Birds and Mayan architecture in the Yucatán
The Yucatán peninsula of Mexico is a well-known location for
tropical birdlife. A geological oddity – almost entirely limestone – and the
tropical climate combine to provide breeding space for a fairly long list of
endemic species. Its status as a resort destination, however, makes it
vulnerable to development. Much of the unique tropical forest remains today,
even if locally in decline, so our group of international travelers decided to
make it our destination for two-week visit. We found it to be alive with color
and bird sounds. The Mayan civilization of past millennia (2000 BCE – 1700 CE)
left their mark in structures scattered throughout the peninsula, making for a
ruins-and-birding experience that has no parallel.
Our trip followed a circular route around the peninsula,
from Yucatán to Campeche to Quintana Roo. Beginning in Mérida, we stayed at the
historic and elegant Hotel del Peregrino. Our capable driver, Omar Orduña,
picked us up and whisked us south to the Mayan ruins. (It's probably more
accurate to call them "Mayan structures," since they persist to this
day.) We visited Xlapak (pronounced shla-pock) and Labná in the afternoon,
finding our first antswarm out in front of the Labná gate. It didn't take long
to rack up some of the incredible winged colors, with good looks at Lesson's
Motmot, Turquoise-browed Motmot, Tawny-winged Woodcreeper, Ivory-billed
Woodcreeper, Rose-throated Becard, Spot-breasted Wren, Altamira Oriole, and a
handful of neotropical migrants. We were excited to find our first endemics of
the trip, Yucatán Flycatcher and Yucatán Jay. Dinner was tasty Mexican-Mayan tacos
and poc chuc at a small restaurant on the Ticul plaza.
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Orange Oriole |
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Blue Bunting |
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We returned to the Labná site,
where this time we really did have the place entirely to ourselves. There are
thousands of Mayan archeological sites, most being painstakingly restored and
researched at great cost to the Mexican government. More are being uncovered
each year. Mayan artists and engineers developed arches, temples, intricate
stone carvings, and pyramidal ceremonial structures independently of the
Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans. The power and reach of the Mayan civilization
was almost incomprehensible. Omar explained that they would have deforested the
land to supply fuel to prepare building materials like mortar and fired
limestone blocks. Today, the forest has reclaimed the sites. As we walked
slowly through the grand architecture at Labná, we got point-blank looks at
motmots, an endemic Yucatán Woodpecker, and more flycatchers and warblers. We had a happy and peaceful night at Quinta
Rosita in Ticul. ("Peaceful" in Mexico means roosters, some calling
at 2 am.)
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The quadrangle at the Uxmal site |
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Turquoise-browed Motmot |
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The “gateway arch” at Labná |
The next morning we were still not done with the Mayans, so
we drove back down to the Kabáh and Sayil sites. There were impressive
structures built from a gazillion limestone blocks, and more birdlife.
Canivet’s Emerald, Masked Tityra, Green-backed Sparrow, and another Orange
Oriole were added to the list. A dark avian creature in dried branches proved
to be an endemic Blue Bunting, with plumage glistening with velvet even in the
shadows. We motored back to Mérida.
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“Grand Palace” at Sayil |
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The massive Uxmal pyramid |
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Sculptured wall at Xlapak |
Early the next morning, we loaded the luggage into the van
with one seat left empty. One participant was stricken by a nasty flu virus and
would be staying home, a severe disappointment for him and all of us. Driving
north from Mérida we spent the early morning on Camino a Misnébalam, a simple
country road with lots of birdlife. A Gray-crowned Yellowthroat perched for
nice views while a Mangrove Vireo darted between branches overhead, but
possibly the best of the day was a Lesser Roadrunner weaving between cows in a pasture.
A Ferruginous Pygmy Owl perched right overhead and tooted loudly. We would have
this species every day of our trip – they are astoundingly common on the
Yucatán. We drove on to Chuburná and
headed toward the beach. I noticed that Omar missed a left turn and we ended up
in a scrubby patch of undisturbed vegetation, uncommon in this resort area. I
was about to say something when Jim yelled “Stop – get out of the van.
