Note: This blog ended up taking way longer to write than I'd planned it to, less for lack of time and more for lack of mental bandwidth. There have been a few different life events since our trip, one of them being the loss of my grandma who passed away earlier this week. That's something we are all still processing. She always read my blog, even when it was about esoteric bird-related topics, and I like to think she's still out there somewhere reading this post as well. If so, Grandma, just know that we all love you and miss you very much.
After returning from my work trip to the Philippines in March, I barely spent a week in DC before heading right back to the airport for another international trip. Thankfully this one was for fun rather than for my job: at long last, Nikki and I were both able to get a week off of work for a trip to Mexico. This marked the first time Nikki had been able to get out of the US since coming here in 2024, and her first time taking a proper vacation since she started at her new job last year, so it was a much anticipated trip.
Our destination was the state of Oaxaca, in southeastern Mexico. It's one of the best-known states of Mexico for birding: it's far enough south to have a lot of properly Neotropical species, it straddles the Continental Divide meaning that it hosts birds from both the Caribbean and Pacific Slopes, and it has a host of endemic or near-endemic birds that are found only within its high mountains or desert valleys. All of that means it has the biggest species list of any Mexican state, and it happens to be much safer than surrounding areas to boot. Beyond birding it's also famous for its assortment of archaeological sites, rich cultural heritage, and a culinary scene that's well-reputed even by Mexican standards. It's been on the top of my destination wish list for years, and it was an easy sell to convince Nikki that it was an ideal vacation spot.
Nikki and I spent several months preparing for the trip. The plan was to fly into Oaxaca City on March 23, pick up a rental car, and drive down to the Pacific Coast to the town of Huatulco. We would spend a few days making our way from the coast back to Oaxaca City through the Sierra Madre del Sur stopping at various habitats for endemic birds (and coffee in Nikki's case), and then spend the last part of the trip in Oaxaca City and surrounding areas. By the beginning of March, everything was coming together: we had a detailed itinerary, and all of our hotels and rental cars booked.
The week before we left, things started going wrong. Before heading to the Philippines I had gone into the DMV to renew my driver's license, which would supposedly take a week or two to process. When I returned to DC three weeks later, I was surprised to see that it there was no license to be found. I called the DMV help line and the response amounted to a bored shrug–sometimes these things just get lost in the mail, and no of course they don't track the packages they send out. I immediately ordered a new one, which would arrive in... 15 business days. Driving in the US with the provisional paper license was fine, but I telephoned the rental company in Mexico and was informed in no uncertain terms that they would refuse to give me a car without a physical license.
By that time we realized there was no way to get to half the places on our itinerary, we had 2 days before we would fly out to Oaxaca. That late in the game there was no chance of getting a refund on the hotels or rental car or trying to arrange a guide or private driver; it was going to be a week spent entirely within Oaxaca City. To add insult to injury the fancy pair of binoculars I'd bought for the trip also somehow got lost in the mail; one of the cases where the delivery guy lies about trying to deliver the parcel and sends it back to the buyer. It was one of the few times where my usual strategy of trusting blindly in a benevolent universe has failed spectacularly.
Still, we had a full week of vacation in Mexico and we were determined to make the most of it. We booked different hotels, found more things to do around Oaxaca City, and I managed to connect with a local bird guide who had 2 free days where he could take us out of the city to some proper birding spots. Not ideal, but if I was going to be forced to take things slow then I was going to take things slow and have fun, dammit.
We flew out of DC early in the morning of Wednesday, March 18 and after a brief layover in Dallas landed in Oaxaca City in the mid-afternoon. From there it was several hours of getting through customs, waiting for our bags, and figuring out transport, and it wasn't until late afternoon that we made it to our hotel.
For the first few nights we were staying directly in the historical center of Oaxaca City, which is absolutely gorgeous in the way that only Latin American cities can be: cobblestone streets, technicolor houses, centuries-old churches, and walls plastered with a psychedelic assortment of posters and graffiti. I did my best to look for birds where I could, but mostly ended up with the usual urban birds of western North America: Great-tailed Grackles, Western Tanagers, Western and Cassin's Kingbirds, and hundreds of House Finches (this time in their native range).
