Introduction:
We spent Christmas week in Mazatlan and then a week birding the Durango Highway and the Estero del Yugo in northern Mazatlan. In Mazatlan, we stayed at the Old Mazatlan Inn and Casa de Leyendas in the Centro Historico (great locations near the beach and the market). While birding the Durango Road, we stayed at Daniel’s Restaurant and Hotel in Copala one night, and a casita of the owner of Chalva’s restaurant a separate night. For the Tufted Jay Preserve, we stayed at a new option – furnished cabanas (cabins) run by the Pueblo of El Palmito within the reserve. The main goal of this document is to provide an update on some great new options in the area, logistic updates and compilation of birding spots on the Durango Highway.
Itinerary:
January 2: Mazatlan to Pantitlan to Panuco Road and Copala
January 3: Panuco Road to La Reserva de la Chara Pinta
January 4 & 5: La Reserva de la Chara Pinta and Copala
January 6: Panuco Road and drive to Mazatlán
January 7 & 8: Estero del Yugo in northern Mazatlan near Playa Bruja
Accommodations:
Copala: Daniel’s Restaurant and Hotel. [phone number - 011 52-669-928-1932] We stayed in the hotel. Rooms run 350 – 450 pesos, and were clean and well maintained. The restaurant opens at poor hours for birders (9.00 am to 6.00 pm), but Panuco Road is so close, that it makes from a nice late breakfast/lunch. Note that on tour group days, they will sometimes close at 5:00 pm. The restaurant overlooks thorn forest and some low ridges. It is possible to see a few birds while dining, especially in the parrot family.
Copala: Chalva’s Restaurant casita – 2 beds and hot water for 300 Pesos. The one bedroom casita with one king bed or two single beds, is rented out by David, the owner, and is up the hill from the restaurant. Bonus is the house below the casita that maintains hummingbird feeders and it has a great overlook of the scenic church, town and valley.
The drive from Copala to the Tufted Jay Reserve is about 1 1/2 hours, and the very birdy Panuco Road is only a five minutes drive.
Barranca Rancho de Liebre
Reserva de la Chara Pinta (Tufted Jay Preserve & now signed at KM 200).
Reservations: Sra. Carmen cell: 011 52 669-134-0166
Guide & Reservations: Sr. Santos Vasquez cell: 011 52 694-110-9972
Sra. Carmen and Sr. Vazquez only speak Spanish.
You can also contact Rene Vasquez – a bilingual ornithologist, photographer and guide at either his website www.birdpicsandmore.com or guacamayero@gmail.com, who can assist in making arrangements.
The Pueblo of El Palmito has signed a collaborative agreement with the Mexican conservation group Pronatura to protect the habitat of the endemic Tufted Jay. They are building the infrastructure for guests to enjoy the spectacular setting. The cabins are located near the end of a long ridge that drops off 2,000’ into the barrancas on either side. One of our goals while traveling is to support such community conservation efforts.
There are two nicely finished cabins located 3 km from the road, with two more cabins soon to be ready. The ‘original’ cabins have 2 bedrooms each with 2 beds, bedding and linens, running hot water, a kitchen with supplies and a propane stove. There is no electricity, but the Pueblo provided a giant propane lantern (think of a Coleman lantern on steroids), that lit the room quite well. Cabins were US$ 90 per night. All you need to do is bring your own food and potable water.
We hired Santos Vasquez to be our guide. While he only speaks Spanish, he knows his birds and voices. We had a wonderful day wandering the trails in search of the Tufted Jays. He charges about US$10 an hour. We arranged for a time to pick up Santos in the town of El Palmito, but because of bad phone connections & moderate Spanish we were only able to set a time to meet in El Palmito. So, we drove down the single road off the highway into the town (about 3 blocks long) until a smiling gray-haired man flagged us down. It never ceases to amaze me how often this will work in Mexico.
Car Rental:
We rented a Dodge Attitude from National. By arranging it through our hotel and renting it from town instead of the airport, we were able to rent the car with full insurance for $60 per day. From the airport it would have been $80 because of the airport taxes. Another bonus is that the rental company will deliver to your hotel – often for free. Even better, for another $5.00, they picked it up at our hotel at the end of a trip. If you’re not going back to Mazatlan, the airport is north of and actually closer to Villa Union (intersection of Rt. 15 and Rt. 40 - Durango Highway).
Driving along the Durango Road is fairly sedate, the result of non-stop switchbacks and a lot of heavy truck traffic.
Note – there is no gasoline to be purchased east of Concordia, so you should fill up your tank at the Pemex station there before continuing east.
References:
Howell and Webb’s “A Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America”. We also used a number of recent trip reports from Blake Maybank’s website and Surfbird. There is also a local Mazatlan birding chat group. To post to this group, send email to birding-in-mazatlan@googlegroups.com.
Birding Sites:
The following are birding sites by Kilometer for the Durango Highway that I compiled from a number of reports. Using Km posts worked really well and hopefully this will be of benefit in trip-planning. Most of these are sites that are described in Howell’s “A Bird-Finding Guide to Mexico”, with the exception of the Estero del Yugo in Mazatlan.
