We had a 4 day holiday weekend here so we took advantage of it and planned a short vacation to Eastern Campeche and Quintana Roo. We spent about 4 hours each day driving (daylight hours only because of roads) between locations, an hour for lunches, and about 5 hours of birding. We birded just outside of the Maya ruin Calakmul, then in the coastal lagoon Bacalar, then outside the town of Felipe Carrillo Puerto, and finally in the Maya ruins of Dzibanche and Kohunlich. Our best birding was outside of the Calakmul Ruins and the Dzibanche ruins.
Weather was very good, slightly overcast and not hot. Hotels varied from great to mediochre. We planned to bird alone (wife and myself) for 3 days and had a very good guide scheduled for 1 day. Only real flaw in the trip was the guide had cancelled but the hotel that had made the booking for us failed to notify us. That was a disappointment.
We had a total species count of 78 for the 4 days with a rather smaller than hoped for number of Lifers (five). We did get lots of excellent close up sightings of a number of real exotics like Montezuma's Oropendola, Collared Aracaris, and the Keel-billed Toucans. Those alone made the trip worthwhile. Following is the total list with Lifers noted (*).
Also attaching a Photo Link for a Trogon we saw: Trogon
Black-bellied Whistling-Duck
Muscovy Duck * (flock of 7)
Plain Chachalaca
Least Grebe *
Brown Pelican
Anhinga
Magnificent Frigatebird
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Little Blue Heron
Cattle Egret
Green Heron
White Ibis
Roseate Spoonbill
Wood Stork
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Snail Kite
Gray Hawk
Roadside Hawk
Crested Caracara
Laughing Falcon
American Kestrel
Limpkin
Northern Jacana
Rock Pigeon
Red-billed Pigeon
White-winged Dove
Ruddy Ground-Dove
Olive-throated Parakeet (hundreds)
Squirrel Cuckoo
Groove-billed Ani
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Violaceous Trogon
Belted Kingfisher
Collared Aracari (lots of large flocks, many small groups)
Keel-billed Toucan (three different sightings up close)
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Golden-olive Woodpecker
Ivory-billed Woodcreeper
Vermilion Flycatcher
Dusky-capped Flycatcher
Great Kiskadee
Social Flycatcher
Tropical Kingbird
Masked Tityra
Green Jay
Brown Jay
Yucatan Jay
Mangrove Swallow
Clay-colored Robin
Tropical Mockingbird
Northern Parula
Yellow Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Yellow-throated Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
American Redstart
Summer Tanager
Blue-gray Tanager
Red-legged Honeycreeper * (several flocks of 20+ birds)
Blue-black Grassquit
White-collared Seedeater
Grayish Saltator
Eastern Meadowlark
Melodious Blackbird
Great-tailed Grackle
Black-cowled Oriole *
Orchard Oriole
Hooded Oriole
Yellow-tailed Oriole
Altamira Oriole
Baltimore Oriole
Yellow-billed Cacique *
Montezuma Oropendola
Scrub Euphonia
In spite of the disappointment about the guide, it sounds like you had a very nice trip!
I'd love to see what you've seen on this trip -- especially those ruins! Are they Mayan?
And glad for you that the weather was so nice -- I hate hot weather, and completely melt in humidity. Although it would be preferable to what we're having here tonight: 22 degrees F and winds of about 20-25 mpg. Feels very bitter, especially since it was 65F yesterday!
Wish I had joined you! About a dozen lifers on that list for me. Love those Mayan ruins also.
If you get a chance, the ruins at Coba are great. You can walk down jungle trails to the base of pyramids. They allow you to climb them and from the top you can spy other pyramid tops rising above the canopy. Well preserved ball court too. Good stuff!!
Itching for a trip south of the border,
dennis