Remember, birds get up early and with good cheer and so will we:-)

Birding in Mexico will cheerfully pick you up at either your hotel or a prearranged meeting point — usually the parking lot for Walmart / Sam’s Club off of Francisco Medina Ascencio — near the Liverpool Galleria — then whisk you away to begin your wonderful birding adventure in paradise.

*Timings are approximate.  Please be punctual.  Casual window birding en route between each destination.  We may vary the order of places visited during the Itinerary, depending on seasonality, tidal flows, tips from our local birding friends and exciting discoveries from recent Birds of Paradise outings. 

We start our day with welcome snacks and participant introductions, followed by a lively description of your tour’s logistics, replete with a display map, so you can get your bearings.

After your private pickup utilizing a modern, high quality, air conditioned vehicle, we will follow coastal Highway #200 north a short distance until we pass the International Airport where we turn inland on Highway #544 to reach La Desembocada, for an hour or so of casual birding at this open country location located a total distance of 16.5 kms / 26 minutes from our pickup site in Puerto Vallarta.

We arrive in the early morning, when bird activity is at its zenith and before the sun is, and will visit a number of easily accessible birding hotspots in a loop revolving around the Rio Ameca, which not only divides the Valle de Banderas, it also forms the border between the Mexican States of Jalisco and Nayarit!

La Desembocada is primarily agricultural, with scattered riparian growth lining the Rio Mascota and scattered ponds, surrounded by fragmented Sinaloan Thorn Forest — and provides the perfect conditions, especially during the winter months, to encounter an incredibly fascinating and wide variety of colorful birds, ranging from flittering flocks of wintering grosbeaks, buntings, Dickcissels and sparrows, to scattered congregations of waterfowl, soaring raptors and neotropical Mexican specialties, as well.

A few exciting examples of specialty birds include Black-bellied Whistling-Duck; Rufous-bellied Chachalaca, Ruddy and Common ground-doves;  Limpkin; Black-necked Stilt; Killdeer;  Little Blue Heron; Roseate Spoonbill; Gray Hawk; Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl; Citreoline Trogon; Green Kingfisher; Golden-cheeked and Lineated woodpeckers; Laughing Falcon; Mexican Parrotlet (winter) and Orange-fronted Parakeet; flycatchers galore including the colorful Vermilion Flycatcher, Great Kiskadee, Thick-billed and Tropical kingbirds; Happy and Sinaloa wrens; Rufous-backed Robin; flitting warblers, and flocks of colorful buntings and grosbeaks that may include Blue Grosbeak, Painted Bunting and Blue-black Grassquit, etc.

To see a full listing of La Desembocada’s birding potentialities, please press here

*While on the trail here there are no restroom facilities, so if you have to answer the call of nature here it will be outdoors, so please consider moderating your intake of diuretics like coffee and tea this morning.  Our next restroom stop will be up to three hours from our pickup site, though we may be able to find a suitable comfort stop between here and our next birding destination at Rancho Grande Los Pinos, which does have restroom facilities.

Complimentary breakfast snacks will be provided while birding at La Desembocada to boost our energy levels this morning — “continental breakfast” if you would like.  Usually, this consist of yogurt, fruit, juices, granola bars and other nutritious options.  Cold, bottled fresh water and a selection of soft drinks — including diet options — are also readily available.  Supplies are limited.  We apologize if your preferred flavor is not available.

With mid-morning approaching we will ramp up the forest birding potential before the heat sets in by taking to the phenomenally bird-rich Sierra Vallejo Biosphere Reserve’s foothill forests, which have two very nice access roads to get us out into the wild—one at Arroyo del Indio Ejido and another at the access road for the Sierra Vallejo Biosphere Reserve proper, 8.3 kms / 18 minutes southwest and 7.9 kms / 12 minutes northeast from Rancho Grande Los Pinos, respectively.  We will choose one for this morning’s montane destination.

The hillsides and ridges here are cloaked in well developed, near virgin Sinaloan Thorn and deciduous tropical forest literally teaming with a mixture of exciting resident neotropical birds and migratory species from as far north as Canada and Alaska, all in juxtaposition… creating a literal sampler of the birds of paradise!

