Oaxaca: Birding, Natural and Cultural History in Southern Mexico

December 4 - 14, 2012 and January 3 - 13, 2013 

Gulf Slope extension Dec. 15-19, 2012

The state of Oaxaca is wonderfully diverse in flora and fauna, history, culture, cuisine, and scenery.  Our tour is designed to provide us optimum exposure to this richness at a comfortable pace while enjoying unique and superb lodging experiences, great natural history and birds, and fascinating cultural experiences.  While in the city of Oaxaca we'll stay at the charming Hotel Azucenas, a wonderful place with an intimate atmosphere located in a great neighborhood.  From there we'll visit the arid scrub around Teotitlan del Valle, a Zapotec town well known for its fine weavings.  On past trips we've seen as many as 80 species of birds in this area.  These include white-throated towhee, Boucard's wren, ocellated thrasher, Oaxaca and bridled sparrows, dusky and beautiful hummingbirds, white-tailed hawk, grey-breasted woodpecker, golden vireo, black-vented oriole, elegant euphonia, and many others.

To the north, in the Sierra Juarez, we'll enjoy rich cloud forest with spectacularly large agaves and numerous flowering plants.  We'll have good opportunities to find the endemic dwarf jay as well as gray-barred wren, golden-browed and red warblers, spot-crowned woodcreeper, collared towhee, chestnut-capped and rufous-capped brush-finches, hooded yellowthroat, amethyst-throated hummingbird, mountain trogon, and gray-breasted wood-wren.  We'll also enjoy a superb lunch at a mountain restaurant that serves the best chiles rellenos I've ever had. 

We'll trade the color of Oaxaca City for the color of the Sierra Miahuatlan where we'll spend a night at a hotel on a mountain ridge surrounded by pine forest and many flowering plants that attract hummingbirds and cinnamon-bellied flowerpiercer.  One of my favorite cloud forest trees, "arbol de las manitas", can be a bird magnet.  It's nectar-laden flowers attract orioles, thrushes (including Aztec thrush), warblers, jays, and tanagers (including flame-colored).

We then traverse a spectacular transect as we descend from the high mountains to the Pacific coast.  We spend more time in the pines and oaks and make many stops in the broadleaf evergreen forests of the coffee growing areas.  Along the way, we've had good luck in finding bumblebee hummingbird, chestnut-capped brush-finch, slaty vireo, red-headed tanager, common bush-tanager, blue-capped hummingbird, fan-tailed warbler, eye-ringed flatbill, emerald toucanet, Audubon's oriole, grey-silky flycatcher, and many more.

On the Pacific coast, we'll stay at the lovely and unique Rancho Cerro Largo where white-throated magpie jay, banded and rufous-naped wrens, russet-crowned motmot, lesser ground cuckoo, orange-breasted bunting, red-breasted chat, and citreoline trogon can be found right on the lodge grounds.  Out over the Pacific, we'll see red-billed tropicbirds and brown boobies soaring with magnificent frigatebirds.  In the nearby forest we should find Colima pygmy owl, happy wren, orange-breasted, painted, and blue buntings, yellow-winged cacique, golden-cheeked woodpecker and many other avian wonders.  In the Puerto Escondido area we visit the mouth of the Rio Colotepec, which is wonderfully rich in waders, shorebirds, and terns, and also the Laguna Manialtepec, a mangrove-lined lagoon where we should see bare-throated tiger and boat-billed herons, mangrove vireo and mangrove swallow, collared plover, and possibly ruddy-breasted seedeater, mangrove cuckoo, aplomado falcon, and grey-necked wood-rail.

Our journey combines exciting birding, rich natural history, outstanding food, the warm hospitality of the people of Oaxaca, and a suite of memorable cultural experiences.  These include a visit with one of the master Zapotec weavers, a tour of the ancient ruins of Monte Alban, a visit to the Oaxaca Cultural Museum, a tour of Finca El Pacifico (a bird-rich, shade grown, organic coffee plantation), and the trip highlight, a day of culture, cuisine, ethnobotany (and some birding) with the staff of Seasons of My Heart Cooking School.

Detailed itinerary and references available upon request.

~ Custom tours to Oaxaca can also be arranged ~

Last updated: January 26, 2012.