Mexico - San Blas and other Nayarit areas - November 2002

by Steve Dark

In 1981 I commissioned two pencil bird drawing from a young Cardiff birder (Steve Howells) who was looking to raise money for a birding trip to Mexico.  Steve got his trip, decided to stay, and went on to co-write the definitive birders guide to Mexico ‘Where to watch birds in Mexico’ and the best field guide available for the area ‘A Guide to the Birds of Mexico’.  So in no small part Mexico has always teased me.  I had already had a chance to taste what was available on a business trip to Arizona in 1998 when I crossed into Mexico for a weekend's birding.  The birds and the habitat couldn’t have been different.  Sonora, as many of you will know, is a very arid region. Nayarit on the other hand has much more of a tropical feel, green warm and lush with the bonus of the Pacific Ocean for the beach, mangrove swamps and much more. 

Getting there

We booked a two week all inclusive holiday based at Puerto Vallarta through Last minute dot com.  Not our ideal choice but very reasonably priced.  We flew from Manchester and stopped off in Orlando Florida both going and coming back.  The total travel time was a very impressive 14 hours.  Its certainly not for the faint hearted.  Survived by wearing loose clothes plenty of non alcoholic drinks and regular walks around the plane, you know the drill. 

Our hotel complex was out of the town and had extensive gardens which we immediately started to investigate.  Our flat within the hotel was on the ground floor and had the benefit of a small garden terrace.

It didn’t take us long to purchase a ‘Hummer feeder’ and almost as soon as we put it up we had visiting Hummers.  Identifying them was an all together different proposition. See  plates 29 - 32 in the Birds of Mexico.  The hotel grounds opened up onto the Pacific Ocean which was a real bonus and during our stay there was a constant stream of Sea birds and Waders passing through our beach.  All of which made my stay  very rewarding.  I’m so glad that I persisted when my wife and daughter tried to chuck my scope and tripod out of our cases.   I say OUR cases if you have ever travelled with a fashion conscious wife and daughter you’re lucky to get any space in any of the cases. Telescope and tripod got on the plane in my hand luggage. 

The first week was spent in and around Puerto Vallarta visiting the sites mentioned in the Howells guide.

One of the birds that caught my imagination before departure was the Military Macaw not having visited the tropics before it was very high on my most wanted list.  The only option was to hire a taxi and driver and be accompanied by a local guide.  Not a cheap option but the only way to be sure of seeing my first macaw. 

Birding kicked off big time from our first weekend, we hired a car and headed for San Blas where we would spend the next four days full on birding.  Finding San Blas wasn’t difficult, good roads, good signs, but finding our contact (Jose) in San Blas wasn’t so easy.  Try driving into the middle of Gloucester and asking if anyone knows where I can find John.......  Anyway not everyone was as daft as me and my good lady had taken Jose’s telephone number down when he rang us at our hotel, bless her! 

It was important that we found Jose as he had promised to show us around and agreed to put us up for the three nights we would be in San Blas.  For a more detailed description of San Blas see Chapter 6 in the ‘Where to watch birds in Mexico’ book.  San Blas was stuffed with birds including masses of North American over wintering migrants.  

It was also full of North American birders who on the most part were wonderful company. I always considered the best birder to be from Continental Europe, I still think that but the serious North American birders certainly know how to take advantage of technology and as such is often much better prepared for what he might meet (in the birding context) than most European birders.  I certainly felt under prepared by comparison to my North American birding chums.  

Most of the American birders were staying in and around the Hotel Garza Canela, its just as well we hadn’t tried to book it as it was full for weeks in advance.  The hotel is mentioned in the Howells guide.

A month or so before we arrived San Blas had been hit by Hurricane Kenna which had caused a great deal of damage. There was still signs of the effect Kenna had had on the area when we were there. 

In general I loved Mexico, the people were warm and friendly, the weather was superb during our stay (the dry season) the  costs were very reasonable especially food and drink.  The hotel being all inclusive was great and the hotel staff were diligent to a fault, we certainly felt very pampered. 