Sheartails!” We spent the next 15 minutes admiring a group of 3 or 4 endemic
Mexican Sheartails battling for perch sites. This is a truly impressive
hummingbird with long tail feathers shaped like the name, and we got brief
looks at sunlit gorgets and a curved bill like Lucifer. We heard gnatcatcher
noises, and a few minutes of searching turned up a pair of endemic Yucatán
Gnatcatchers. What a fortunate missed turn!
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Mexican Sheartail |
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Ferruginous Pygmy Owl |
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Mangrove Vireo |
We made a quick stop at the beach and added gulls, terns,
and shorebirds to the list, but those were not target birds. Jim followed his
instincts into the coastal scrub, and within a few minutes we were staring at a
pair of endemic Yucatán Wrens, together with a chocolate-headed male Mangrove
Yellow Warbler, recently split.
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Yucatán Wren |
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Bird guide in Celestún. Surname Ching? |
By late afternoon the van had made it to the coastal city of
Celestún. At a stop at “El Mirador,” right beside the highway and at the edge
of town, the Ría was properly filled up with herons, pelicans and egrets, one
of them (Reddish) within spitting distance. We gazed at our first group of American
Flamingos in the scope. A pair of stunning Common Black Hawks soared overhead
in the warm afternoon air. Jim kept his eye on the vultures, and quickly found
a Lesser Yellow-headed circling right overhead, alongside the Turkey Vultures.
Our spartan hotel was beside the beach, populated by Sandwich and Royal Terns.
Dinner next door was splendid, but the ceaseless motorcycle traffic next to the
hotel was not.
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Common Black Hawk |
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Celestún tourist center |
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| Lesson's Motmot, Celestún |
In the morning we searched the roadside mangroves of Celestún and found Bare-throated Tiger-heron and a perched black hawk, but by 9:00 were aboard a boat cruising into the mangroves. Our driver Mario made quick stops to show us Wood Storks and a Lesser Black-backed Gull in the flock of Laughing Gulls, but the prime objective was a large group of American Flamingos in a quiet inlet of the Ría Celestún. The color of the flamingo plumage is beyond belief, and we were not sad to get beached on the sandy bottom so we could admire and photograph at will. Mario negotiated a narrow stream to show us a dazzling American Pygmy Kingfisher, and a nearby resting American Crocodile. After a delicious meal at a tiny restaurant on the town plaza, we buckled up for the longest drive of the trip, five and a half hours south. Omar made the miles go by with a playlist of salsa music, some of which featured his percussion.
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American Flamingo |
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American Pygmy Kingfisher |
In Xpujil (shpoo-heel), we had the worst logistical failure
of the trip when our appointed hotel, reserved seven months prior, seemed to
have lost our paperwork and sent the employees home for the night. Omar saved
the day by setting us up at a simpler place a half mile away, Otoch Béek, run
by a Mayan family that made delicious Yucatecan food. So we departed at six the
next morning into the Reserva de la Biósfera de Calakmul. This is a long
morning drive but worth it, since we found our first pair of endemic Ocellated
Turkeys, which have an array of colorful spots in their plumage that makes them
look to have been victims of a color-blind abstract artist with too many
paintbrushes. A Keel-billed Toucan sat placidly in the open at the top of the
tallest tree, gleaming in the rising sun. Lesser Greenlets and Stub-tailed
Spadebill called, and our park guide motioned us up to a view through branches
of an Ornate Hawk-Eagle perched in the high canopy, apparently near a nest
site. The birding on the road at Calakmul seemed a bit slow, but when we got to
the stone pyramids there was an eruption of birdlife: sabrewings zipped around,
Black-headed Trogon, Buff-bellied Hummingbird, Pale-billed Woodpecker, N. Plain
Xenops, and a Tropical Royal Flycatcher, perching long enough for photos. A
Bright-rumped Attila staring at us from a branch at eye level made it hard to
keep up with the list. Then a small, large-billed bird zipped onto a branch and
Jim called out “Tody Motmot!” I gulped. I knew this species was on our checklist,
but I never expected it to be a few feet in front of us, perching for a half
minute at a time, daring me to photograph it.
