January 25-February 5, 2026 with Micah Riegner & John Coons
We gathered at our hotel in the appealing Mexico City neighborhood of Coyoacán. Over dinner, overlooking the busy town square, we became acquainted and went over the birding plan for the next day. On our first morning of birding we headed out of Mexico City with our drivers Basilio and Donaldo. It was chilly when we arrived at Parque Maravillas and bird activity was scant until the sun popped over the hills. Soon more Striped Sparrows were perched up and we had nice looks at one of our objectives, the quite local and uncommon Sierra Madre Sparrow, in its bunchgrass habitat. We then walked our way up the road into the forest where we encountered a number of specialties including White-eared Hummingbird, Strickland’s Woodpecker, Pine Flycatcher, Mexican Chickadee, Brown-backed Solitaire, Russet Nightingale-Thrush, Green-striped Brushfinch, Rufous-capped Brushfinch and the beautiful Red Warbler that ended up showing well. At another nearby site we saw more of some of these birds and had a close calling Long-tailed Wood-Partridge that would not make that last approach. We headed off to Tepoztlan for lunch at our hotel, home for the next three nights. That afternoon we headed out of this quaint town to a retired sugar cane mill where a productive walk yielded scope views of Russet-throated Motmot, Barn Owl, Golden-cheeked Woodpecker, Orange-billed Nightingale-Thrush, and Streak-backed Oriole, but the star of the show was the mass of Vaux’s Swifts dropping into the old chimney just before sunset. A biologist who had been studying this event counted 26,000+ individuals. It was fantastic to see.
The next morning, we headed off after coffee to the small village of San Juan where we enjoyed a wonderful breakfast before walking a forested road through the nearby national park. One of our first species was a pair of Blue Mockingbirds that were being unusually conspicuous, Tufted Flycatchers, Gray-barred Wrens, Boucard’s Wren, White-throated Thrush, Elegant Euphonia, and Golden-browed Warbler, along with a host of migrants from further north. A wonderful Chestnut-sided Shrike-Vireo sat still for a few minutes as we ogled at it. We then went to lunch at the house of Jazmin, the local guide. She and her mom had prepared a wonderful chicken mole for us. We had a siesta at the hotel before heading to a lowland site near Tepoztlan where we picked up our friend Joaquin on the way. We birded some open agricultural areas where Banded Quail, Dusky Hummingbird, and Gray-crowned Yellowthroat and Black-chested Sparrow were the highlights, before stopping in at Joaquin’s ranch for another wonderful home-style dinner of pozole, cheese and huitlacoche quesadillas and lemon pie. After dinner we walked into the bush for some nightbirding and immediately had a nice view of Buff-collared Nightjar. It took some effort but we got great views of a pair of Balsa’s Screech-Owls and a close Elf Owl. A Pauraque in the road capped off our time here.
We picked up Joaquin again the next morning and headed back to his ranch for breakfast after some birding in the fields, highlighted by a group of Banded Quail that approached us. As we walked up the canyon, we spotted a pair of White-tailed Hawks building a nest on an electric tower. The walk was birdy, with Rusty-crowned Ground-Sparrow, a few Golden Vireos, Golden-crowned Emerald, Squirrel Cuckoo, and a Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl. In the afternoon we visited the Olmeca-Xicallanca ruins of Xochilcalco. The restored site was slow for birds in the warm afternoon, but we did find a Lesser Ground-Cuckoo. Later we headed to Cuernavaca and the El Salto do San Anton, a waterfall in an impressive canyon right in the city. A group of raccoons distracted us momentarily from the gathering number of White-naped Swifts that circled overhead before dropping into the canyon and disappearing behind the waterfall. We got back to our motel for a nice dinner.
We loaded up the vans the next morning and headed into Mexico City and the well-known botanical gardens. It took some looking but we finally got good views of the often difficult-to-see Hooded Yellowthroat. There were a good number of wintering US birds here as well. After lunch, we headed to the impressively large Laguna Almoloya which is one of the best sites to see the very local Black-polled Yellowthroat and the site did not disappoint. Heading on to our hotel we got stuck at a road construction site for way longer than we wanted, but a few more Striped Sparrows and Western Bluebirds were the consolation prize.
There was a nip in the air in the morning as we birded the grounds of Rancho Viejo where there were a fair number of birds, including White-striped Woodcreeper, Transvolcanic Jay, Cinnamon-bellied Flowerpiercer, and old friends Pygmy Nuthatch, Brown Creeper, Hutton’s Vireo, and Northern House Wren. We carried on to the Monarch sanctuary at Piedra Herrada and organized entrance fees and horses for several of our group to ride up the trail to the Monarchs. The climb was steep in places and those on foot were a few minutes behind the horse riders. The spectacle of the Monarchs was amazing, tens of thousands of these butterflies clustered on a single fir bough with many starting to take flight as the sunlight warmed the forest. We managed to see a few birds as well, with Red Warbler showing again, along with Green-striped Brushfinch, White-eared Hummingbird, Hermit Warbler, and Mexican Chickadees. After lunch at the hotel, we birded the entrance road where we had better views of several species as well as our best Red Warblers, Black-headed Siskin, and two Black-backed Orioles. After dinner we got a calling Whiskered Screech-Owl in the lights. We birded the hotel grounds again in the morning before heading out, with a pair of nicely perched Mountain Trogons showing well, as did a cooperative Orange-billed Nightingale-Thrush. To avoid the construction zone on our way back to Mexico City, we took a longer route back where we passed ponds with a good number of White-faced Ibis, coots, and American White Pelicans. We could say that the city traffic was impressive on the way to the airport in the city. We said goodbye to our unflappable drivers and after an easy check-in and security we had lunch before boarding the flight to La Paz in Baja California Sur. After organizing our rental vehicles we got settled at our hotel then walked to a seafood restaurant only a block away where fish, shrimp, and margaritas were a common sight.