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| The missing link between crocodiles and (ahem) mammals? |
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| presented without comment |
Our revamped, much chiller Oaxaca itinerary had us starting with a few days of exploring sites around the city, and then finishing up with some proper birding expeditions (mostly because those were the days when the guide was free to take us around at short notice). Our first full day we mostly spent in the city center. I got up at sunrise and walked a few blocks to a little park called El Llano, one of the few green spaces I could see on Google Maps. It was a lovely little spot: a plaza with fountains, statues, playgrounds, and common areas full of aunties doing their early morning Zumba and locals walking their dogs. There were a number of big trees around the park that were home to some common birds I hadn't seen in a while. Lots were migrants that would be making their way to the US and Canada within a few weeks: Orchard Orioles, Summer Tanagers, Cassin's Kingbirds, an American Grey Flycatcher, Nashville Warblers, Wilson's Warblers, and about a million Yellow-rumped Warblers. There were also some nice Neotropical residents like a Social Flycatcher, a Northern Beardless Tyrannulet, Tropical Kingbirds, a Dusky Hummingbird, and a little flock of sleek Grey Silky Flycatchers.
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| Nashville Warbler |
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| Wilson's Warbler |
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| Audubon's (Yellow-rumped) Warbler |
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| The roseipectus subspecies of House Finch is endemic to the Oaxaca Valley and is exponentially better looking than the (introduced) birds in the eastern US |
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| Tropical Kingbird |
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| Grey Silky Flycatcher |
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| Dusky Hummingbird, the first Mexican endemic bird of the trip though not exactly the most spectacular one |
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| Adolescent male Summer Tanager in a truly hideous stage of molt |
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| Inca Dove |
We ate at a nice brunch spot not too far from our hotel, then walked back toward the city center to do some more exploring. Right before the trip Nikki had ordered a fancy new Ricoh camera, and she took the opportunity to practice her street photography; most of the good scenery and people pictures in the rest of this blog are by her, since I've sadly drifted away from non-wildlife photography since getting into birding. One of the many, many reasons it's nice to have Nikki along with me on a trip is that it greatly improves the quality of non-bird photos I can put on my blog.
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| Some street scenes by Nikki |
As we wandered through the city center we came upon the Jardín Etnobotánico de Oaxaca, a little museum and garden that featured some of the typical local plants and information about how they were used by Oaxaca's indigenous peoples. I had seen this on eBird as one of the most reliable spots for Grey-breasted Woodpecker, a local specialty bird found only in dry valleys in the interior of southwestern Mexico. Unfortunately it seems that the museum had recently undergone staffing cuts, which meant that visitors were only allowed to go in on guided tours that lasted no more than 15 minutes. It wasn't ideal for birding, but we still decided to check it out. While the garden itself was cool the tour left quite a bit to be desired–the guides gave us very little information about the actual ethnobotany part, and it seemed like it was mostly about hurrying us through to various spots where we could take selfies. I nonetheless spotted a single Grey-breasted Woodpecker perched on top of a cactus, and saw a few new birds for my Oaxaca list like Baltimore Orioles, Great Kiskadees, and Berylline Hummingbirds.
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| Another Dusky Hummingbird |
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| Grey-breasted Woodpecker |
After a somewhat underwhelming visit to the Jardín Etnobotánico we checked out the Museo de las Culturas de Oaxaca next door, which had some much more interesting exhibits on Oaxaca's precolonial and colonial history. It also had a second-floor balcony with a view over the garden, where I got much better looks at the Grey-breasted Woodpeckers, but annoyingly enough I'd left my camera at the entrance since I didn't think I was going to need to take any bird pictures inside the museum.
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| The Jardín Etnobotánico from above |
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| Views from the museum balcony (all pics by Nikki) |
We spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon walking around Oaxaca City, enjoying the cool architecture and buying a tapestry for our apartment. I can't overstate how beautiful the city center is–historical in a way that feels authentic rather than an open-air museum, and so far not nearly as gentrified as Mexico City seems to be getting. Obviously there are a lot of policy choices that going into maintaining that; everything from good waste management and trash pick-up to strict regulations on buying, selling, and (especially) building or renovating housing. There are lots of other fast-growing neighborhoods of the city with more modern amenities and likely much cheaper housing, but there's something to be said for maintaining a nice aesthetic rather than just unleashing the power of the market everywhere.
