El Triunfo Trip Report - April, 2007

After having traveled in most of west Mexico's states, I had my eyes on a trip to El Triunfo in southern Chiapas for several years.  In addition to stories of the area's pristine nature and the attractiveness of a place reached only by foot, it was the only place in Mexico where I could still see many new bird species (I was hoping for about 40), including some of the most range-restricted on Earth.  After my friend David Tomb took the lead in organizing a trip, we joined four other friends in Tuxtla Gutierrez in April of 2007 for what would turn out to be one of the greatest wilderness adventures any of us had ever experienced.  

The 300,000-acre El Triunfo Biosphere Reserve is located in the southern part of the state in the Sierra Madre de Chiapas where it spans an altitudinal range of roughly 1200 to 8000 feet and separates the warm, humid coastal lowlands from the drier interior.  El Triunfo contains a great variety of habitats which include humid tropical evergreen forest, mountain rainforest, tropical deciduous forest, evergreen cloud scrub, pine-oak forest, and perhaps the crown jewel of them all, evergreen cloud forest.  El Triunfo’s cloud forest hosts one of the most diverse arrays of tree species in North and Central America.  Amidst the often mist-enshrouded mountains are giant tree ferns, sweet-gum, towering Mexican alder, wild fuschia, oaks, wild avocado, and mulberry trees, most of which are dripping with epiphytic mosses, bromeliads, orchids, ferns, Clusia, arums, and cacti.

The approximately 2000 species of plants found within the reserve are the background for tremendous faunal diversity.  In addition to 70 species of reptiles and amphibians known from the area, over 100 species of mammals (most of which are bats) and about 400 species of birds have been recorded.  Several of the birds are either very range restricted (horned guan, azure-rumped tanager, blue-throated motmot, black-capped swallow, rufous sabrewing, and blue-tailed hummingbird) or are generally rare throughout their range (resplendant quetzal and Prevost's ground sparrow).  Jaguar, Baird's tapir, red brocket deer, Central American spider monkey, and hundreds of species of colorful butterflies also make El Triunfo home.

The establishment of El Triunfo as a biosphere reserve began with studies in the 1940s by one of Mexico's premier ornithologists, Miguel Alvarez del Toro.  The seeds of conservation were planted in the early 1970s when the natural History Institute of Chiapas began to study the area, and in 1990 the Mexican government formally established the reserve.  Unfortunately at the time, the park was a classic "paper park" with inadequate funding and management.  Recognizing the area's biodiversity value and its connection to many rural communities, various foreign conservation groups provided financial assistance and partnered with Mexican agencies to establish subsequent funding, staff, and management plans.  In 1993 El Triunfo was included in the international MAB-UNESCO Program for Biosphere Reserves, and today a staff of about 50 works with local communities on education and sustainable economic activities such as ecotourism, organic shade-grown coffee, and the development of palm and cycad nurseries.

We felt fortunate to be among the few tourists (about 200) that visit the area each year and were simply blown away by the beauty, richness, intactness, and incredible birding that El Triunfo offers.  

Our April journey began, as many to the area do, in Tuxtla Gutierrez where we spent a half-day visiting the dramatic national park at Sumidero Canyon.  Here the Rio Grijalva cuts through a massive limestone dome, creating a spectacular 3000-ft. deep canyon.  The tropical deciduous forest of the park felt like home for me as it was reminiscent of that of much of west Mexico with gumbo limbo, Erythrina, Ceiba, Cochlospermum, guaje, and Combretum vine being common.  As we exited the van at our first stop, white-throated magpie-jays greeted us with their raucous calls.  A russet-crowned motmot posed for unobstructed pictures in the mostly leafless forest while white-lored gnatcatchers and banded wrens worked the thick vegetation.  At various stops along the road, we found boat-billed and Nutting's flycatchers, buff-bellied hummingbird, the southern race of streak-backed oriole, and olive sparrow, while thicket tinamous and highland guans called from the surrounding forest.  We heard and searched for the diminutive, thicket-dwelling belted flycatcher, but couldn't lay eyes on this little treasure.  Interesting pockets of greener semideciduous forest harbored rather unexpected species - including spot-breasted wren, northern bentbill, lesser greenlet, and eye-ringed flatbill - that I was used to seeing in the lowland evergreen forests further east.  

From Sumidero, we headed south to the town of Jaltenango, our take-off point for the El Triunfo trailhead.  On the way we encountered a northward-traveling flock of several hundred Swainson's hawks.  At first we just saw dozens of hawks flying low over a ridge.  When we stopped for a closer look, we discovered that the hawks had happened upon a partially cleared area that was swarming with grasshoppers.  As they swooped low to the ground, they would flush dozens of the large insects, one of which would usually end up in the talon of a bird.  This was also the point at which we heard our first pheasant cuckoo, a bird we would hear over much of the trip but, like most people, never see.  Just outside Jaltenango, we made our final stop of the day at the Rio Acatengo, an area rich with birds.  In addition to the Amazon and green kingfishers along the river, we found fork-tailed flycather, plain wren, painted bunting, bank-nesting russet-crowned motmots, yellow-winged and blue-gray tanagers, and the Fuertes race of orchard oriole.

