Mexico City Black-polled Yellowthroats (2 Viewers)

[Lepidothrix]

Hi everyone,
I'm living in Mexico City and am hoping to view the endemic Black-polled Yellowthroats that live in the Cienegas del Lerma marshes. I haven't been able to find very much specific information about this site, does anybody know where exactly to enter/park in del Lerma for birding? Also, does anyone have any insight into whether it is a safe area to go birding? I have heard stories that some areas such as the Sierra Madre Sparrow site in Las Maravillas are not safe to visit nowadays.
Thank you!

 

[KC Foggin]

Hi there and a warm welcome to you from those of us on staff here at BirdForum
We're glad you found us and please join in wherever you like.

Hopefully, someone from your area will have some suggestions for you.

 

[THE_FERN]

Hi everyone,
I'm living in Mexico City and am hoping to view the endemic Black-polled Yellowthroats that live in the Cienegas del Lerma marshes. I haven't been able to find very much specific information about this site, does anybody know where exactly to enter/park in del Lerma for birding? Also, does anyone have any insight into whether it is a safe area to go birding? I have heard stories that some areas such as the Sierra Madre Sparrow site in Las Maravillas are not safe to visit nowadays.
Thank you!

Lerma
I realise this thread is a bit old... I recently visited the area. It wasn't clear to me how to access the marshes either. In the end I took the bus from Mexico city towards toluca and got off at toluca airport. From there I walked to the A6D autopista and followed it South. (I first tried entering the area from around 19.27703° N, 99.52175° W without much success). On spec I played the tape and immediately saw 2 black-polled yellowthroats. Especially to the south there were lots of common yellowthroats too. The road was very busy and made for unpleasant if rewarding birding.

I continued on, going just south of calle tultepec. There was relatively little water and much of the habitat had been burnt, especially in the southern part. From calle tultepec I walked around the other side of the water way.

Overall I saw a good selection of species. There were no issues apart from the usual overly territorial dogs. It seemed entirely safe

An alternative location is the Almoloya del Rio area. Refs include 19.15462° N, 99.49224° W (carpark: walk West), also 19°08'29.3"N, 99°30'07.3"W.

My impression of the bits i saw was that this bird is likely to be under real pressure. The locals seem to be draining and building on the area wholesale. Either through deliberate action or drought much of the remaining habitat seems degraded/burnt

Parque las Maravillas
I also went here. It's easy to get to/from by local bus. I had no security concerns. I saw only one Strickland's woodpecker and no Sierra madre sparrows (just song and Lincoln's). I think this was because the locals were harvesting the grass, much of which was tied in bunches. It's likely the birds were foraging in these other cut areas. I missed some typical forest birds like green-striped brush-finch. Again the habitat was unusually dry, and the locals are carefully "improving" the habitat: the song of the motosierra was everywhere. This seemed to be for grass cultivation. It's valuable if very cold to get to the area early in the morning. I found good numbers of migrant warblers in the roadside trees but only first thing when there was still frost on the grass

 

[THE_FERN]

I should have added I recently updated the Opus entry for Mexico City. Ciudad de Mexico actually has loads of good, safe places for birdwatching—it would be good to see people add more locations:

Category:Mexico City - BirdForum Opus

I could tell that birding is becoming more popular there too which can only help.

 

[Andrew Whitehouse]

When I was in that area a year or so back, I found Josh Vandermeulen's blog entries quite useful for info:

Mexico!

Our visit to Panama was all we could have asked for, but it was time to move on to our next destination. I have still quite a few blog posts...

joshvandermeulen.blogspot.com

Bunchgrass Birding South of Mexico City

The Sierra Madre Sparrow is an endangered, range-restricted species that prefers bunchgrass habitats in sparsely treed pine woods. It is onl...

joshvandermeulen.blogspot.com

His Ebird entries also tend to have coordinates for birds. I found the Yellowthroats easily once I was well into the marsh.

 

[THE_FERN]

When I was in that area a year or so back, I found Josh Vandermeulen's blog entries quite useful for info:

Mexico!

Our visit to Panama was all we could have asked for, but it was time to move on to our next destination. I have still quite a few blog posts...

joshvandermeulen.blogspot.com

Bunchgrass Birding South of Mexico City

The Sierra Madre Sparrow is an endangered, range-restricted species that prefers bunchgrass habitats in sparsely treed pine woods. It is onl...

joshvandermeulen.blogspot.com

His Ebird entries also tend to have coordinates for birds. I found the Yellowthroats easily once I was well into the marsh.

I knew about this, but I couldn't work out where they'd actually entered Lerma. Probably, thinking about it in retrospect, they came from the south east somewhere. That's not so accessible by public transport from Mexico City as far as I know. (Maybe there's some bus which takes you down the eastern side?) I asked a local birder in Ciudad but the locations she gave me were for Almoloya which is even less easy to get to [see earlier post]. We can see from ebird there are other interesting places in the area which would bear investigation if you have transport.

 

[Andrew Whitehouse]

I knew about this, but I couldn't work out where they'd actually entered Lerma. Probably, thinking about it in retrospect, they came from the south east somewhere. That's not so accessible by public transport from Mexico City as far as I know. (Maybe there's some bus which takes you down the eastern side?) I asked a local birder in Ciudad but the locations she gave me were for Almoloya which is even less easy to get to [see earlier post]. We can see from ebird there are other interesting places in the area which would bear investigation if you have transport.

I entered from the southeast but had a car. Not sure on the public transport situation.

 

[Mono]

It will certainly be interesting for other folk but the OP hasn't been back since the day after they posted the initial request.