Villa Guadalupe, TabascoTrip Report

January 2016

avesdeltropico.com Tabasco Birding Tours

Villa de Guadalupe

T

his trip reports covers a two-day visit to a ruralcommunity called “Villa de Guadalupe” located inthe southwestern part of Tabasco, in Mexico.Three states converge on the area (Veracruz,Chiapas and Tabasco), so the birding here can befull of surprises.

The habitat consists of hilly tropical rainforest remnants and patches ofsecond growth. Lots of streams crisscross the area and there aremagnificent waterfalls. The local community (“ejido”) is trying toconserve its land, so they are promoting ecotourism.

They have two cabañas with electricity but no hot water (not reallyneeded here). They also offer meals services and guided walks. There isa satellite phone available and a small rural store where the visitor canpurchase water, refreshment drinks, canned goods and snacks. The areais secure and has many pleasant vistas. The road to the community is inan acceptable condition although in parts you have to navigate itcarefully. Two days of exploration yielded 72 species, which is not a badnumber considering we were birding tropical rainforest, which is a verychallenging habitat (tall trees, low light ambiance and heat andhumidity). We encountered three jungle gems, of the tropical tanagerkind.

Day 1: As we approached the community we heard the call of a veryvocal Ruddy Crake, which was a bit odd, because we were on a hillyhabitat. We descended from the car and found out that a nearby brookhad overflowed and formed a swampy little habitat, which explained thecrake’s presence. Moving upwards we stopped to look in a patchysecond-growth that seemed to have lots of bird activity. Here we foundseven different warblers: American Redstart, Black-and-white,Kentucky, Hooded, Wilson’s, Magnolia and Yellow Warbler.There was also a skulking little bird, which turned out to be a RustySparrow, a great find for the area.

avesdeltropico.com Tabasco Birding Tours

Finally we arrive to the communitywhere we encounter our local guideDon Romulo. He is part of thecooperative that owns and maintainsthe cabins.

Just above his house there is a Keel-billed Toucan (photo left) feeding ona cecropia. Nothing like a Toucan toget things goings. We watch thecolorful bird when four Olive-throated Parakeets also arrive togorge on the fruits of this strange andvery attractive (at least for birds) tree.

We quickly set up our gear and starthiking a jungle trail alongside astream. We encounter a maleCollared Trogon, two White-breasted Wood-Wrens that form abeautiful duet and a noisy group ofRed-throated Ant-Tanagers.Lesser Greenlets seem to call fromeverywhere.

avesdeltropico.com

The stream we are following attractsLouisiana Waterthrush and animpressive number of GreenKingfishers.

A big fruiting tree hosts WoodThrushes (photo left) and Black-headed Saltators, which appearcommon here.

Spot-breasted Wrens areubiquitous and it seems a good year forBlack-throated Green Warblers,as we see many of them. We reach asection of the trail that requires a bit ofeffort as it goes up on a steep inclinebut suddenly we are rewarded with asingle White-throated Thrush(photo above). This was a targetspecies for the trip. There were norecent records of this bird in Tabasco.We even manage a decent photo of thisskittish thrush.

avesdeltropico.com

Villa de Guadalupe is located 2.5hours away from the state capital,Villahermosa.

We head back to town and midwaywe have an amazing encounter witha mysterious and deadly Fer-de-lance. Surely, it is a majesticcreature. On the forest edge, wefind a flurry of late day activity. Apair of Rose-throated Becard isengaged in an animatedconversation. Yellow-wingedTanagers call up in the canopy.

We also encounter two residentspecies: Rufous-capped andGolden-crownedWarblers. Indigo Buntings andMelodious Blackbirds forage ona cultivated lot.

A male Scrub Euphonia sings ona nearby tree and a group of verylarge Amazonas (maybe MealyParrots?) makes a flyby to theirnighttime roost.

Night comes too fast. We visit DonRomulo’s home and take supperthere. We are offered a simple andrustic but delicious dinner: recenthand-made corn tortillas andchicken soup with rice. We enjoytalking to our host. After the mealwe settle on our spacious and cleancabin. The plan was to try a littleowling but a sudden night windquickly settles that. For nightcreatures we must wait till dawn.

A Fer-de-lance, truly amagnificent but verydangerous creature.

