Oaxaca Trip Report - the following is summary of our 2005 - 2010 Oaxaca trips.

The almost 700 species of birds found in the state of Oaxaca are an excellent reflection of the varied geography of this unique destination.  With Pacific and Atlantic slopes, rugged mountains of pine, oak, and broadleaf forest, tropical dry forest, coastal lagoons, and beautiful beaches, Oaxaca has it all in terms of habitat diversity.  Our tour begins in the dryish interior valley in the colonial city of Oaxaca de Juarez where we stay at the lovely Hotel Azucenas.  From this comfortable home base we have time to explore the color and cuisine of the city while making day trips to nearby locations for birds and natural history.

Our first stop is the arid scrub around the Zapotec town of Teotitlan del Valle.  The columnar cacti, tree morning glories, guaje, seepwillow, bunchgrasses, Erythrina, and other legumes create a habitat oddly similar to our backyard in southeast Arizona.  Even the avifauna shares similarities.  Just like in our Arizona home, curve-billed thrashers are there, but they're joined not by crissal but instead ocellated thrasher.  Cactus wren is replaced by Boucard's wren, canyon towhee by white-throated towhee, and Gila woodpecker by grey-breasted woodpecker.  Western and Cassin's kingbirds and eastern meadowlark are around as are lesser goldfinches. The birding in the scrub around town, at a small reservoir on the outskirts, and along the road that climbs into the pines and oaks of the Sierra Juarez can be excellent, and we've enjoyed several 80+ species mornings.  Least grebes, Tennessee, rufous-capped and other warblers, flycatchers, dusky hummingbird, and black-vented and other orioles are fairly conspicuous while some of the regional specialties are less so.  With time and careful searching, however, we've had some luck in finding ocellated thrasher, bridled and Oaxaca sparrows, Boucard's wren, West Mexican chachalaca and golden vireo.

After a wonderful lunch in town, we enjoy a delightful lecture and demonstration with one of the town's master weavers, Francisco Martinez, who gives us a look into traditional Zapotec culture and shares the techniques and materials used to produce the world-class weavings of Teotitlan del Valle.

On our return to the big city, we make a brief stop in Santa Maria del Tule, the home of what is claimed to be the world's largest tree, El Tule.  Prior to serious human settlement and alteration of the area, this part of the valley (and probably many other parts) was a wetland with emergent vegetation, perhaps flocks of wintering waterfowl, and riparian trees, including the Montezuma cypress (Taxodium mucronatum).  Though we've seen some pretty impressive examples of this cypress species in Sonora, we're always amazed by the grandeur of El Tule.  We've seen the big drive-through redwoods, and believe us, those are little guys (not in terms of height but in terms of girth) compared to this.  Despite the profound alteration of the area from wetland to city and the tree's age (estimated to be 2000 years), it appears to be in the prime of its life.  Though only about 150 feet tall, it's horizontal span and the breadth of its trunk are unimaginable.  The trunk's 164 foot circumference and 52 foot diameter has a footprint of about 2123 square feet or about 3 times the size of our house!

Looming above the Oaxaca Valley is the dramatic Sierra Juarez where we spend an unforgettable day in  the pines, firs, alders, and oaks of the southern Sierra Madre.  An interesting suite of resident and migratory birds (as well as an excellent restaurant with the best chile relleno and local mushroom dishes I've had) are found in this lush area.  Species we've found include several Mexican endemics (dwarf jay, grey-barred wren, hooded yellowthroat, russet nightingale thrush, collared towhee, rufous-capped brushfinch, long-tailed wood-partridge, and red warbler), as well as red crossbill, spot-throated and strong-billed woodcreepers, bumblebee hummingbird, black-headed siskin, mountain trogon, brown-backed solitaire, and many others.  

You can't visit Oaxaca without a trip to Monte Alban, a hilltop ruin site with fascinating Zapotec history.  Before taking a guided tour of the ruins, we walk some of the nearby trails and search for birds amidst the arid scrub.  Berylline, beautiful, and ruby-throated hummingbirds are sometimes nectaring at the tree morning glories while dwarf and slaty vireos, rufous-capped warbler, and blue mockingbird skulk in the dense thickets.  Kingbirds, black-vented orioles, and clay-colored and other sparrows work scrub and grassy fields while white-tailed and short-tailed hawks can soar above. One of the prizes of the area is the pileated flycatcher which can be difficult, but not impossible, to find in the winter.  Our guide, Benito Hernandez, is outstanding in his interpretation of the area's history.

What has come to be a, if not THE, trip highlight for the group, is a tour of the spectacular and vast Mercado Abastos where the smells, tastes, colors, and daily rhythms of the Oaxacan people are experienced first hand.  In addition to the best tamales in the world, we sample chapulines (grasshoppers), moles, cacao beans, tejate (an earthy prehispanic drink), and other regional treats.  After the tour we head north to the nearby town of Etla for a memorable lunch and lecture on Oaxacan plants, culture, and cuisine with well-known chef and author Susana Trilling at her Seasons of My Heart cooking school.  Susana's knowledge and passion for regional culture, cuisine, and farming practices comes through in her fascinating stories which always help us understand, and taste, the relationships between people and the lands in which they live.  Though there's only a little birding this day, it is the perennial favorite of trip participants. 

