Veracruz 2010: Los Tuxtlas Mountains: Rainforest to Mangroves

Today, October 6, we were joined by Braulio Malega, our local guide from Ruiz Cortines. We started our day with a lovely breakfast at our lakeside hotel, with grand views of Lake Catemaco, the surrounding hills, and great shows of Merlin and Bat Falcon hunting over the water!

We started our morning drive amid intense rain, worried that this may dampen the birding. Fortunately, when we arrived at our first site, the UNAM Biological Station, the skies cleared and we did not have any rain for the rest of the day! We started birding just above the reserve where we had a good view of the area and a great place from which to watch the many pairs of Red-lored Parrots flying from their night-time roosts to their daytime feeding sites. As we looked up at the parrots, we also looked in the forest where we had trees full of Red-legged Honeycreepers (I had never seen so many together). An amazing group of birds were sunning on one of the tallest of the surrounding trees: Keel-billed Toucan (above), Montezuma Oropendola, Masked Tityra, and even Collared Aracari.

Continuing on the main road through the reserve we added several new species for the trip, including the Mexican endemic Long-tailed Sabrewing, as well as White-bellied Emerald, Black-headed Trogon, Gartered (formerly Violaceous) Trogon, and Golden-olive Woodpecker. We had nice looks at Black-crowned Tityra to match the Masked Tityra seen earlier, then Ochre-bellied Flycatcher, Bright-rumped Attila, Rose-throated Becard, Red-crowned and Red-throated Ant-Tanagers, and the “Los Tuxtlas” variety of Black-headed Saltator.

A little after noon we moved back down the hill to the small town of Sontecomapan for lunch, We made a quick stop close to town to see the local pair of Barn Owls (above), who regularly perch in a palm tree. We named them “Tito” and “Alba”!

After lunch, we enjoyed an afternoon boat trip on the Sontecomapan Lagoon, led by our boatman Ismael, who pointed out a massive adult male Green Iguana (above) on nearby vines. Ismael guided us out to the lagoon on the clear waters of a spring-fed creek leading from the docks. We headed straight for one of the distant mangrove-lined rivers, where we cruised slowly to search for local birds and look for Sungrebe in the shadiest spots. We got nice looks at a pair of singing Yellow-tailed Orioles, and then an Amazon Kingfisher.

We crossed the lagoon to reach another shady, mangrove-lined river, where a striking Common Black Hawk (above) seemed to be guarding the river entrance to the river. Once inside the mangroves we quickly spotted a stunning adult Bare-throated Tiger-Heron (below). Further on we had Ringed and Green Kingfisher, and another Common Black Hawk, this time on the roots of the mangroves hunting crabs.

Out on the open water we saw Laughing Gulls, Neotropic Cormorant, and the occasional Osprey. We entered another small river and cruised along, hoping for Sungrebe, which we had not seen yet. Several migrant warblers were common along these rivers, including Hooded, Magnolia, and abundant Northern Waterthrush. At one particularly shady spot Peter excitedly motioned to the river’s edge and said “Sungrebe!” Ismael skillfully maneuvered the boat for us to get a look. The Sungrebe, also skillful in the water, retreated to the farthest reaches of the water’s edge, among the mangrove roots and branches, and was very difficult to spot. We eventually got nice looks at one of our favorite birds of the trip.