As we were loading our bags after breakfast. several of us saw a Cooper’s Hawk snag a White-winged Dove off a light pole right at the hotel, while a Peregrine surveyed the neighborhood from atop a nearby cell phone tower. It took about 15 minutes to drive out of La Paz and into the Baja desert where large cardon cacti dotted the landscape. We made a couple of stops where Costa’s Hummingbird, Cactus Wrens, California Gnatcatcher, and Hooded and Scott’s orioles were seen, but the star of the show was a close Gray Thrasher, one of the handful of birds endemic to the Baja Peninsula. We arrived at San Carlos for lunch then headed to our boats to take us to the Gray Whale camp at Magdalena Bay. A good number of Brant, American Oystercatchers, California Gulls, Yellow-crowned and Black-crowned night-herons, and California Scrub-Jays were just some of the birds at the boat launch area. We headed into the bay in our two boats and we got into a group of five Gray Whales along with a few Bottle-nosed Dolphins. We headed to the camp on the beach of the island where we were introduced to our comfortable tents and had a quite nice dinner with many seafood options.
After breakfast the following morning we birded a bit around camp where an articulated Gray Whale skeleton had an Osprey nest upon it. We boarded our boats again and cruised over to Isla Patos which were covered with our estimates of 5000+ Brandt’s and 2000+ Double-crested cormorants, and over 4000 Brown Pelicans. It was impressive and odoriferous downwind. Also in the area were good numbers of Western Gulls, Heermann’s Gulls, Reddish Egrets, Long-billed Curlews, Hudsonian Whimbrels, and Caspian and Royal terns. We went further into the bay for another look at Gray Whales and had a wonderful experience with a few being quite close to our boats. Back on the mainland we had lunch then made the drive back to La Paz. In the morning, we hit a few birding spots near La Paz, seeing the local Yellow-footed Gull, the recently split Mangrove Warbler, and several Least Grebes, and the required stop at a wastewater treatment plant, where we had to decline the gift of a potted plant from one of the nursery workers. After lunch in the historic mining town of El Triunfo, we drove into the edge of the foothills and had great views of Xantus’s Hummingbird, and a few individuals of the San Lucas race of Cassin’s Vireo along with California Quail, Varied Bunting, and Thick-billed Kingbird. Running a bit behind, we dropped in for dinner at a nice restaurant on the beach before arriving in Santiago for the last two nights of the trip.
In the morning we stopped at our friend Edgardo’s house for coffee and tea before proceeding up the canyon toward San Dionisio. We walked a stretch of the road in this beautiful desert with warm but not hot conditions. We saw a good number of Xantus’s Hummingbirds, another of the Baja endemics, as well as more California Quail, Gilded Flicker, Gray Flycatcher, California Scrub-Jays, California Towhees, and many wintering migrants. We ended up walking to the country home of Edgardo’s friends for a delicious outdoor breakfast. In the afternoon, we birded the Oasis de Santiago where it took some time but we ended up with nice views of Belding’s Yellowthroat another of the Baja endemics and the fifth yellowthroat species of the trip. Flushing a Wilson’s Snipe was a bit of a surprise here. We finished up our last full day with a nice dinner back at Edgardo’s house. On our departure day, we enjoyed another breakfast at Edgardo’s house and headed to La Ribera where we had learned of a chance of seeing the Cape race of Northern Pygmy-Owl at a botanic garden. We were given a private tour and found a perched Great Horned Owl but no sign of the pygmy-owl. We headed on to the airport at San Jose de Cabo where we said our adieus.
It was wonderful birding with all of you in the highly varied habitats of this trip to central Mexico and Baja, with great experiences with birds, butterflies, whales and wonderful Mexican food. We look forward to the next time to get together.
Mammals
Eastern Cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus) Seen a couple times around Tepoztlan.
Black-tailed Jackrabbit (Lepus californicus) Seen during the Baja half of the trip.
Red-bellied Squirrel (Sciurus aureogaster) The common squirrel throughout our time around Mexico City.
White-tailed Antelope Squirrel (Ammospermophilus leucurus)
Common Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) We enjoyed watching a pod of these dolphins in Magdalena Bay.
Gray Whale (Eschrichtius robustus) Multiple sightings in Magdalena Bay.
California Sea Lion (Zalophus californianus)
Reptiles
Baja California Rock Lizard (Petrosaurus thalassinus) These spectacular lizards were on the boulders at Sierra de la Laguna.
You can see my complete trip report on eBird at this link: https://ebird.org/tripreport/487371
You can download a combined PDF of this page and the eBird report at this link: https://fieldguides.com/triplists/bbw26TRIPLIST.pdf
-- John and Micah