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| Keel-billed Toucan in the Calakmul reserve |
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| Structure at Calakmul |
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| Tody Motmot in the Calakmul reserve |
We climbed to the top of the largest structure at Calakmul. Seeing
the continuous forest cover stretching out to the horizon, with the occasional Mayan
structure poking through, makes it seem like you’ve been transported to a
different millennium, as many tourists have commented before. But even here,
the birding did not stop, because the archeologists have left a few trees on
the structures at highest levels. A small bird darting around the branches at
the top proved to be a Mangrove Vireo – really, way up there! A few Central
American Spider Monkeys gazed down curiously at us from branches above as we
made our way back along the trail to the van. The day was getting late, but we
got stuck at an antswarm beside the trail. A Yellow-olive Flatbill, N.
Beardless-tyrannulet, Greenish Elaenia, and endemic White-bellied Wren slowed
our progress. A Ruddy Quail-dove took cover next to a marsh, and then after
another five minutes’ walk … another antswarm. This time, our first Ruddy
Woodcreeper perched in view, and a Gray-throated Chat seemed transfixed by the
stream of Ecitons going past. It was the end of a great day, and our
park guide made speed records to get us back to Omar’s van at the highway as
darkness fell. Back at Otoch Béek for dinner, we celebrated with Mexican tequila.
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| Ruddy Woodcreeper, Calakmul |
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| The forest at Calakmul, stretching to the horizon |
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| Gray-throated Chat, Calakmul |
The next morning, our fascination with Mayan sites pushed us
into Chicanná and Becán, both near Xpujil. Orioles, warblers, flycatchers,
trogons, and a coati decorated the place. A pair of Bat Falcons held the throne
on a tree branch and fed each other while we watched. A Gartered Violaceous
Trogon was on the ground processing a large katydid, which was gradually worked
into its mouth and swallowed whole.
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Ivory-billed Woodcreeper |
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Gartered Violaceous Trogon |
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Bat Falcon |
Another round of Omar’s salsa music propelled the van to Hotel
Turquesa Maya in Felipe Carrillo Puerto. The town is named for a Mexican
revolutionary hero who aided the Mayans, per Omar. The great restaurant across
the street served up tasty alambres. Early in the morning, we made our way out
to the well-known birding site, Camino Vigia Chico. We called up a Mottled Owl
at 6:30, making their amusing and unique series of hoots. Then we walked along
the road and picked up many birds of the coastal lowlands, including Red-billed
Pigeon, Yellow-lored Amazon, and Spot-breasted Wren (again). We had another
Ocellated Turkey, Roadside Hawks, Lineated Woodpecker, Rufous-browed
Peppershrike, a Long-billed Gnatwren pair, and Red-crowned Ant-tanager. An
antswarm was being officiated by woodcreepers (Barred, Ruddy, and
Tawny-winged). We admired the swarm as it surged onto the roadside before
retreating to the forest, leaving all the birders without bites. We returned
again after lunch to hear the metallic chur of a Northern Bentbill and
photographed a roadside Black-headed Trogon. We stayed until dark, hoping for
nightjars but heard none. Overall, this area was not as birdy as previous
birders had found, so we tried again early the next morning. We managed to get the
soft trill of a Middle-American Screech Owl, followed by the haunting call of an
unseen Collared Forest-Falcon. We took a side road that cuts (sadly) into a
future residential development, and the forest edge habitat gave rise to a
stunning Red-capped Manakin and a Rose-throated Tanager. Jim thought it looked
good for antbirds, so we played a few calls and got a response from a Mayan
Antthrush. We stepped into the woods and stood quietly, and eventually found
the antthrush patrolling the leaf litter.
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Mottled Owl |
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Lineated Woodpecker |
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Black-headed Trogon |
We were off in the van again, and reached our next hotel in
Cobá. The laguna there is one of Yucatán’s well-known birding spots, and we
found a Snail Kite, Limpkin, and herons. An alarmed British tourist scolded us
for daring to tread on the hotel’s boardwalk amid the hypothetical threat of a
crocodile. From another boardwalk on the
southeast corner, we could see endemic Ruddy Crakes running around in the marsh.
