It is hot and dry in southern Mexico, and a lovely place to visit if you love tacos, blue skies, and speed bumps, which are found on almost all roads. Every time we accidentally hit a bump at a decent speed because it blended into the road or wasn’t signposted and thus rattled the car, we joked it was a good thing this car was already rented by birders. The entire side, front, and back came pre-scraped. Clearly it was rode hard in a previous life. Or maybe that’s just life in Mexico. Anyway, just the kind of rental we like to receive.
We started our trip to the United Mexican States, the official name of the country in case you were unaware, by spending three nights in the state of Oaxaca (pronounced “wah-hawk-ah” for those unfamiliar with the fact that an “x” makes an “h” sound in Spanish.)
It was at the very moment that I realized I couldn’t bring a bottle of alcohol home with me that I immediately regretted not checking a bag on this trip. Oaxaca is the hub of the Mezcal industry, a labor-intensive type of alcohol produced from agave. Tequila, my favorite spirit, is made exclusively from Blue Agave, and is a type of Mezcal, although it tastes very different than the smoky-flavored Mezcals of Oaxaca. (I guess the saying “all squares are rectangles but not all rectangles are squares” applies here.) That said, tequila is only produced in Western Mexico so I will be sure to check a bag on that future trip.
We had a few local, well-known and frequently birded forest patches to check out in search of our targets. We were basing ourselves out of a hotel in Oaxaca and were planning on staying there for three whole nights! Staying in one location on a birding trip for multiple nights is very rare because it is unusual that many sites are all within a short distance from one location. I certainly wasn’t going to complain about it! I finally had a decent place to do a load of “sink laundry” and let it dry!
On our first morning we opted to start with a dry road outside of town, but after quickly seeing Bridled Sparrow, and nothing else, decided it simply was not birdy enough. We drove down and quickly found a Beautiful Hummingbird at Yagul, a known stakeout, before driving over to a dirt track up to a cell phone tower. We knew about these “known locations” from trip reports and eBird, two tools essential for the modern-era independent birder. Along this road we tracked down an Ocellated Thrasher, and surprisingly had great views of Dwarf Vireo and Slaty Vireo, two of our biggest targets, despite the temperature already being in the 90’s (above 33°C). We had missed them in the morning at the other location so we were super thankful to have seen them here!
Bridled Sparrow
Our next day was spent up in the forest. Ross woke me up extra early (aka 3AM), much to my dismay, to attempt some night birding before the day started. The ecological reserve we hoped to visit was closed so we opted to bird the road across the street. I’m glad I stayed in the car for a few extra ZZZ’s because not a single owl out of the six Ross was playing for ever responded. Thankfully the rest of our day went well after entering Parque Ecoturistico La Cumbre Ixtepeji (La Cumbre for short.) The forest here was dominated by pines; with beautiful, tall pine trees sporting some kind of bromeliad or lichen. (You’ll have to use your imagination to picture it however, as I forgot to take a photo of the habitat!) It was a unique place — quiet in an earthy way, where the noises of chainsaws were drowned out unless you were right next to them, and only birds could be heard singing. (Yes, there were a lot of chainsaws as the forest is actively being chopped down. We saw truckloads of logs being taken out of the forest. But, I looked it up, apparently pine needles can be used for acoustic sound proofing –no wonder it was quiet!) Thankfully being up in elevation meant that even mid day, temperatures were enjoyable.
Golden-browed Warbler 
Dwarf Jay 
Gray-banded Wren 
In a family of birds mostly sporting black, yellow, or white, this Red Warbler sure sticks out!
We initially had great views of Dwarf Jay among a flock of Gray-barred Wrens, but when it came to finding Strong-billed Woodcreeper, all we seemed to find were the much smaller Spot-crowned Woodcreepers, which we had at multiples times of day from multiple locations. We searched high and low (literally, as the road traverses multiple elevations) in search of our target woodcreeper. It was HOURS of searching and birding through the forest. Thankfully Red Warblers were common in the area to keep us occupied when we weren’t seeing much else. Then, just before dark, at the last possible second, we had a very cooperative pair of Strong-billed Woodcreepers land directly in front of us! These birds were so big and so close, and the forest so quiet, that we could literally hear them as they clung to and walked on the sides of the pine trees. Amazing stuff!
We opted to stay after dark to try for owls while inside of the park, although neither of us had eaten anything for lunch and it was only postponing our dinner. I suppose it was worth it because we managed views of a single Flammulated Owl perched in a tree, a bird Ross hadn’t seen since 2002, nearly twenty years ago. Then we raced back to our hotel for a much deserved dinner!
Flammulated Owl 
Finally — Dinner!