They are present in allthe tropics, but areseldom seen.

avesdeltropico.com

Day 2 (A Tanager show). Nextday we start very early. We leavethe cabin and it is still dark outside.We take a path that leads right tothe foot of a mighty big waterfall.As we walk, we notice a ghostlypresence ahead of us. It is aMottled Owl, hunting in the sametrail we are walking. Eventuallydawn arises. Up in the mountain acracid calls. We cannot locate it.Dawn chorus arrives and, as usual,the beauty of it dumbfounds us. Wediscern among the wrens andMelodious Blackbirds a Stub-tailed Spadebill and a Long-billed Gnatwren.

The wind starts to blow again,making things a bit difficult. Weslowly ascend a slope, and as welook down we find ourselvessomewhat within the canopy oflower level trees. Suddenly, thewind slackens, magic happens and aspectacular, adult male Black-throated Shrike-Tanager appears (photo above).

This is not an easy bird anywhere inMexico. We are thrilled, to say theleast. This may very well be the starof the tour.

avesdeltropico.com

Black-throated Shrike-Tanagersact as sentinels in mixed flocks.

A mixed flock appears with thismagnificent bird, and we registerNorthern-barred Woodpecker,Rufous Piha, another group ofRed-throated Ant-Tanagersand three Golden-crownedWarblers. We head back to thewaterfall for a little raptor watch,and we are rewarded with two BatFalcons, a Gray and a RoadsideHawk. White Hawk also frequentsthis area but we struck on it. Manymigrants are also present on thenearby trees: Yellow-breastedChat, Blue-gray Gnatcatcherand Ovenbird.

Summer Tanager, GrayCatbird and Wood Thrush alsodelight ourselves. A SquirrelCuckoo calls in the canopy.Directly in front of the waterfall,there is a ravine. In the distance, wespot a red-colored bird foraging ontop of a exuberant tree. It is hiddenwell in the foliage but it is evident ithas two white stripes on its blackwings. We hold our breath when itfinally comes out to anunobstructed branch and we delightourselves with another good find:White-winged Tanager.

A male White-wingedTanager seen from adistance

avesdeltropico.com

It is time to walk back to the cabinand leave this beautiful and place.We say goodbye to the waterfall andalmost reach the bridge that signalsthe starting point of the trail whenloud calls and whistles attract ourattention. Up in a fruiting tree thereis a huge group of yet another rarefind of the tanager kind: Golden-hooded Tanager (photo above).The color pattern on this species isspectacular. The tree also holdsother jewels: Gartered Trogon,Rose-breasted Grosbeak,Masked Tityra, Rufous-breasted Spinetail and Yellow-olive Flycatcher. It is a nice wayto end our adventure.

avesdeltropico.com

List of birds seen:

Black VultureTurkey Vulture

Roadside Hawk Gray Hawk Short-tailed Hawk

Ruddy Crake

Squirrel Cuckoo Groove-billed Ani

Mottled Owl

Long-billed Hermit White-bellied Emerald

Gartered Trogon Collared Trogon

Green Kingfisher

Keel-billed Toucan

Golden-fronted Woodpecker

Bat Falcon

Olive-throated Parakeet

Northern Barred-Woodcreeper Rufous-breasted Spinetail

avesdeltropico.com

List of birds seen:

Yellow-olive Flycatcher Least Flycatcher Dusky-capped Flycatcher Boat-billed Flycatcher Social Flycatcher

Rufous Piha Masked Tityra Rose-throated Becard

Lesser Greenlet

Brown Jay

Band-backed Wren Spot-breasted Wren White-breasted Wood-Wren Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

Wood Thrush Clay-colored Thrush White-throated Thrush

Gray Catbird

Ovenbird Louisiana Waterthrush Black-and-white Warbler Kentucky Warbler Hooded Warbler American Redstart Magnolia Warbler Yellow Warbler

avesdeltropico.com

List of birds seen:

Black-throated Green Warbler Rufous-capped WarblerGolden-crowned Warbler Wilson’s Warbler Yellow-breasted Chat

Black-throated Shrike-Tanager Yellow-winged Tanager Golden-hooded Tanager Summer Tanager

Green-backed Sparrow Rusty Sparrow White-collared Seedeater Variable Seedeater Grayish Saltator Black-headed Saltator

White-winged Tanager Red-throated Ant-Tanager

Rose-breasted Grosbeak Indigo Bunting

Hooded Oriole Altamira Oriole Melodious Blackbird Montezuma Oropendola

Yellow-throated Euphonia Scrub Euphonia

avesdeltropico.com