We heard Russet-naped Wood-rails call, but would not see them until the next
day. One of the locals saw us heading into the forest beside the lake and said,
“I wouldn’t recommend that trail. There are venomous snakes in there.” Not an effective
deterrent for our herp-crazed guide, but we took his cue to head for dinner
anyway. Pauraques rang in the night beside the comfortable Ka’ab Cobá hotel. We
tried for night birds before sunrise the next morning, and got a single endemic
Yucatán Poorwill circling over one of the Mayan sacbe (roads) at the
edge of town. Later that day we spent a few hours at Zona Arqueológica Cobá,
another amazing display of the Mayans’ construction prowess. We found Ocellated
Turkeys in the parking lot as previous birders reported, but they looked tame
to me. A family of White-nosed Coatis quietly dug into the soil as we walked
past on the trail. We completed our experience of Cobá by going to a Mayan
restaurant for lunch, where the chef (who doubles as a masseuse) prepared pibil,
chicken heated by hot coals under the dirt – delicious.
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Russet-naped Wood-rail |
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White-nosed Coati |
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Mayan pibil - chicken for lunch |
We bid farewell to Omar at the ferry terminal in Playa del
Carmen. We walked our bags toward the dock, and purchased tickets from a loud
and insistent guy in uniform. He then rushed us right up to the ferry security
gate, going past … the official ticket window! I realized we’d been taken in by
a re-seller, who padded the purchase to the tune of 90 pesos per ticket! Alas,
the hazards of first-time tourism. Nonetheless, an hour later we were lounging
by the pool at luxurious Tamarindo Bed and Breakfast on Cozumel. We were
startled to find a White-crowned Pigeon in the courtyard of the B&B! I
guess they are fairly well adapted to urban life.
Luis, our taxi driver for Cozumel, picked up the group at 6:45
am and was a little perplexed to hear that this loud group of Americans with
expensive optics wanted to head for the tropical island’s picturesque sewage
treatment plant. (Birders have no shame.) Under a gorgeous tropical sunrise, we
were rewarded with Ruddy Crakes running around in full view, and jaçanas,
stilts, ibis, Sora, Green-breasted Mango, and endemic Cozumel Emeralds amply
demonstrating the value of the redolent location. A gorgeous Blue-winged
Warbler illuminated the forest edge. A mile down the road, we pulled off into
an abandoned subdivision, which seems to be a cottage industry on Cozumel. It
was happily inhabited by a Caribbean Dove, a Caribbean Elaenia, and more
endemics: a pair of Cozumel Wrens, Cozumel Vireo, Black Catbirds, Yucatán
Woodpecker, and the Cozumel versions of Rufous-browed Peppershrike and
Bananaquit. We had celebratory toasts at a brewpub that night. Wait, a brewpub
in the Yucatán? It’s a bit of a luxury enabled by the hordes of beach-seeking American
tourists.
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| White-crowned Pigeon on Cozumel |
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| Tequila sunrise on Cozumel (with apologies to Glenn Frey) |
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| Black Catbird on Cozumel |
Luis returned again the next day to take us to a dirt road
just east of town, which produced repeat looks at the Yucatán specialties, and
Cape May and Worm-eating Warblers pushed the warbler trip list to 21 species. At
the shuttered Planetario on the south end of town, the surrounding woods were
fairly quiet in late morning, but we enjoyed a few more glimpses of a Cozumel
Vireo. A fitting end to two fabulous weeks in Mexico.
In the last several years, Mexico has become the target of
ugly and uninformed invective by American politicians looking to create
headline shock (even as they descend on the country at spring break to go
golfing and water skiing). Our two weeks there revealed a different kind of
country. The Mexican people deserve praise for protecting their forests and
their Mayan heritage. The trogons, motmots, parrots, woodcreepers, flamingo, and
toucan serve as proper symbols of a precious and magical landscape that can and
hopefully will survive the centuries to come, as Mexico proudly maintains its
place in the global biodiversity order.
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| The wondrous Ocellated Turkey, Calakmul |