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| Also, it turns out Nikki is really good at street photography |
I wanted to try and squeeze in a little more birding that day, so after taking a siesta I took a motorcycle to Bosque El Tequío, a spot the guide had recommended. It was a park on the edge of the city next to the airport with some fields, picnic areas, and open woodlands. The main area was pretty quiet but I eventually found a scrubby area in the back that had a number of small birds foraging on the ground and in the low trees. It was once again mostly migrants getting ready to head north, including the usual Nashville Warblers and Yellow-rumped Warblers plus some more interesting ones like Black-and-white Warblers, Virginia's Warblers, and a smart-looking Black-throated Grey Warbler. Great Kiskadees were common and abundant as they are throughout South and Central America, and I found both of the resident thrushes of the Oaxaca Valley: Rufous-backed Robin and Clay-colored Thrush. I also had my first lifer of the trip: White-throated Towhee, a highly localized endemic found only in Oaxaca and surrounding areas. I was happy to see them, but as I soon found out they're unescapable trash birds everywhere in the Oaxaca Valley with a bit of underbrush, despite their limited range.
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| Nashville Warbler |
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| Great Kiskadee |
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| Black-and-white Warbler |
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| White-throated Towhee |
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| Black-throated Grey Warbler |
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| Rufous-backed Robin |
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| Clay-colored Thrush |
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| Bosque El Tequío scenery |
Out in the open areas I had a few nice raptor finds: a Crested Caracara scratching around in the dirt like a chicken, a surprise flyover from a Zone-tailed Hawk, and an even more surprising White-tailed Kite that hovered over a field just before sunset. In the brush by the edge of the park were a few Blue-grey Gnatcatchers, some Baltimore Orioles, and a beautiful Black-vented Oriole. Another surprise was a flock of Monk Parakeets that flew screeching into a tree right above my head–an introduced species native to southern South America, but any parrot is a good parrot.
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| Crested Caracara |
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| Monk Parakeet |
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| Blue-grey Gnatcatcher |
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| Black-vented Oriole |
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| White-tailed Kite |
The next morning it was time for a highly-anticipated outing: a visit to
Monte Albán, a set of ruins on a hill above Oaxaca City. There were two reasons to visit Monte Albán. First, it's one of the most impressive pre-colonial architectural sites anywhere in Central America. Second, the way up to the ruins goes through a nice bit of dry forest that's some of the most accessible intact habitat in the Oaxaca Valley, meaning that it's home to many of Oaxaca's specialty birds.
On recommendations from my friend Josh, who has guided many a tour in Oaxaca, we took a taxi from our hotel to the Monte Albán access road and walked the rest of the way up a little side trail through the scrub. We started walking just after sunrise so it was nice and cool (Oaxaca City is over 1,500 meters above sea level), and the trail was nice and quiet with just a few hikers, dog walkers, and mountain bikers. White-throated Towhees were everywhere, and there were a number of other lifers there for Nikki like Black-vented Orioles, Rufous-capped Warblers, and Boucard's Wrens. A little group of sparrows got me excited but they turned out to be Rufous-crowned Sparrows rather than the much less common endemic Oaxaca Sparrow. The best bird of our hike was a very cooperative Pileated Flycatcher, an uncommon southwest Mexico endemic that's one of the main target birds for the Oaxaca Valley. Monte Albán is also a well-known spot for some other tough endemics like Slaty Vireo, Dwarf Vireo, and Ocellated Flycatcher, but those were nowhere to be seen along the trail.