We always leave some time for exploring Oaxaca City.  The zocalo, the shops selling crafts, mescal, and chocolate, the daily market, and the restaurants are full of energy and color.  At some of our favorite restaurants, we savor moles, tlayudas, squash soup, memelas, flan, tacos de jamaica, and cuitlacoche enchiladas.  A Mexican specialty, cuitlacoche is a corn fungus that isn't cultivated intentionally but rather appears randomly, as the disease that it is, within corn milpas.  One never knows where it will turn up, but when it does, it's great luck for the farmer as this "rotten corn" is a restaurant delicacy.  Fungus never ceases to amaze.

From Oaxaca city we travel across the dry southern valley, studded with guamuchil trees and various agaves, and climb into the lush forests of the Sierra Miahuatlan where we stay at the cozy Puesta del Sol.  On our way to the mountains, we make a stop at the home of Zeny and Reyna Fuentes where we'll see some of the finest alebrijes (fanciful and colorful woodcarvings) in Oaxaca as they demonstrate and explain their exquisite art.  The nice cabins of Puesta del Sol (with much-appreciated fireplaces for the cool nights) are situated amidst scattered trees and some large flower banks that can be good for hummers (including bumblebee), flowerpiercers, black-eared bushtits,  as well as rufous-capped brushfinch and hooded yellowthroat.  The Pyracantha bushes, if in fruit, have hosted American and white-throated robins, gray-silky flycatcher, russet nightingale thrush, Aztec thrush, brown-backed solitaire, and chestnut-capped brushfinch.

In the nearby forest of pines and oaks, we've seen mountain trogon, spot-crowned woodcreeper, hepatic and flame-colored tanagers, slate-throated redstart, chestnut-sided shrike-vireo, pine flycatcher, garnet-throated hummingbird, and several wintering migrants.

From the Miahuatlan crest, we descend to sea level as we pass through mixed conifer, broadleaf evergreen, and finally tropical deciduous forest on the coast.  Along the 70-mile descent, we make various stops.  Our first is a special spot where several bumblebee hummingbirds always seem to be conspicuously perched and singing.  We'll walk through pine-oak forest and a shade-grown coffee plantation where in the past we've seen red-headed tanager, slaty and golden vireos, green jay, emerald toucanet, white-collared swift, double-toothed kite, barred woodcreeper, Audubon's oriole, common bush-tanager, gray-breasted wood wren, the endemic blue-capped and cinnamon-sided hummingbirds, and many other species.  Several locations can be very good for colorful butterflies as well (see the Oaxaca butterfly list for an idea of what's possible).

Eventually we reach the coast and the incomparable Rancho Cerro Largo, a place that is as much an artful creation and lifestyle as a lodging site.  Perched on a forested bluff above the expansive Pacific Ocean, the lodge area is teeming with morning birds.  This productive spot has yielded numerous orioles (spot-breasted, altamira, streak-backed, and orchard), happy and banded wrens, west Mexican chachalaca, olive sparrow, russet-crowned motmot, white-throated magpie jay, rufous-backed robin, Colima pygmy owl, citreoline trogon, three bunting species (painted, blue, and orange-breasted), squirrel cuckoo, lesser ground-cuckoo, orange-fronted parakeet, yellow-winged cacique, and the unforgettable red-breasted chat.  Mexican red-bellied squirrels, ringtail, and spiny-tailed iguanas are also on the grounds.  We eat quite well at Cerro Largo as our host, Mario Corella, has created a delicious menu of fresh, healthy and creative dishes.  The tranquility of the place, the restful hammocks, and the pristine beach with warm water and virtually no people or palapas are icing on the rich cake of this unforgettable spot.

From Cerro Largo, we make a day trip back up into the mountains to visit several shade grown coffee plantations where the broadleaf forest hosts lineated and pale-billed woodpeckers, ivory-billed woodcreeper, masked tityra, happy wren, red-crowned ant-tanager, fan-tailed warbler, double-toothed kite, barred woodcreeper, emerald toucanet, white-collared swift, golden vireo, and outstanding butterflies.  One plantation is the Finca el Pacifico where the fourth generation of the Gomez family provides warm hospitality and an excellent tour of their certified organic, shade-grown coffee operation. 

Finally we head west to Puerto Escondido and the Laguna Manialtepec, a rich mangrove-lined estuary where mangrove swallows and vireos, shorebirds such as collared plover, various waders, terns, and northern jacana make their homes.  Rocky outcrops on the shore are common basking spots for black iguanas (Ctenosaura pectinata).  We've had good luck in the past and have found hook-billed kite, crane hawk, mangrove cuckoo, ruddy-breasted seedeater, and once a southern river otter along the lagoon as well.  While in Puerto Escondido, we also make a visit to the nearby mouth of the Rio Colotepec, always a rich spot for waders, shorebirds, and terns.  In this area, in Dec. of 2009, we found some rare (for the region) species including red-breasted merganser and common loon while also enjoying more common species such as blue-black grassquit and white-collared and ruddy-breasted seedeaters.

Oaxaca, with it's perfect combination of natural and cultural wonders, is hands down my favorite place in Mexico, and I look forward to sharing its variety of birds, scenery, tastes, and colors with many of you in the future!

Pacific Ocean from Rancho Cerro Largo, faded eighty-eight (Diaethria astala), red warbler, and Laguna Manialtepec by John & Melanie Dicus.  

Mangrove cuckoo by Mel Emeigh.

Last updated: May 13, 2010.