I would love to go back and spend more time perhaps next time in the mountains in Colima and Jalisco.

Mexico is a magnificent birding destination especially for the first timer to the tropics like myself and it has the advantage of being very popular with other English speaking well prepared birders from North America. 

Special thanks to the many birding friends we met but especially Jose Gomez. 

Species list

Least Grebe                            Pied-billed Grebe                    Magnificent Frigatebird

Brown Booby                           Blue-footed Booby                   Neotropic Cormorant

Anhinga                                  American White Pelican            Brown Pelican

Fulvous Whistling-Duck           Black-bellied Whistling-Duck   Ruddy Duck

Muscovy Duck                        American Wigeon                      Gadwall

Green-winged Teal                  Northern Pintail                       Blue-winged Teal

Cinnamon Teal                        Northern Shoveler                    Lesser Scaup

Reddish Egret                        Tricolored Heron                      Little Blue Heron

Snowy Egret                          Great Blue Heron                      Great Egret

Cattle Egret                          Green Heron                              Yellow-crowned Night-Heron

Black-crowned Night-Heron   Boat-billed Heron                       Bare-throated Tiger-Heron

White Ibis                            White-faced Ibis                       Roseate Spoonbill

Wood Stork                          Black Vulture                             Turkey Vulture

Osprey                                 Hook-billed Kite                         Northern Harrier

Sharp-shinned Hawk              Crane Hawk                                Common Black-Hawk

Harris’s Hawk                       Grey Hawk                                  Broad-winged Hawk

Short-tailed Hawk                Swainson’s Hawk                          Zone-tailed Hawk

Red-tailed Hawk                   Red-shouldered Hawk                   Crested Caracara

Laughing Falcon                    Collared Forest-Falcon                  American Kestrel

Merlin                                 Peregrine Falcon                            West Mexican Chachalaca

Rufous-bellied Chachalaca    Elegant Quail                                 Singing Quail

Purple Gallinule                    Common Moorhen                            American Coot

Limpkin                                Northern Jacana                            Marbled Godwit

Whimbrel                             Long-billed Curlew                          Greater Yellowlegs

Lesser Yellowlegs                 Spotted Sandpiper                          Willet

Ruddy Turnstone                  Surfbird                                        Long-billed Dowitcher

Sanderling                           Semipalmated Sandpiper                  Least Sandpiper

Stilt Sandpiper                    American Oystercatcher                 Black-necked Stilt

American Avocet                  Black-bellied Plover                        Semipalmated Plover

Wilson’s Plover                     Killdeer                                          Collared Plover

Herring Gull                         Ring-billed Gull                               Laughing Gull

Heermann's Gull                    California Gull                                Gull-billed Tern

Caspian Tern                        Royal Tern                                      Forster’s Tern

Black Skimmer                     Rock Dove                                       Red-billed Pigeon

White-winged Dove              Mourning Dove                                 Inca Dove

Common Ground-Dove            Ruddy Ground-Dove                        White-tipped Dove

Ruddy Quail-Dove                Military Macaw                              Orange-fronted Parakeet

White-fronted Parrot           Mexican Parrotlet                           Squirrel Cuckoo

Groove-billed Ani                 Mottled Owl                                   Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl

Common Potoo                       Lesser Nighthawk                            Vaux’s Swift

Mexican (Long-tailed) Hermit    Golden-crowned Emerald              Broad-billed Hummingbird

White-eared Hummingbird         Beryline Hummingbird                 Cinnamon Hummingbird

Violet-crowned Hummingbird     Lucifer Hummingbird                   Ruby-throated Hummingbird

Black-chinned Hummingbird       Calliope Hummingbird                  Bumblebee Hummingbird

Rufous Hummingbird                  Elegant Trogon                           Citreoline Trogon

Belted Kingfisher                       Green Kingfisher                        Acorn Woodpecker