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| Black-vented Oriole |
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| Rufous-capped Warbler |
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| Pileated Flycatcher |
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| Rufous-crowned Sparrow |
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| Boucard's Wren |
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| Long-tailed Spiny Lizard |
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| Western Mexico Whiptail |
After about an hour of walking we arrived at the entrance to the Monte Albán archaeological site itself. Monte Albán isn't associated with the Aztecs or Maya; it was instead founded by the
Zapotec civilization around 500BC. For context, elsewhere in the world Rome was also just being founded, London wouldn't exist for another 5 centuries, and Japan was mostly populated by hunter-gatherers–just a reminder that pre-colonial American history is way longer and more complex than we usually give it credit for. Monte Albán was the capital of a major Zapotec state for over a millennium until being abandoned around the 10th century AD, maybe because they finally realized that the top of a hill in the middle of a desert isn't the most practical place to have an enormous city. Zapotec civilization persisted another 500 years before being conquered by the Aztecs in the 15th century, not long before the Spanish arrived and started their own conquering. The Zapotecs figured that given a choice between two different conquering empires it was prudent to go with the guys who had guns, and Oaxaca as a whole was spared the most genocide-y parts of Spanish colonization, meaning that many of the indigenous cultures and languages still remain vibrant.
One advantage to building a city in the desert is that most of the original pyramids and other monumental buildings from Monte Albán remain to this day, preserved by the dry climate. The archaeological site is well-maintained and easily accessible, with lots of informational plaques written in Spanish, English, and Zapotec. We spent a couple hours walking around the site, appreciating the fact that we were walking on stairways and paths that were probably built over 2,000 years ago. There were a number of birds around the site itself, including Western Kingbirds, Vermilion Flycatchers, MacGillivray's Warblers, a brief flyby from a Golden Vireo, and a Greenish Elaenia which was a new Mexico bird for me (and a lifer for Nikki).
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| Some of Nikki's pics from Monte Albán |
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| Vermilion Flycatchers are trash birds in the Neotropics, not that I'm complaining |
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| MacGillivray's Warblers are famous for being impossible to see in their breeding grounds in the western US, but seem to be much less shy in their wintering grounds. |
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| Eastern Spiny Lizard |
That afternoon was when we would have been returning to Oaxaca City after visiting the coast, which meant we had to move out of our hotel in the city center to the one we had originally booked for the last part of the trip. Our new hotel was a former mansion in the hilly suburbs outside of the city that was probably fancy 20 years ago but was now a little bit dark and dingy; we had really only booked it because it had easy parking, and we thought we'd be driving around a rental car. We'd have preferred to stay in the original hotel, but, well, the new one was non-refundable and we'd already lost enough money. After we schlepped all our stuff over, I spent a bit walking around the new neighborhood in search of interesting birds. I didn't see much, just the usual Cassin's, Tropical, and Western Kingbirds, and a big flock of Violet-green Swallows. Just before the sun set I happened upon a Hepatic Tanager, another new Mexico bird for me.
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| Cassin's Kingbird |
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| Hepatic Tanager |
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| The hills near our new hotel |
The next day was one of two days that I'd managed to book with Edgar Del Valle, a local bird guide who several people had recommended. Two days isn't much time, but my main priority was getting to the mountains north of the city where there were a number of good birds to be found including the rare and highly localized Dwarf Jay, possibly the most sought-after Oaxaca bird. Edgar proved to be a great guide- knowledgeable, easygoing, and fun to talk to with lots of knowledge about the local history, culture, and geography. I only wish we could have spent more time with him.
Edgar picked us up at our hotel before sunrise, and we started the long drive from the city up into the Sierra Madre de Oaxaca, the mountain range that forms the northern rim of the Oaxaca Valley. After 45 minutes or so of driving we pulled over in the foothills at an access point to the Benito Juárez Trail. Benito Juárez was president of Mexico from 1858 to 1872, and is famous for (among other things) presiding over vast liberal reforms, defending against one of Napoleon's nephews who led a French invasion of Mexico and established a short-lived empire, and being the first democratically elected indigenous president in all of Latin America. Juárez grew up in a tiny Zapotec village in the mountains of Oaxaca, and the trail has been built on the route that he apparently walked when he was 12 years old and had to move to Oaxaca City after his parents and grandparents passed away. It also happens to go through the habitat of the Oaxaca Sparrow, which is found only in the pine-oak scrub of these foothills.
