Bahia Principe de Coba
The thrid resort I'll cover is the Bahia Principe de Coba, which we stayed in last March (along with my mother ("the babysitter")) who had joined us from England. This resort is sprawling, and is really three resorts in one. It's about 45 mins further south from Sandos Carocol, along the same highway. I chose the Coba section becuase it has a great kids pool, but the 2 other sections looked very similar. I had relatively low expectations for this trip in terms of lifers, but I was hoping to see at least one of the Tanager species I had so far misses - Grey Headed, Yellow-winged or Rose-throated.
Our room was on the southern edge of the resort facing an undeveloped area of tress, but becuase we were only on the second level (there were 3) I could not see much from my balcony. There was however a dirt track running along the southern edge of the resort and I birded this most mornings. Birds seen here included Yucatan Vireo, Yucatan Jay (lots of these) Summer Tanager, Hooded, Altamira and Yellow-tailed Orioles, Golden-fronted Woodpecker, Yellow-throated Warbler and Plain Chachalaca. I heard several Ferruginous Pygmy Owl calling each morning and found one sitting on a window ledge in the resort itself. I had a single, flyover White-fronted Parrot, and, on the last morning, found a beautiful, male, Black-headed Trogon. Overall, this area was not bad, but I would say the Sandos was better in terms of birding around the resort itself.
I did not hire a guide this time, but I did hire a car and explored two areas. The first was a archaeological site called Xel Ha, about ten minutes further south along the 307. This is a really nice, quiet site and there is a lot of nice habitat, especially as you walk west. I saw nobody else here the entire morning. In terms of birds, there were lots of migrant warblers and vireos here including Northern Waterthrush, Palm Warbler, Black-and-white Warbler, Hooded Warbler, Yellow-throated Warbler, White-eyed Vireo and Yellow-throated Vireo. In terms of Orioles there were Hooded, Altamira, Black-cowled and Orange. I saw two Trogons (but not quite well enough to id them), a White-breasted Wren and a Squirrel Cuckoo. Aparently this area is good for Rose-throated Tanager, but I did not see any.
The other area I explored in the car was across the highway from the resort, just south of the golf course. In retrospect I did not spend enough time here becase it turned out to be very birdy. You can cross over the highway on a birdge from the resort and there is a checkpoint there. I was always let past. South of the golf course they are building some houses but they are well spaced out and there is plenty of good habitat. I drove as far as I could to the west until I reached a dirt path, at which point I explored on foot. New birds for the trip here including Green and Brown Jays, Masked Tityra, Black Catbird, Tropical Gnatcatcher Red-billed Pigeon and Canivet's Emerald. I could hear lots of noisy Chachalaca in the distance, and saw a couple of White-crowned parrots perched. There were lots of mixed warbler flocks here. I had almost given up hope of seeing any of my target tanagers when a promising looking bird flew across the path and pearched on top of a tree to left. It sarted calling and I knew what is was straght away - Rose-throated Tanager. This is a Yucatan endemic, and the tanager I had most hoped to see, so I was pretty chuffed with that.
I also did a nature trip organised by the resort, which involved a cycle ride over the bridge to an area of forest to the west of the golf course. The habitat is very good here but the trip did not start until 10am so too late for good birding. The only bird I saw was an Ivory-billed Woodcreeper. They have a canopy tower here which might be good in the morning (there is one in the resort itself too, but I did not see much from that). I discovered later that there were organised birdwatching tours around the golf course starting at 7.30 on Thursday mornings, so you may want to try that if you stay at Bahia Principe.
That's it. I hope anyone travelling to Mexico on a regular family vacation might get a few ideas, or some inspiration, from this. Its possible to see quite a lot with limited time.