Bird Watching Mexico City

I like to have a goal in my birding so for many years I have taken part in the My 200 Birding Year, trying to see 200 birds in the UK. This is achievable but not without a bit of effort, so this has provided a nice focus through the year. I wanted a similar goal for this trip, doable but stretched. So I have settled on seeing 1,000 species of birds during the 8 months. This would be impossible in the UK, but travelling such a distance from north to south and also going to a wide range of habitats from Tropical Jungle to High Andes, Cloud Forest to Coastal should make it possible but not without a lot of focus and effort over the eight months we are travelling. 

We made some progress in our first week in Mexico. We got to 19 species after 2 days in Coyoacan including Ladder-backed Woodpecker and Summer Tanager. Birding in a new country is bewildering as everything is new and it takes time to settle into things. But equally most things are a life tick so it is very rewarding. But you start by having to let about half the birds go without an identification which is difficult. By the time we had returned from Valle de Bravo my Mexico list had grown to 47 with a White Tailed Kite and Loggerhead Shrike seen from the bus.

To achieve the 1000 birds on the trip I need to make quite a bit of progress at the far northern extremity of our journey – Mexico City. There are birds here which we wont find further south. So I looked to find a local birding guide for two half days. We were fortunate to find Rafa from IHUITL. We really couldn’t rate Rafa highly enough. There are guides who know their stuff (told by IDing birds on sound and in flight) and guides who are lovely people and often you only get one or the other! Rafa was both! He knew is stuff and helped us find and ID several birds we could never have found and he kindly gave us a lift at the end of each birding session too. Highly recommend if you are in Mexico and need a guide!

The first half day we spent in the Botanical Gardens at UNAM. Here we saw 51 birds including several endemics such as Mexican Chickadee, Rusty-Crowned Ground Sparrow and Hooded Yellowthroat. Alas we didn’t take the camera for security and practical reasons travelling by Metro.

But the next morning we met at Xochimilco and managed 70 species with water based birds and scrub/marsh habitat. Below are some pictures of the water based birds.

Elsewhere we saw a good number of birds in the park. This wasn’t a photography day but rather seeing as many birds as we could but I was able to fire off a few more pictures.

Lastly, we did also see some birds of prey including a Broad-Winged Hawk, several American Kestrels and some Turkey Vultures.

By the time we left Mexico City I was pleased to have added 112 birds to our trip list of which 97 were lifers for me. For the full list of birds I have seen in Mexico see my eBird trip report. Next up we move to Yucatan and hope to see some more birds there too.