The valley was still in shadows by the time we got out of the car, and the birds were just starting to wake up. Edgar spotted a couple of beautiful Elegant Euphonias feeding next to the road, and there were Black-vented Orioles and Brown-backed Solitaires feeding in the trees next to a little mountain stream. We walked along the trail for a while looking for Oaxaca Sparrow but came up empty, so we instead checked an open field on the other side of the road where finally we spotted a single distant Oaxaca Sparrow, as well as lots of American Dusky Flycatchers, Black-headed Grosbeaks, and a Ladder-backed Woodpecker.
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| Elegant Euphonia |
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| Black-vented Oriole |
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| Brown-backed Solitaire |
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| Oaxaca Sparrow! |
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| Ladder-backed Woodpecker |
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| The Benito Juárez Trail |
We kept driving uphill, and as we got higher the landscape shifted from desert scrub to oak-filled chaparral and finally to the montane pine forest that covers the spine of the Sierra Madre de Oaxaca. Our destination was La Cumbre Ixtepeji, an ecotourism site that's part of Benito Juárez National Park. As the name suggests La Cumbre is at the highest point in the park, and is the main spot for finding Dwarf Jay and other high mountain birds. We drove up the dirt road leading to the summit, pulling over whenever we heard birds. At the first stop I got my lifers Chestnut-capped Brushfinch and Spot-crowned Woodcreeper, plus some other nice birds like Orange-billed Nightingale-Thrush, Russet Nightingale-Thrush, Crescent-chested Warbler, and Hermit Warbler. We heard a Mountain Trogon calling from the car and got out to look for it, but Nikki and Edgar got only brief looks and I never saw it. The forest itself was beautiful; western North America is covered in montane pine forests from Alaska down to Nicaragua, but here in the tropics the pines are draped in epiphytes like ferns, bromeliads, and orchids. A lot of Oaxaca feels pretty similar to southeast Arizona, but there's nothing like this particular habitat anywhere in the US.
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| Chestnut-capped Brushfinch |
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| Spot-crowned Woodcreeper |
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| Russet Nightingale-Thrush |
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| Tillandsia calothyrsus, a spectacular bromeliad |
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Rhynchostele cervantesii membranacea, a gorgeous endemic orchid
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Birding the pine forests of La Cumbre
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| Looking back down into the Oaxaca Valley |
The forest got wetter and leafier as we drove up along a little gully. Edgar pulled over again for a passing flock of warblers, including Hermit Warblers, Townsend's Warblers, Crescent-chested Warblers, Orange-crowned Warblers, Olive Warblers (not actually warblers), a Northern Parula west of its usual migratory range, and some nice tropical residents: a Slate-throated Whitestart, a cute Northern Tufted Flycatcher, and the much-sought-after Red Warbler. Further up we arrived at a parking area at the top of a ridge, where we got out to look for Dwarf Jays as Edgar told us this was the main spot for them. The only jays around were a little flock of Steller's Jays, but we did manage to lay eyes on a group of Mountain Trogons. They stayed very high up in the canopy but it was still nice to finally see it as a proper lifer.
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| Townsend's Warbler |
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| Northern Tufted Flycatcher |
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| Olive Warbler |
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| Hermit Warbler |
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| Red Warbler |
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| Female Mountain Trogon |
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| The Central American subspecies of Steller's Jay look wildly different from the birds in most of the US and Canada |
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| Paramacera rubrosuffusa, a beautiful satyr butterfly |
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| Central American Lobelia (Lobelia laxiflora) |
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| Tillandsia violacea |
I walked back to the car to exchange my camera battery and rejoined Edgar and Nikki just as we heard the rasping call of Grey-barred Wrens in the forest canopy. I'd seen the wrens already in Mexico City, but hearing the wrens at La Cumbre is exciting because of the birds that usually travel with them in mixed flocks. Right on cue, Edgar shouted "Dwarf Jay!", and sure enough a family group of Dwarf Jays began to move through. As the name suggests, they are one of the smallest corvids in the world, and are endemic to a tiny strip of pine-oak forest in the mountains of Southeastern Mexico. There are precious few decent pictures of the species online and they have a reputation for being shy and uncommon. These ones were anything but: we spent a solid half hour watching them clamber around the pines right in front of our faces, probing the moss-covered branches with their beaks and prying out insects to eat. I'm not sure if I'll get around to doing a top 10 list for 2026, but this was easily my favorite bird of the trip.