Durango Highway:
Km~291 Chicken Ranch
There are large shoulders to make it worth a quick stop to check for raptors eyeing the chickens. We had American Kestrel, Red-tailed Hawk and Crested Caracara.
Km 285 Dirt Road which is signed ‘Pantitlan 1’ (south and immediately after sign)
This is on the second low ridge coming from Concordia and is a great road to get off the main highway. Traffic is very light with multiple pull-offs available. We did not detect the Red-breasted Chat & Purplish-backed Jay here, but we were here in mid-day. The road to Pantitlan” now goes 1 km to the new Route 40 (toll highway).
Km 276 Concordia – last gas stop & ATM heading east.
Km 248.3 Panuco Road (north)
We visited this site three times (two mornings and one evening) and found it to be excellent for birds. The best areas were the first quarter of a mile of the road, including a road that angled back sharply left onto a ridge that lets you get off the main road. A second spot is a forested canyon furrther up the road past the obvious house on the left. There is a large pulloff on the left and the road passes a forested canyon on the right. We had Military McCaw, Rusty-crowned Ground-Sparrow, Hummingbirds – Berylline, Violet-crowned & Rufous, Thick-billed Kingbird, Streak-backed and Hooded Oriole. The canyon area was good at about 9:00 am, when the sun came over the ridge and lit up the hillside. Here we had Rose-throated Becard, Citroline Trogon, Fan-tailed Warbler, and Golden and Black-capped Vireos.
Km 222 La Petaca Road
The road has been improved and much of the roadside vegetation has been destroyed, you may want to skip if short on time.
Km 215 Microondas Tower (north)
Good Pine-Oak habitat on a partially paved road. This is a nice break from following trucks at 15-20 mph.. I promise you’ll catch right back up. There was a summer report of an Eared Quetzal on the left fork of the road.
Km 212 Road (south) A good spot to get off the highway.
Km 200 Barranca Rancho Liebre – now signed Reserva de la Chara Pinta (Tufted Jay Preserve) (north)
We stayed here for two nights. We hired Santos Vasquez as our guide the first day and participated in the 3rd annual Christmas Bird Count with local guide and ornithologist, Rene Valdez. Santos took us to his favorite Jay spots, and while we often heard them, they were often over the edge and way down in the Barranca. After a nice hike, we located an impressive flock of 17 birds in the late afternoon sun – a spectacular bird in a truly spectacular setting. Other birds seen: Golden-browed, Olive, Red, Red-faced, and Crescent-chested Warblers in a mixed flock. Also seen were Russet Nightingale Thrush, Mountain Trogon, Red-headed Tanager, Blue Mockingbird and both Rufous-crowned and Green-striped Brush-Finch. We did not see or hear any Quetzals or Thick-billed Parrots and Santos said they are quite rare. There were multiple banks of salvia flowers which attracted mostly White-eared Hummingbirds, but we also saw Rufous, Calliope, Black-chinned and Costas.
Estero del Yugo, Mazatlan (past Marina and near Playa Bruja)
This is a wonderful estuary that has both freshwater and brackish pools of 11 hectares. There is a trail that goes around the brackish estuary, which has overlooks, a blind and a 40 foot tower that overlooks both pools! There is a nature center that opens at 9am, with available guided tours. The entrance gate is open by at least 6:30am and the fee is $500 Pesos per person. The guard will provide a map, birdlist and directions to a nice bonus – a very clean bathroom.
To get there, take the Toreo bus from the Centro Historico on Benito Juarez to the Gran Plaza (6 Pesos) for non-stop. The Sabalo centro bus would require a transfer. Look for the truly massive, new 5 star resort “Riu” on the left, the entrance to the estuary is to the east at the CIAD gate. No one seemed to know the estuary by name.
We spent two mornings here and loved it. We were pleased to find a troupe of 6 Purplish-backed Jays on the far end past the blind – a lovely and engaging bird. The water birds were here in abundance, including Least Grebes, White Ibis, Roseate Spoonbills and Wood Storks. Shorebirds included Western Sandpiper, American Avocet, Black-necked Stilt, Willet, Spotted Sandpiper and Long-billed Dowitcher. The bonus bird was a young Boat-billed Heron standing out in full view, near the tower, in the day time! Another bonus was an ant swarm that attracted an Ovenbird that strutted around right in front of us like a little chicken, a group of Kisakadees tracking the lizards that were being overwhelmed by the ants, and some Groove-billed Anis. Land birds included Lineated & Golden-cheeked Woodpecker, Rufous-bellied Chachalaca and a truly impressive gathering of 1500 Sinaloa Crows discussing their plans for the day. A Christmas Bird Count has been conducted at this site by Rene Valdes for the past three years, so you can look up the complete list on the Audubon CBC site.
Marcus Roening & Heather Ballash
Washington State, USA