Birding in Veracruz, Mexico with Eduardo Martinez and Bichodemonte Birding Tours.

Tour members will arrive at Veracruz City International Airport, where your local guides and transportation will be waiting to take you to the hotel Mocambo, a colonial style resort overlooking the Gulf of Mexico.

First day starts with a light bird watching walk at Hotel Mocambo gardens and beach before an excellent breakfast buffet at the hotel, then departing to Cardel for our first day of hawk watching at one of the River of Raptors two hawkwatch sites on the rooftop of Hotel Bienvenido. There, along with visits to the main hawk watch site in Chichicaxtle, we will enjoy the raptor migration for the next couple of days, between morning and afternoon birding walks. The next couple of mornings we will visit areas along the coast surrounded by low forests and mangroves, as well as some river mouths, to look for resident birds and the many passerine and waterbird migrants that will be moving south in great numbers. In the afternoons we will visit some pre-hispanic and colonial ruins, as well as have an interesting boat ride to the mouth of the La Antigua River, all the time looking for birds and keeping an eye to the sky for large flocks of raptors. On the afternoon of the 1st, we’ll leave for the highlands of central Veracruz.

• Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl
• Great Kiskadee
• Social Flycatcher
• Buff-bellied Hummingbird 
• Altamira Oriol
• Scrub Euphonia
• Aplomado Falcon
• Veracruz Wren
• Blue Black Grassquit 
• Ringed, Amazon and Green Kingfishers
• Rose-throated Becard
• Red-faced Pigeon
• Common Black Hawk 
• White-fronted and Yellow-headed Parrots 
• Laughing Falcon
• Crested Cararaca
• Barred Antshrike (shown)
• as well as many species of migrant hawks, falcons and waterbirds.

Here we will visit some beautiful city parks and gardens located among remnants of cloud forests and old coffee plantations right at the heart of the city of Xalapa, as well as visit the picturesque towns of Coatepec and Xico, well known for the quality and taste of their coffee and mole. We will also spend a couple of hours at Xalapa’s Anthropological Museum, admiring its stunning collection of Olmec, Totonac and other pre-hispanic cultures’ objects. On our second day we will go higher on the mountains to look for pine forest birds and, time and weather permitting, try to reach the elevated, more desertic plateau on the skirts of the Cofre de Perote volcano. On the 4th, after packing and leaving the hotel, we will stop at another nice park outside Xalapa for a last taste of cloud forest birds, and then head down to Chichicaxtle’s hawk watch site to try to catch some more of the raptor migration. 

• Blue Mockingbird
• Blue-capped Motmot 
• Golden-crowned Warbler
• Rufous-capped Warbler (shown)
• Slate-throated Redstart
• Green Jay
• Clay-colored Thrush
• White-collared Swift
• Bat Falcon
• Red Warbler
• Yellow-eyed Junco
• Crescent-chested Warbler
• Golden-browed Warbler
• White-eared Hummingbird
• Rusty Sparrow
• As well as many migrant warblers.

For our last couple of days of birding we will go back to lower elevation habitats, first to El Mirador, an old hacienda dating back to the late 1800’s. We will go to the hacienda’s coffee plantation that is mixed with patches of the original rainforest that is characteristic of the area. Here we will spend most of the day enjoying a mid-morning picnic style brunch surrounded by birds and forest and later a home style lunch in the Hacienda artfully prepared by the owners. Then on our way to overnight in Veracruz City, if the flight is good enough, we will stop for a last time to enjoy the raptor migration. The next morning we’ll head south to explore the grasslands and wetlands of Alvarado, traveling along some side roads in search of resident and migratory marsh birds as well as open grassland passerines. Seafood is a staple of the area, so we’ll stop at one of the local restaurants before going back to our hotel. You’ll have your last afternoon free, so you can wander around downtown Veracruz city sightseeing or getting souvenirs for your loved ones back home. Or simply resting if you are looking into a long trip home. But we all will be able to say our goodbyes dining at a very traditional restaurant close to the zocalo.

• Keel-billed Toucan
• Collared Aracari 
• Black-headed Saltator
• Collared and Gartered Trogons
• Red-lored Parrot
• Ivory-billed and Olivaceous Woodcreepers
• Tropical Parula
• Brown Jay
• Wedge-tailed Sabrewing
• Collared Forest Falcon
• Double-striped Thick Knees
• Yellow-bellied Elaenia
• Pinnated Bittern
• Snail Kite
• Yellow-headed Vulture (shown)
• Mangrove Swallow 
• and other tropical and marsh birds.

Tour members will be transported to the airport in time for their scheduled flights.