour, 19-26 Feb 2021 After this super bird, we drove to lower elevations to add other species to the list. Getting out of the car, we noticed a mixed feeding flock, where we added to Dusky-capped Flycatcher, an immature Bullock’s Oriole, Hepatic Tanager, and Cassin's Kingbird, while Chipping and Lincoln's Sparrows hopped on the ground nearby. After this short stop, we went along a path to look for more birds. I did not expect to see much this time of day; however, it was better than I thought, adding more birds like Orange-billed Nightingale-Thrush, MacGillivray's Warbler, Greater Pewee, and a Pine Flycatcher.