From Jaltenango, the heart of the adventure began with a three-hour back-of-the-truck ride through habitat that went from fairly cut over to largely intact.  The birding, in tandem with the habitat, just got better and better, and we had a hard time going more than a mile without signaling to our driver to stop yet again so we could watch birds.  While fairly widespread birds such as black-headed saltator, clay-colored robin, and rufous-browed peppershrike were common at the start, we quickly transitioned into more interesting and intact habitat where we found azure-crowned hummingbird, white-winged tanager, orange-billed nightingale thrush, green parakeet, collared aracari (hanging out in pine trees of all places), chestnut-collared swift, gray-collared becard, and my first life bird of the trip, blue-headed vireo.  Eventually we arrived at Finca Prusia, an old but still active coffee hacienda established by Germans in the late 1800s.  Here we had lunch and then started the 8-mile uphill walk to the high camp at El Triunfo.  Within minutes we all felt as though we had stepped through the looking-glass and entered an enchanted wonderland of spectacular forest.  For the next six hours, we gawked at enormous trees, searched the canopy for emerald toucanets, caught good views of emerald-chinned hummingbirds and brown-capped vireos, were teased by fleeting glimpses of blue-crowned chlorophonias, listened to the calls of collared trogons and black robins, and enjoyed the quiet power of a landscape that, except for the trail, showed no obvious signs of humans having ever been there.  Within about a mile of the camp, we heard the low-pitched, almost subliminal calls of horned guans, one of the oddest and most beautiful cracids in the Americas.  Though they were right above us, it took a while to locate them in the dense canopy.  Eventually we did find them and enjoyed great views of a bird that was hands-down a huge trip highlight. 

With our hunger and fatigue momentarily erased by the guan sighting, we entered the camp clearing where we were welcomed by a parade of color and song from the many yellow grosbeaks, gray silky-flycatchers, flame-colored tanagers, and mountain robins flying around.  Knowing that we'd spend every waking moment in this wilderness paradise over the next few days had us beaming, but it turned out that there was even more magic in store.  The local Mexicans in charge of logistics (which are difficult to say the least) simply outdid themselves and impressed us to no end with there graciousness, smiling service, delicious food, and camaraderie on the adventure.  Our first dinner of hot soup, heaping plates of pasta, steamed veggies, and wonderfully sweet fruit was a sample of the many good eats to come.

We spent the next two days seeing, enjoying, and learning about some great birds and natural history while savoring the ambiance of this vast tract of intact and unique forest.  Here at the highest point of the journey, we were treated to a suite of birds that we were unlikely to encounter again once we began our descent.  Along the trails we found the gorgeous spotted nightingale-thrush, its more subdued cousin, ruddy-capped nightingale-thrush, the diminutive rufous-browed wren, furtive but noisy black-throated jays, stunning unicolored jays in perfect late-morning light, pairs of yellow-throated and chestnut-capped brush-finches, a singing hooded grosbeak, nest-building paltry tyrannulets, skulky gray-breasted wood-wrens, active spectacled foliage-gleaners, and a nice mix of hummingbirds, including green-throated mountain-gem, violet sabrewing, green violet-ear, and wine-throated hummingbird (one of the smallest in the world).  Of course, one of the other top trip highlights were the resplendant quetzals.  We had arrived during the nesting season, and though we saw quite a few beautiful females and heard many males calling in the mornings, adult males were not so easy to find.  After much searching and hoping, we were finally rewarded with two males (of the northernmost and longest-tailed race) at a fruiting tree.  Many have called this species the most beautiful bird in the world, and though that's an impossible call for me to make (because there are just so many show-stopping birds out there), I can now see why.