Arizona Woodpecker                 Golden-cheeked Woodpecker       Gila Woodpecker

Ladder-backed Woodpecker       Smoky-brown Woodpecker          Grey-crowned Woodpecker

Lineated Woodpecker                 Pale-billed Woodpecker              Olivaceous Woodcreeper

Ivory-billed Woodcreeper          White-striped Woodcreeper       Northern Beardless Tyrannulet

Greenish Elaenia                         Tufted Flycatcher                      Greater Pewee

Willow Flycatcher                      White-throated Flycatcher          Least Flycatcher

Cordilleran/Pacific-Slope Flycatcher        Buff-breasted Flycatcher        Vermillion Flycatcher

Bright-rumped Attila                   Dusky-capped Flycatcher            Ash-throated Flycatcher

Nutting’s Flycatcher                    Brown-crested Flycatcher            Tropical Kingbird

Cassin’s Kingbird                          Thick-billed Kingbird                  Boat-billed Flycatcher

Social Flycatcher                         Great Kiskadee                           Rose-throated Becard

Masked Tityra                             Cassin’s Vireo                              Plumbeous Vireo

Bell’s Vireo                                  Golden Vireo                                Warbling Vireo

San Blas Jay                                Green Jay                                   Black-throated Magpie-Jay

Sinaloa Crow                                Loggerhead Shrike                       Grey Silky-Flycatcher

Cedar Waxwing                            Eastern Bluebird                          Brown-backed Solitaire

Orange-billed Nightingale-Thrush  Swainson’s Thrush                        White-throated Thrush

Rufous-backed Thrush                   Blue Mockingbird                        Northern Mockingbird

Spotted Wren                               Canyon Wren                              Happy Wren

Sinaloa Wren                                House Wren                                Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

Mangrove Swallow                         Violet-green Swallow                   Grey-breasted Martin

Northern Rough-winged Swallow     Bank Swallow                              Barn Swallow

Ruby-crowned Kinglet                    Bridled Titmouse                         House Sparrow

American Pipit                               Black-headed Siskin                    Lesser Goldfinch

Orange-crowned Warbler               Nashville Warbler                      Virginia’s Warbler

Tropical Parula                              Crescent-chested Warbler           Yellow Warbler

Mangrove Yellow Warbler              Chestnut-sided Warbler               Yellow-rumped Warbler

Black-throated Gray Warbler        Townsend’s Warbler                      Hermit Warbler

Grace’s Warbler                            Black & White Warbler                American Redstart

Ovenbird                                       Louisiana Waterthrush                  Northern Waterthrush

Kentucky Warbler                          MacGillivray’s Warbler                Common Yellowthroat

Gray-crowned Yellowthroat             Hooded Warbler                          Wilson’s Warbler

Red-faced Warbler                        Painted Redstart                           Slate-throated Redstart

Fan-tailed Warbler                        Golden-crowned Warbler               Rufous-capped Warbler

Yellow-breasted Chat                     Red-breasted Chat                        Lincoln’s Sparrow

Savannah Sparrow                          Grasshopper Sparrow                    Chipping Sparrow

Lark Sparrow                                Black-chested Sparrow                  Stripe-headed Sparrow

Rusty-crowned Ground-Sparrow     Green-striped Brush-Finch              Red-crowned Ant-Tanager

Flame-colored Tanager                   Hepatic Tanager                            Summer Tanager

Western Tanager                           Red-headed Tanager                       Scrub Euphonia

Blue-black Grasquit                       Chestnut-rumped Seedeater             Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Black-headed Grosbeak                  Grayish Saltator                             Blue Bunting

Blue Grosbeak                                Varied Bunting                                Painted Bunting

Orange-bellied Bunting                   Yellow-winged Cacique                    Streak-backed Oriole

Hooded Oriole                                Bullock’s Oriole                              Orchard Oriole

Audubon’s Oriole                            Eastern Meadowlark                        Great-tailed Grackle

Bronzed Cowbird                            Brown-headed Cowbird