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| Dwarf Jay! |
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| Grey-barred Wren |
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| Rose-throated Becard that decided to join in on the fun |
Once we got our fill of the Dwarf Jays we headed a bit further uphill to see if we could find anything. We got more great looks at Red Warblers and a singing Rufous-capped Brushfinch, but not much else. On the way back downhill Edgar stopped near some cottages where there was a chance of Amethyst-throated Mountaingem, one of my target birds. Barely anything was flowering so we had no hummingbirds besides a wayward White-eared Hummingbird, but we did get a little mixed flock with Golden-crowned Warblers, Hermit Warblers, and (weirdly enough) Brown Creepers, a singing Grey-breasted Wood Wren, and at long last a vocal pair of Collared Towhees, which was a lifer for me.
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| We had Red Warblers at almost every stop, not that I'll ever complain about seeing too many Red Warblers |
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| Rufous-capped Brushfinch |
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| Grey-breasted Wood Wren being as cooperative for photos as they usually are |
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| Collared Towhee |
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| Oaxacan Bumble Bee (Bombus trinominatus) |
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| Cestrum anagyris |
After a very successful morning of birding we headed back down to Oaxaca City, stopping along the way for lunch at a roadside restaurant that served trout (a local specialty despite being high in the mountains). Back in the city Nikki and I took a much-needed nap, then did some more exploring in the city that evening.
The next morning Nikki wanted to do some other things in the city, so I went out with Edgar on my own in the morning. That day our destination was a canyon west of the city called Arroyo Guacamayas. The name had me excited since guacamaya means "macaw" in Mexican Spanish and I'd been hoping for a chance to see Military Macaws, but alas apparently the locals use the term for anything big and brightly colored–in this case it was referring to Mountain Trogons. The mid-elevation scrub at the edge of the Oaxaca Valley holds a number of local specialty birds: Bridled Sparrow (basically a fancy Black-throated Sparrow), Dwarf Vireo (basically a glorified Hutton's Vireo), and Slaty Vireo, which is by far the most unique and distinctive of the three. Higher up I was hoping for another chance at some of the forest birds we'd missed the previous day.
We left before sunrise and got to the bottom of the canyon just as it was getting light. It was a cloudy morning, which made it pleasantly cool but also meant the birds were quiet and skulking. After 30 minutes or so of birding we'd seen almost nothing, aside from a few Rufous-capped Warblers and a Brown-backed Solitaire. Finally there was a faint call deep in the bushes that Edgar recognized, and soon the bird came in briefly: Dwarf Vireo! They aren't exactly the flashiest of Oaxaca endemics but they're one of the most difficult–Josh said about them, and I quote "Dwarf Vireos are bastards and I hate them."
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| The Oaxaca Valley at sunrise |
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| Dwarf Vireo! |
Right after the bastard vireo went back to hiding from birders the sun came out, and as if on cue the desert scrub exploded with birdsong and activity. A Blue Mockingbird came briefly out of the bushes, Grey Silky-Flycatchers began darting around the branches above us, and mixed feeding flocks of migratory birds moved through: Virginia's Warblers, MacGillivray's Warblers, Orange-crowned Warblers, Chipping Sparrows, Lincoln's Sparrows, Vermillion Flycatchers, Thick-billed Kingbirds, Western Tanagers, Black-headed Grosbeaks, and a surprise Rose-breasted Grosbeak. A Slaty Vireo finally called and came in, but stayed resolutely in the deepest, darkest part of the bushes. I heard the cacophonous calls of West Mexican Chachalacas in the distance, but they were too far away to see. Amidst a flock of sparrows a weird one stood out–I realized it was a Bridled Sparrow! It flew off and disappeared before I could get a picture, but it was nice to have one of the last target birds.
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| Grey Silky-Flycatcher |
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| Blue Mockingbird |
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| Slaty Vireo being a jerk |
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| Virginia's Warbler |
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| Thick-billed Kingbird |
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| Tropical Checkered-Skipper (Burnsius oileus) |
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| Dot-lined Angle (Psamatodes abydata) |
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| Rose Evening Primrose (Oenothera rosea) |
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| Dyssodia decipiens, I think |
We walked further up the road to try for a better look at Bridled Sparrow. Sure enough, once we got to a spot Edgar knew about we spotted a pair of very vocal and confiding Bridled Sparrows–actually very good-looking birds with cool songs. I also made friends with a local dog that followed me around demanding belly rubs.