With a memorable sense of satisfaction, we left the high camp and started our three-day descent to the lowlands of the Pacific coast.  The relatively easy five-mile walk to Canada Honda would take us out of the cloud forest, through a narrow band of pines and cypress, and finally into tropical evergreen forest at the cozy streamside camp.  As we gradually emerged from the thick cloud forest, we were treated to the first of countless vistas of sharp ridges and deep valleys, all covered with lush forest.  One of birds we encountered not far down the trail was the "must see" blue-throated motmot.  At first sight, and compared to other species of motmots, the blue-throated may seem a somewhat subdued bird.  But with patience, some luck, and the right viewing geometry, the bird becomes spectacular when the throat lights up.  In the pines we saw our only Grace's warblers of the trip as well as hepatic tanagers which were also limited to the pines.  As we got closer to Canada Honda, we had great eye-level views of a bird I'd wanted to see for a long time, the green shrike-vireo.  While this canopy specialist is usually seen from a tower, in our case we were lucky to be on a hillside trail that put us at eye level with the downslope treetops where the bird was perched in great light.  At the camp, a few large fig trees were magnets for azure-rumped tanagers, a highly range restricted and beautiful bird that we'd find to be common here and at a few spots further down the trail.  Also in the camp were white-eared ground sparrows and a bird that had serenaded us, as if in welcome, upon our approach to the camp, the rufous-and-white wren.  Like many of its relatives in the genus Thyrothorus, the rufous-and-white, too, has a loud, rich, and sweet song, in this case one that we'd hear for a few days before dropping out of its preferred habitat.  Around Canada Honda, we found territorial rufous sabrewings, a noisy pair of tawny-throated leaftossers, a ruddy foliage-gleaner (the only one of the trip), and close-up, eye-level views of pairs of blue-crowned chlorophonias and elegant euphonias.  These latter two birds provide justification for why I just can't pick a "most beautiful bird in the world" - yes, they're small, but, man, what colors.

From Canada Honda, we continued on to El Limonal, another beautifully situated camp smack in the middle of a long-tailed manakin lek.  Our encounters with these amazing little birds started with fleeting glimpses of both males and females, followed by great views of calling males right in the camp, and culminating with a videoed observation of a pair of males in full display for a female.  Except for the long, hair-like central tail feathers, I was struck by the similarity of these birds in look, portions of the display vocalizations, and display behavior to those of the blue-backed manakin of Amazonia.  In addition to blue-tailed hummingbirds, in and around the camp were three species of motmot.  Tody motmots were almost common outside our tents, turquoise-broweds weren't far behind, and of course there were blue-crowneds.  From here to our last camp at Paval, the birding, amazingly, got even richer.  The trail seemed to be lined with fan-tailed warblers while the trees were almost dripping with migrating Tennessee warblers and yellow-green vireos.  King vultures, great black-hawk, and a pair of white hawks soared overhead, collared and violaceous trogons sat still on their perches, and mixed flocks with black-faced grosbeaks, sulphur-bellied flycatchers, and Blackburnian warblers passed by.  At the camp, it was "speed birding" as spot-breasted orioles, tropical pewee, rufous-breasted spinetail, and a nice mix of psittacines (orange-fronted parakeet, mealy parrot, and yellow-naped parrots) were among the many birds seen.  Another of my "most wanted" life birds on the trip, and one that nests in the eastern U.S. where I've never been, was Eastern kingbird.  Several huge flocks of these birds were seen at Paval on their northward migration.  On our final walk, and just before being picked up be the truck, we found striped cuckoo and several other new trip birds, but the highlight was our last species, literally, while "on the trail", a pair of Prevost's ground sparrows.  One of the rarer species endemic to southern Mexico and northern Central America, these odd and beautiful little birds became the perfect avian exclamation point at the end of the most amazing birding hike any of us had ever done. 

After a lunch in Mapastepec, we headed to Tapachula where we'd end our trip at a hotel with, fortunately, some decent habitat that provided homes for many birds, some of which were among those that illustrate so well the unique evolutionary history and biogeography of the region.  Almost as soon as we exited the van, we heard the raucous and unmistakable calls of giant wrens, which turned out to be rather tame around the hotel.  Known only from a narrow strip of coastal Chiapas, these birds interestingly come right up against the borders of neighboring Oaxaca and Guatemala, but, as though they're aware of the geopolitical borders, don't cross over into either place.  Also around the hotel were white-bellied chachalacas, one of the four species of chachalacas whose ranges fit together without overlapping, like pieces of a puzzle of lowland tropical Mexico.  A day roosting Pacific screech owl right on the grounds was a bonus as were the many orange-chinnned parakeets perched nicely in the palms.  But for me, probably the highlight of Tapachula, particularly since I've never been to Hawk Mountain, Cape May, Veracruz, or other "river of raptor" sites, was the stream of tens of thousands of turkey vultures heading north directly over the hotel for several hours.  Amidst the vultures were a handful of diminutive, especially at that altitude, Swainson's and broad-winged hawks.  Thinking about the evolution of the birds and their migratory behaviors in concert with the location of the continents, the oceans, the weather and seasons, and the local topography made for a spectacle I'll never forget.  

The El Triunfo experience was unlike anything I've done in the world of birds and natural history.  The combination of superb hospitality and logistics in the "middle of nowhere", the vast tract of unaltered forest, the fascinating biogeography, and the abundance of show-stopping birds created an adventure that I hope to relive many times in the future.

Photos: white-winged tanager, long-tailed manakin, horned guan, Prevost's ground-sparrow, yellow-throated brushfinch by Misty Vaughn

Last updated: April 12, 2008.