The Sierra Madre Jan 16—19, 2009
Posted by Brian Gibbons
Brian Gibbons
Brian Gibbons grew up in suburban Dallas where he began exploring the wild world in local creeks and parks. Chasing butterflies and any animal that was unfortunate eno...Related Trips
Heading up into the mountains and the charming colonial town of San Sebastian del Oeste is like going back in time. If it weren't for the pickups and power lines, you could easily think you had stepped back in time more than 200 years. The narrow, cobbled streets with chickens and donkeys are not your typical twenty-first century scene. And yet another festival greeted us with firecrackers and crowded streets. Before arriving in town, we had enjoyed excellent looks at an immature Zone-tailed Hawk.
After checking into our hotel we had a couple of hours to explore the road out of town. We quickly found a nice little flock of birds in a small fruiting tree. In the frenzy of sightings, not everyone saw everything, but we got a nice taste of the montane avifauna. White-striped Woodcreeper, Red-headed Tanagers, and Red-faced and Crescent-chested warblers roamed through with Slate-throated Redstarts. In the evening, Brown-backed Solitaires serenaded us from the open-air lobby of the hotel.
On our first morning we made an all-day transit of the mountains looming just to the east of San Sebastian. Our first great sighting was a very cooperative male Bumblebee Hummingbird that was displaying for hidden females. We heard an Eared Quetzal deep in the canyon below, but we couldn't will it out of the woods. The flower banks on the roadsides hosted a variety of hummers; Amethyst-throated, Blue-throated, Magnificent, and the common White-eared were all tallied. Also visiting the flowers was a thief. The Cinnamon-bellied Flower-Piercer steals nectar by nipping a little hole at the base of a flower. This gives the bird access to the nectar that the short-billed bird couldn't reach. Mexican Jays and Gray Silky-flycatchers patrolled these canyons as well.
The next day we reversed our route with great success. After having several Chestnut-sided Shrike-Vireos respond, a bird finally came in. Mick spotted it in a shrub on the roadside. The bird then popped into a bare tree to allow us to ogle the amazing color and pattern of this striking bird.
We encountered several large flocks on our second day. The main constituents were often orioles and Hepatic Tanagers, with a liberal sprinkling of warblers. At nearly 8,000 feet we took our lunch break at the Microondas La Bufa overlook. Before we got there, a flock of American Robins and Aztec Thrushes delayed us a bit! We had amazing views of a perched Aztec Thrush in the scope! During lunch we enjoyed the view, as the mountains fall away thousands of feet below. Mountain Trogons were seen several times, including great scope views. After two full days of birding the mountains, we had to head back to Puerto Vallarta, just two hours but centuries apart from San Sebastian del Oeste.