Day 1, Saturday:
Arrival in Cancun at 11 AM. At noon we leave for Rio Lagartos arriving at around 3pm to start birding. Our targets apart from the beautiful Great Flamingos include, Lesser Roadrunner, Black-throated Bobwhite, Yucatan Wren and Mexican Sheartail. Night in Rio Lagartos.
Day 2, Sunday:
Additional birding in the vicinity of Rio Lagartos and the saltpans for water birds, shore birds, gulls and terns, before leaving for the world heritage site Chichen Itza, the and one of the ancient wonders of the world.
Chichen Itza, like Machu Picchu in Peru, is Mexico's most visited tourist destination with about 3.5 million visitors annually. Here we will be looking for Wedge-tailed Sabrewing, Canivet's Emerald, Yucatan Jay and Blue Bunting.
We end the day at dusk outside of the charming colonial town of Valladolid hopefully seeing Singing Quail, Yucatan Poorwill, Yucatan Nightjar and Guatemalan Screech-Owl. Night in Valladolid.
Day 3, Monday:
Mon: We are up at dawn, looking for endemics including Yucatan Flycatcher and Yucatan Flicker, and a bunch of others of course like the Plain Chachalaca.We have a long drive in front of us to Calakmul.
Before arriving we shall bird the road towards Tres Garantias. Birds possible here include Great Tinamou, Eastern Thicket Tinamou, Great Currasow, Gray-headed Dove, Bat Falcon, King Vulture, Stripe-throated Hermit, Canivet's Emerald, Wedge-tailed Sabrewing, Rufous-tailed Hummingbird, White-bellied Emerald, Mexican Ant-thrush, Rufous-breasted Spinetail, Black-crowned Tityra, Trush-like Mourner, Couch’s Kingbird, Black-headed Saltator, White-bellied Wren and Yellow-backed, Baltimore and Black-cowled Orioles. We spend the night in Xpujil.
Day 4, Tuesday:
Full day at the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve. Calakamul Biosphere reserve is not as famous as Tikal and Palenque, but it was a very important Mayan city. Almost 7000 constructionshave been identified and it is believed that 50000 people lived here at its peak. The ruins are surrounded by good forest and the birding is the best in the Yucatan reserve.
Apart from the mega targets Oscillated Turkey and Great Curassow, which are often scarce in other areas due to hunting, but not here.
We also hope to find Eastern Thicket Tinamou, Scaled Pigeon, Blue Ground Dove, Spotted Wood-Quail, Hook-billed Kite, Blue-diademed Motmot, Keel-Billed Toucan, Black-headed Trogon, Smoky-Brown Woodpecker, Ruddy and Northern Barred Woodcreeper, Plain Xenops, Yellow-bellied Elaenia, Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet, Eye-ringed Flatbill, Yellow-Olive Flycatcher, Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, Great Crested Flycatcher, Red-capped Manakin, Ochre-bellied Flycatcher, Gray-collared Becard, Bright-rumped Attila, Southern House Wren, Gray Catbird, Wood Thrush, Yellow-throated and Philadelphia Vireo, Green-backed Sparrow, Blue Bunting, Gray-throated Chat, Rose-throated Tanager and Gray-breasted Martin.
Before dusk we return to the main road to visit a large bat cave where, as many as 4 million bats of several species fly out in a short time span. Raptors are common near the cave Including the rare Ornate Hawk Eagle. Night at Chicanná Eco-village.
Day 5. Wednesday:
We continue to explore and bird In the Calakmul. The Chicanna Eco lodge has many birds on the there and is especially good for Orioles and Hummingbirds including Orange , Yellow-tailed, Yellow-backed, Baltimore, Altamira, Hooded, Black-cowled and Orchard Orioles; and among the hummers Buff-bellied Hummingbird, Canivet’s Emerald, Wedge-tailed Sabrewing, White-bellied Emerald and Ruby-throated Hummingbird. There is often a Northern Potoo in the garden which is easy to see.
Day 6. Thursday:
We may do another stop at Tres Garantias, for some morning birding before continuing to Felipe Cariullo Puerto. Here we shall visit Sian Ka’an reserve, with many of the same species possible at Calakmul as well as Collared Aracari, White-fronted Amazon and Aztec Parakeet. We stay until dusk to try to see Mottled Owl. We continue to Playa del Carmen for a two night stay.
Day 7. Friday:
We shall have a sleep-in before we board the first ferry to Cozumel.
We shall be looking for the endemics Cozumel Vireo, Cozumel Emerald and Cozumel Wren. Local subspecies and possible future splits will also be checked for like Roadside Hawk, Bananaquit, Rufous-browed Peppershrike, Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher, Western Spindalis, Yellow-faced Grassquit and Yellow Warbler.
Also Caribbean Dove, White-crowned Pigeon Ruddy Crake, Golden-fronted Woodpecker, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Caribbean Elaenia, Black Catbird, Tropical Mockingbird, Yellow-faced Grassquit, Indigo Bunting and Melodious Blackbird.
In the afternoon we take the ferry back to Playa del Carmen for our last night in Yucatan.
Day 8. Saturday:
The morning drive back to the Cancun airport we will look for Rose-throated Tanager, White-bellied Wren, Blue Bunting, Green-backed Sparrow and Orange Oriole, on the way to Cancun airport. We will continue with our Durango trip, which you are welcome to join.