Tips for very short birding trip to Mexico? (1 Viewer)

Hi, we are currently living in California (although Germans) and are very fond of Hummingbirds (a female Anna's visits our balcony plants every morning for breakfast ))). Because of an expiring and new applied passport, we will have to leave the country and re-entry in the beginning of september, options are Canada and Mexico. Now I had the crazy idea that if we have to go to another country anyway, why not look for hummingbirds in Mexico? But it seems hard to find a trip that can be done in about 3 days (evening of Friday, 9/3 or morning of Saturday, 9/4 till Monday, 9/6), since we do not have any vacation days to spend :-(. At least Monday is a holiday.
We are already late, I know. Problems are also to find a fast connection to Mexico from San Francisco or (preferred) San Jose, CA. Does anybody have a suggestion??? We would appreciate it very much!
Thanks a lot and happy birding to everybody, Marcella

Hi MBp

Welcome to Birdforum.

We have a few members in Mexico one is Dave B Smith and another who joined the other day Manuel they might be able to help you, you could always try PM them or look in the Search Forums section putting in the word mexico you may find some answers there.

Also at the bottom of the page you get a section with similar threads have a look at some of these.

Hi Marcella,
And welcome to Birdforum. Hope you enjoy it here as much as I do! Well, if you like hummers, Mexico is definitely a better choice than Canada
We have 61 species here (although a few migrants are currently spending the summer up north). Where to go for just 3 days? And I'm assuming you want to spend more time on the ground than in airports on connections. I'd suggest first that you get the 'Bird Finding Guide to Mexico' by Steve Howell and check out some of the locations on the West Coast that he recommends. All sites he references have site lists of birds seen there so if you have any target species you are looking for that may help choose your destination.

On the West Coast there are three highly recommended sites, Los Mochis (to start train trip through the Copper Canyon), Mazatlan, and Puerto Vallarta. I have birded P. Vallarta and can tell you it is a great place. I got 50 lifers there on a one day trip!

Here is a link to another recent thread on Birding in Mexico that might gvie you some more ideas.

Good luck,

Hi Marcella,

On behalf of Admin and the Moderators welcome to Bird Forum :t:

Three day trip to see Hummingbirds in Mexico

Hello Marcela,

Divid has given good advise already on where to go and the Hummingbirds' general info. The guide by Steve N. G. Howell he recommends I re-iterate as a good suggestion.

As far as easy connections out of the SF Bay area, you have about 3 or 4 daily Mexicana Airlines flights from either SF, San Jose or Oakland non-stop to Guadalajara. They have early morning filghts as well as red-eye flights and some in between. There must be other flights directly to Puerto Vallarta but I am not familiar with them.

Good luck! I live in Guadalajara so if you decide to come to this area and I can assist you with any other information let me know.

Saludos.

Hi everybody,

Thank you so much for your immediate answers with the very helpful tips. Actually, I already have the Howell, but the information there is so overwhelmingly that I needed some more help. Thank you especially to Manuel, it is hard to find direct flights to a mexican airport from San Jose (the website of the airport is horrible!). If we dare it at all, Guadalajara will probably be our first choice, with a visit to Volcán de Fuego. But I suppose we will need to rent a car to get there. How is the traffic like in that area? Will it be complicated for a not very experienced driver from Germany, not used to spirited southern driving...? And I suppose it is difficult to use public transportation if you do not speak spanish, isn't it?

But Gracias so far. I will keep you informed if we adventure this trip how we succeeded and what birds we were able to observe. This Forum is really great!
Best birding wishes to everybody, Marcella

MBP said:

Hi, we are currently living in California (although Germans) and are very fond of Hummingbirds (a female Anna's visits our balcony plants every morning for breakfast ))). Because of an expiring and new applied passport, we will have to leave the country and re-entry in the beginning of september, options are Canada and Mexico. Now I had the crazy idea that if we have to go to another country anyway, why not look for hummingbirds in Mexico? But it seems hard to find a trip that can be done in about 3 days (evening of Friday, 9/3 or morning of Saturday, 9/4 till Monday, 9/6), since we do not have any vacation days to spend :-(. At least Monday is a holiday.
We are already late, I know. Problems are also to find a fast connection to Mexico from San Francisco or (preferred) San Jose, CA. Does anybody have a suggestion??? We would appreciate it very much!
Thanks a lot and happy birding to everybody, Marcella

Click to expand...

Marcella: For 17 years after I retired my bride of 56 years and I spent 4 to 6 months a year in a little village on the Sea Of Cortez in Baja California Sur se llama Mulege. Pronounced moo-la-hay. Unbelievable birding. 4 habitat groups. Open sea, mile and a half tidal estuary, half mile fresh water lagoon (dam built by Jusuit missionairys ca>1700), irrigated desert farmland. We were in a seasonal gringo colony, and just about all of us had at least one large humming bird feeder. Not unusual to have 30-40 hummers at feeder or in nearby bushes at a time. Predominat species Costas, but Xantus (only found in Southern Baja California) is quite common. Uncommon Annas. During spring migration once had 5 species at my feeders at the same time. CAVEAT Early September weather can be brutal. Hot and humid. Also hurricane season. Fly Aero California to Loreto. Don't know bout San Fran but they have daily flkights from LAX. Rent a car and drive 80km north to Mulege. Stay at Serenidad Hotel on South side of town where the estuary ends in sea.
If this still appeals to you, after weather notice, send me a private note via birdforum and I'll go into more detail
Craig Whitmore B