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| Bridled Sparrow |
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| Marine Blue (Leptotes marina) |
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| After 20,000 years of selective breeding we got from the apex predators of the Siberian Taiga to, well, this |
We continued uphill, stopping at a few spots where we thought we saw birds. Even by 9AM the desert scrub was heating up, and the birds were quieting down. At a bend in the road by a little waterfall I spotted a Mountain Trogon hidden deep within the oak scrub, but never got much of a good look. Later on we stopped for a Red-tailed Hawk by the road–one of the few raptors I saw that trip–and for some passing mixed flocks with birds like MacGillivray's Warblers, Painted Whitestarts, and Hepatic Tanagers. Mostly I just got pictures of cool plants and insects.
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| Looking up the Arroyo Guacamayas |
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| Red-tailed Hawk |
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| Spotted Bee Fly (Anthrax irroratus) |
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| Agelaia xanthopus |
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| Tillandsia calothyrsus |
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| Canyon Rubyspot (Hetaerina vulnerata) |
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| Saddleback Scoliid Wasp (Pygodasis ephippium) |
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| White Passionflower (Passiflora subpeltata) |
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| Reakirt's Blue (Echinargus isola) |
The scrub gave way to montane oak forest, once again giving me deja vu of doing similar drives in Southeast Arizona. Edgar turned into the driveway of a little restaurant he had been thinking about for lunch, but we didn't make it 10 feet off the road before we immediately jumped out of the car to take in an absolutely enormous mixed flock feeding in a spreading oak tree. I think we had about 20 species in as many minutes, so many it was hard to keep track of: migratory birds like Black-throated Green Warblers, Townsend's Warblers, Wilson's Warblers, Tennessee Warblers, Myrtle Warblers, Lincoln's Sparrows, and Black-headed Grosbeaks, some resident birds that added to the Arizona vibes like Yellow-eyed Juncos, American Bush-tits, Woodhouse's Scrub Jays, Dusky-capped Flycatchers, Greater Pewees, and a gorgeous Red-faced Warbler, and then some distinctly tropical species: a White-striped Woodcreeper, White-throated Thrushes, Brown-backed Solitaires, a beautiful and cooperative Mountain Trogon, and Chestnut-sided Shrike Vireos, which I'd seen briefly in Mexico City but had been one of my main photo targets for this trip.
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| Black-throated Green Warbler |
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| Mountain Trogon |
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| Red-faced Warbler |
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| Chestnut-sided Shrike Vireo: like a Chestnut-sided Warbler on steroids |
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| Lincoln's Sparrow |
The lunch spot was a restaurant on the side of a little reservoir, where there were a few Least Grebes chasing each other around the reeds. As we walked toward the restaurant there were a couple more surprises: a Swainson's Thrush, flagged as a rarity in Oaxaca, and a few Hammond's Flycatchers, which was a long-overdue lifer for me. We had a sampler of mole and enchiladas at the restaurant, and the waiter struck up a conversation with us as he'd seen our binoculars. He turned out to be very enthusiastic about birds, and he mentioned that he regularly saw Lesser Roadrunners on a trail behind the restaurant. That would be a lifer for me, so we decided to explore that trail for a bit. I headed back to the car to get my camera bag, and the Mountain Trogon was still there, even showier than before. It's pretty bog standard as trogons go, but the bar for trogons is very high indeed.
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| Least Grebe |
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| Wilson's Warbler |
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| Swainson's Thrush |
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Yellow-eyed Junco
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| Myrtle Warbler |
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Hammond's Flycatcher–exciting mostly because it means I can stop caring about North American empids now.
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| Mountain Trogon |
The trail behind the restaurant led through more oak forest, where we had another mixed flock with birds like Greater Pewees, Tennessee Warblers, Black-and-white Warblers, and Tufted Flycatchers. Then it was a steep climb to a ridge with a view over the valley, which had some cool plant life but precious few birds and definitely no roadrunners. On the way down one of the pewees turned out to be a migratory Western Wood Pewee, a new Oaxaca bird for me.
