VERACRUZ 2010: Cloud forest mega-endemics and the road home

We awoke to the last full day of the trip, October 7. After another lovely, lakeside breakfast, we visited one of our favorite sites, Ruiz Cortines. Up until recently, access was limited by a half day of hiking or impossibly difficult dirt roads. A new paved road now allows easy access into the cloud forest of the Los Tuxtlas region. Fortunately, the Biosphere Reserve is protecting the area with help from our guide, Braulio, and part of his community.

The cloud forest of the Los Tuxtlas Mountains is spectacularly beautiful and full of wonderful birds. It is perhaps most famous in the birding community for a species found only in this habitat, usually at higher elevations, and only found in this small mountain range: the Tuxtla Quail-Dove. As a quail-dove, it is also famously shy and can be hard to see. We began our search as soon as we reached the forest.

Braulio, an expert in finding the bird, started imitating the quail-dove. Of course we could not avoid looking at other birds too, including Scaly-throated Foliage-gleaner (above), Spot-crowned Woodcreeper, and many Common Bush-Tanager. A local subspecies of Chestnut-crested Brush-Finch sat up for great views, then an Emerald Toucanet flew across the road through the canopy and perched nearby. A group of Green Jays were calling and briefly seen, and we had several Golden-browed Warblers.

We reached the highest point in the road and decided to take one of the trails into the forest. Once inside, we quickly heard a distant quail-dove! We moved along the trail a little closer, but the bird stayed in place, or perhaps moved off a little further…. the call of a quail-dove can be deceiving. We stayed as still as possible, and Braulio continued calling for the bird, hoping that it would move in closer, but it stayed put. In the dense understory we had very little chance of spotting the bird, unless it moved in closer. We hesitated to leave the trail, because we would make way too much noise in the vegetation, and the bird would most likely move off. At some point one of us made a slight movement when directly behind us a quail-dove flushed, only a couple of meters away! We turned just in time to see the bird fly down the trail and behind a log, but not too far off. Braulio recognized the sound of the wing flap as a Tuxtla Quail-Dove! Essentially, while we were looking towards the first bird that was calling, this bird had quietly walked in to us from the other side, and we had no idea. We stayed still and quiet, and Braulio called again, and eventually the bird  moved in front of the log and onto the trail, in full view! We enjoyed the bird for several moments, remaining as still as possible. At some point, we tried for a photo, but the extra movement caused the quail-dove to walk off. We were all very satisfied with our “Mega Tic” as someone once put it!

It was still early, and our birding was far from over. We moved on past the village of Ruiz Cortines, to the forested hills on the other side of town. Our target here was to see if the local pair of Ornate Hawk-Eagle, and their youngster of the year, was still near the nest. As we made our way along the dirt road, and closer to the nest tree, we heard the birds calling. One of the adults was with the young bird, which was now fully grown and flying, but apparently still near the nest. These birds nest only once every two years, raising just one offspring per nest. We did not see the adult bird until it flew off, but we eventually spotted the perched and screaming youngster which was a spectacular white, with its impressive crest in full splendor. We positioned the scope for a nice view of the bird through the trees.

We continued our walk and spotted several other birds, including Yellowish Flycatcher and then a great look at a male Collared Trogon. Butterflies came out in the sunshine, including a surreal White Morpho (above) (Morpho polyphemus luna); Micha was able to get a nice photo as it flew by and perched. A “false” Coral Snake (below) had captured a salamander in a road puddle and we watched the struggle as the snake got a firm grip on its prey, then took it into the forest to feast upon!

After a spectacular lunch at Braulio’s family’s restaurant, including a delicious thick and rich hot drink made from a local root, we moved on to our final destination, Veracruz City. En route we had some extra time so we decided to see the impressive views of the massive rivers on the bridge to Tlacotalpan. Just after crossing the bridge Micha spotted a bird that had eluded Peter the other day – a Gray-necked Wood-Rail feeding in an odd spot in an old cattle yard, perhaps here due to the high water levels. We continued back on the highway and through the wetlands, enjoying decent, distant views of several Snail Kites cruising low over the water.

Our last bit of birding was back at Las Barrancas, just off the highway. We cruised along and had spectacular views of Scissor-tailed (above) and Fork-tailed Flycatchers, side-by-side. After diligent searching we found a female Purple Gallinule in the wetlands on its preferred reeds. We enjoyed nice views of Crested Caracaras and numerous aquatics including White-faced Ibis, to go with the huge numbers of White Ibis we had at the beginning of the trip. With the sun low in the afternoon sky, we had wonderful views of very close Double-striped Thick-knee and Limpkin (below), a wonderful end to our birding.

We arrived in the evening in Veracruz, sipped a satisfying beer on the main square, and chatted about the wonderful birds we had seen in the last 12 days, our amazing fortune with the weather, the utterly incredible flight of raptors (which warrants repeating: 470,000+ raptors on September 28), and a wonderful time birding, traveling and eating amazing food together with new friends. Micha and Peter caught an early flight the next morning, leaving with wonderful memories of a great experience in Veracruz.

Favorite birds for the trip:
Keel-billed Toucan, Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl, Sungrebe, Red Warbler, Broad-winged Hawk, Scissor-tailed Flycatcher (above), Bumblebee Hummingbird.