December 20-27, 2025 with Dan Lane
Oaxaca is a pretty magical place. It has an amazing mixture of culture, history, food, scenic beauty, and impressive natural diversity. For us in the chilly North, it is a very welcoming place to visit during the winter, although we found out that it can get cold there too! Overall, we enjoyed all these aspects of the region during a lovely week’s visit there. Christmas time is particularly a nice time to visit as there are cultural events we were able to witness such as the Noche de los Rabanos on the 23rd. Our view from our restaurant’s balcony allowed us to get an overview of this unique event without having to stand in line for hours to shuffle by the exhibits. But we also enjoyed other Oaxaqueña culture, such as the wool spinning and dying at Teotitla and the making of mezcal. And another aspect of culture, the food, was something we could enjoyed daily as well! Tlyudas, quesadillas, tacos, cecina enchilada, tasajo, several different types of moles, and even the chapulines all were sampled during our visit. Finally, the history of the region informed us of the modern culture as well, particularly the pre-columbian cultures: the Zapotecos and Mixtecos, for example, and their importance in subsequent American civilizations. Visits to several ruins in the valley provided a perspective on how these groups lived both before and after the Spanish conquest, and as we saw, to this day folks in the valley still speak in Zapotec.
Our tour visited the various habitats around the Oaxaca Valley, ranging from the open agricultural and semi-desert scrub of the valley floor to the humid pine-oak forests of the ridge crests that flank the valley to the north. We also visited some Pacific-slope tropical arid woodland just outside the valley proper for a few choice treats! Our first day was arguably also our most diverse, with a drive from the open agricultural landscape at the start of the road to Teotitlan, also visiting the area around the reservoir by the town, and then the dry pine-oak forest above. Our second day was to the aforementioned tropical arid woodland on the highway to Tehuantepec where we walked in a dry wash and looked for “lowland” birds with surprising success, with the afternoon at a couple of ruins; dinner was on the Zocalo, where we enjoyed viewing the Noche de Rabanos festival. Next, we headed to the rather different humid montane forests of Cerro San Felipe, where it was decidedly colder and foggy; birding here was more difficult, but we still got some important species! Our fourth birding day was Christmas Eve, and we spent the morning at the ruins of Monte Alban, had a birthday celebration for Neal at lunch, and the evening back in the mountains hoping for nightbirds (this didn’t go so well!). Day five found us back on the road above Teotitlan in the brushy semi-arid slopes above the reservoir and also enjoying some cultural immersion with the artisanal wool spinning and dying. Our final day was on the ridge north of the valley, working the more oak-dominated forested slopes and then lunch at a local restaurant nearby which is always a nice meal! In all, it was a great week away from the grind back home and chance to see a nice smattering of flashy birds!
Highlights of the tour were many and varied. There were several non-bird events and things that made the list: the Noche de los Rabanos on the 23rd, the various Zapotec ruins that Jorge led us around, the mezcal making process (and tasting!), and the woolworking of Teotitlan. More lively highlights included the random Southern Opossum we watched as it lazily wandered the grounds of our hotel, some of the wintering migrants that we knew from home such as Baltimore Oriole and Summer Tanager (don’t hurt that these two are also quite colorful!), the stunning Orange-breasted Bunting, flamboyant White-thoated Magpie-Jays, and stoic Russet-crowned Motmot we saw at Km 77, and the cute Northern Pygmy-Owls that tooted away in the pine-oak forests at Yuvila our final day, the brief but impressive Golden Eagle that drifted over the scrub ridges, and the muted female Flame-colored Tanager that was such a surprise for the tour. Higher on the list was the sneaky Lesser Roadrunner that zipped by us on the slope above the road in the scrub above Teotitlan or the very relaxed male Coppery-tailed (formerly Elegant) Trogon that gave us a bit of a run for our money before eventually deciding to sit still in front of us until we eventually had to walk away! Tied for second place were two stunning birds: one was a Long-tailed Wood-Partridge that gave us about 20 seconds of view—after we had wiffed on seeing them at a feeder where we spent nearly an hour waiting, only to call one out “in the wild” later—and two opportunities to see the very smartly-dressed Chestnut-sided Shrike-Vireo, a bird that looks like a Chestnut-sided Warbler went all Incredible Hulk. The bird voted top choice of the tour was the flaming Red Warbler, a hot ember that inhabits the dark understory of the montane pine forests of Cerro San Felipe. But there were far more great views and memories on the tour, and I hope that you will remember them with pleasure the way I will!
Mammals seen:
Southern Opossum (Didelphis marsupialis)
Eastern Cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus)
Red-bellied Squirrel (Sciurus aureogaster)
In all, this visit to Oaxaca was a fun time, as much because of the company as because of the experiences we shared! I hope we will meet up again in the future and enjoy another similar tour elsewhere. Meanwhile, keep those binoculars close at hand and be prepared to enjoy a good view of a feathered waif!
Good birding to all!
You can see my complete trip report on eBird at this link: https://ebird.org/tripreport/452520
You can download a combined PDF of this page and the eBird report at this link: https://fieldguides.com/triplists/oax25bTRIPLIST.pdf
-- Dan (the Barbet)