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| Greater Pewee |
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| Northern Tufted Flycatcher |
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| Western Wood Pewee |
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| Pseuderanthemum praecox, I think |
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| Apogonalia krameri, a cool leafhopper I found under a log |
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| Green Lynx Spider (Peucetia viridans) |
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| Wind's Gemmed-Satyr (Cyllopsis windi) |
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| Aztec Spur-throated Grasshopper |
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| Mournful Duskywing (Erynnis tristis) |
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| Mamillaria rekoi, a pincushion cactus endemic to the Oaxaca Valley |
It was mid-afternoon by then, so I had to head back down to the city to hang out with Nikki. We made one final quick stop at the top of the canyon, in the town of Arroyo Guacamaya itself. It was much cooler and greener there, with the oak forest having given way to pines. We heard Grey-barred Wrens calling in the pine trees but it was still too low for Dwarf Jays (which is a shame, since the area is much more accessible than La Cumbre). We walked down a little trail to a waterfall where we came across a gorgeous and cooperative Slate-throated Whitestart, a Brown-backed Solitaire feeding on berries, and a group of very needy dogs.
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| Slate-throated Whitestart–the northern birds have deep red bellies, while the birds further south in Nicaragua and Costa Rica have orange or yellow bellies. Drop-dead gorgeous either way. |
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| Brown-backed Solitaire |
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| The town of Arroyo Guacamaya |
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| The descendants of wolves |
The next day was our last full day in Oaxaca before we had to head back to the US. There were a number of things we wanted to do in the city, but I also wanted one more proper birding outing. I decided to return to Monte Albán, as I'd enjoyed birding there and I wanted another chance to look for Ocellated Thrasher, one of my main targets for the trip.
I took a motorcycle to the bottom of the access road and started walking up at sunrise, with a couple of hours before it would open to vehicle traffic. The early morning was fairly quiet, mostly the usual White-throated Towhees, Rufous-capped Warblers, American Dusky Flycatchers, and Blue Mockingbirds. I found a Slaty Vireo hopping around silently in the bushes next to the road and got slightly better views than the previous day, but it still refused to come out in the open. I also had a brief look at another Dwarf Vireo. At long last I heard an Ocellated Thrasher singing and eventually spotted it perched on top of a tree all the way on the opposite end of the valley. It wasn't exactly a satisfying view, but still a much-wanted lifer. There was lots of activity at the top of the road near the parking lot, with little groups of Black-vented Orioles and House Finches and the usual dry country tyrannids like Nutting's Flycatcher, Ash-throated Flycatcher, and Western Kingbird.
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It took a few hours for our prints to dry and be ready for pickup so we hung out in Parque El Llano for a bit before sunset. The usual birds were around, and I enjoyed watching the Western Tanagers, Berylline Hummingbirds, and Nashville Warblers feeding in a flowering tree. Before picking up our prints we got dinner at a surprisingly delicious ceviche restaurant, an unconventional but satisfying choice for our last dinner in Oaxaca.
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| Nashville Warbler |
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| Berylline Hummingbirds |
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| Western Tanager |
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| Another cool mural |
We flew out the next day at noon, but I still took an hour or so to walk around our neighborhood for some final birding. I ended up getting some last-minute new Oaxaca birds in the form of a Cinnamon-rumped Seedeater and a Plain-capped Starthroat.
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| Plain-capped Starthroat |
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| The uncommon dark morph of Red-bellied Squirrel |
That was all I had time for, as we needed to take a taxi to the airport and go through immigration where returning home. Despite being a bit nervous about Nikki flying back in to the US (she's a permanent resident with a green card but who knows these days...) we made it in just fine, and were home in DC by the evening to get some sleep before we had to get back to work. The trip to Oaxaca wasn't exactly what I had planned for but it was a great success anyway. We're already looking forward to returning–next time hopefully with a valid driver's license and some more traveling involved.
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Great post! Protecting forests helps preserve countless plant and animal species. Main Bazar Panel Chart
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