Some highlight species of the deciduous Sinaloan Thorn Forest and Tropical forest of the Sierra Vallejo Biosphere Reserve include:  Thicket Tinamou; Rufous-bellied Chachalaca and Crested Guan; Red-billed Pigeon; Groove-billed Ani, Lesser Ground-Cuckoo and Squirrel Cuckoo; Buff-collared Nightjar; Plain-capped Starthroat, Golden-crowned Emerald, Broad-billed, Cinnamon and Violet-crowned hummingbirds; Hook-billed Kite, Great Black Hawk, Zone-tailed, Gray, and Short-tailed hawks; Mottled Owl, Ferruginous and Colima pygmy-owls; Citreoline & Elegant trogons; Russet-crowned Motmot; Golden-cheeked, Pale-billed and Lineated woodpeckers; Collared Forest-Falcon, Bat Falcon; Lilac-crowned Parrot, Mexican Parrotlet (winter), Orange-fronted Parakeet and Military Macaw; Ivory-billed Woodcreeper; Masked Tityra, Gray-collared and Rose-throated Becards, Northern Beardless Tyrannulet, Greenish Elaenia, Pacific-slope, Vermilion, Dusky-capped, Nutting’s, Brown-crested, Social, Boat-billed, Sulphur-bellied flycatchers, Bright-rumped Attila, Great Kiskadee, Tropical and Thick-billed kingbirds; Golden, Black-capped, Bell’s, Warbling (the last three winter) and Yellow-green (summer) vireos; Black-throated Magpie-Jay, Green and San Blas jays; Happy and Sinaloa wrens; Blue Mockingbird; Orange-billed Nightingale-Thrush, Rufous-backed Robin; Scrub (Goldman’s) Euphonia; Rusty-crowned Ground-Sparrow, Stripe-headed Sparrow; Yellow-winged Cacique, Black-vented, Hooded and Streak-backed orioles; Golden-crowned, MacGillivray’s, Black-throated Gray (the last two winter), Fan-tailed and Rufous-capped warblers; Red-crowned Ant-Tanager, Yellow Grosbeak, Red-breasted Chat, Blue, Varied and Painted (winter) buntings; Blue-black Grassquit; Cinnamon-rumped Seedeater, and Grayish Saltator, etc. 

Nearby recent sightings of the critically endangered Yellow-headed Parrot have been reliably reported in the Sierra Vallejo Biosphere Reserve, and we will keep our eyes (and ears) at the ready for the exciting possibility of an encounter with this wonderful bird.

For full specifics please see the corresponding bird lists, here

*There are no restroom facilities during this part of our outing, so if you have to answer the call of nature you will have to do so in nature!   Thanks for your spirit of adventure and flexibility.

With the heat of the day coming on we will visit one of the hidden gems of Puerto Vallarta— Cocodrilario Cora, a literal crocodile farm that is working hard to conserve these threatened reptilian giants from another era, and surrounding Red Mangrove forests. 

At the crocodile farm we will do some more brief birding while enjoying the sights and sounds of American Crocodiles, replete with some shore birding at a part of Laguna Quelele that is home to a plethora of birds, including Rufous-necked Wood-Rails, though they are more easily seen at very low tides either early or late in the day, than at mid-day.

Some interesting birds to watch for during this stop include Wood Stork, various herons and egrets, Roseate Spoonbill, White-faced Ibis, Crane Hawk, Common Black Hawk, San Blas Jay, American Redstart and Northern Parula (both winter), Blue Grosbeak, Painted Bunting and Dickcissel (all three winter), etc.  

For a complete list of the possibilities, please see the relevant listings here

*There are restrooms and a restaurant here, and the restaurant serves simple snacks and refreshments.  

Snacks and soft drinks are provided free of charge. If the restaurant is open, you may order from menu, though, we will be having lunch on the beach at Boca de Tomates following this wonderfully interesting stop.

We will visit another of Vallarta’s hidden natural treasures—Boca Tomates, home to giant wild American Crocodiles and flurries of shorebirds where the Rio Ameca empties into Banderas Bay.

This is a place few tourists ever reach—the last stretch of undeveloped beach remaining in Puerto Vallarta, home to migratory shorebirds, wading birds, pelicans, gulls, terns and frigates — and the aforementioned population of wild American Crocodiles.  

White Ibis, Little Blue and Tricolored herons, Great and Snowy egrets are all commonly seen.

If we’re really lucky, we may catch site of a Limpkin in the red mangrove forest here, or a rare Reddish Egret sprinting and canopy feeding in the river or amongst the shallow breakers, flocks of Wilson’s Plovers, and even neotropical Collared Plovers on the sand spit near the estuary.

Offshore we can usually catch site of distant Blue-footed and sometimes even Brown boobies, flying and diving with Brown Pelicans beyond the breakers.

The sky really is the limit and we will explore all of them while enjoying a latish but lovely seafood lunch with authentic Mexican Guacamole at one of the palapa-style restaurants lining the beach while reviewing our checklists to tally our rich natural encounters from throughout the day — all the while serenaded by the soothing sounds of surf and sand before birding the estuary.

Feel free to dip your toes into the soothing Pacific tidewaters here if you would like!

For a complete list of the possibilities, please see the relevant listings here

*Restrooms are available, and can do double duty as changing rooms if you want to don your bathing attire here.  

*Biting insects are virtually absent during the mid-day to early afternoon hours at Boca de Tomates so go ahead and strip down to enjoy the soothing breezes in the heat of the day, maybe while enjoying some shrimp on the barbie, followed by our final birding foray at the estuary of the Rio Ameca which we have been crisscrossing all day.

Upon completion of today’s wonderful excursion, you will be cordially returned to their original pickup point, with pleasure, and it is our sincere hope that you’ll return to that point very pleased and richer for today’s Birding in Mexico experience.