Birdwatching Yucatan 3 days trip focus on endemic birds

Posted By : gabrielgK3141SM
Carlos led a 3 day birding trip for me and my wife through Contoy Excursions. Highly recommended! After pickup in Cancun we birded Ruta de los Cenotes, then stayed in Valladolid for two nights, hitting Las Coloradas one day and Coba the next.

Carlos is an interesting and laid back guy, very fun to spend time with. He's an excellent guide both for birds and the region generally. Before and throughout the trip he consulted us to see if we wanted to make diversions to see particular Cenotes, archeological sites, and birding hot spots. He offered to fully customize the itinerary, but the one he set up sounded perfect so I mainly went with that. Good decision.

Carlos is a skilled birder. He knew where to find particular birds we wanted to see, and structured the trip so we'd see the maximum number of species and micro-environments. I ended up seeing 87 lifers in just those three days! My wife and I are both experienced birders from the eastern US, but had never birded in a tropical setting... it was overwhelming and wonderful. Too many highlights to name but we loved seeing Toucans, Aracaris, King Vulture, Flamingos, Red-Legged Honeycreeper, multiple Trogon, Parrot, Woodcreeper and Euphonia species, Turquoise-Browed Motmot, every possible Oriole species (minus migrants), lots of Yucatan endemics like Oceolated Turkey, Yucatan woodpecker, Yellow-lored Parrot, Mexican Sheartail, Yucatan Wren... the list goes on and on.

Equally amazing: seeing a troop of 50+ spider monkeys (with babies in tow), hearing a large cat's shriek (Jaguarundi?), seeing a rare yucatan deer, and seeing plants like orchids and achiote in the wild.

Beyond just the birding Carlos created a great experience for our first Yucatan peninsula visit. Valladolid is a great place to stay and explore on foot in the evenings. The hotel he picked was quite nice. The restaurants he took us too were always good, and he helped us try local foods. He's a local who speaks Mayan and told us about the region's history and culture. We saw (and swam in) two different Cenotes, and birding Coba was great as there were ruins and birds.

Overall the tour was a wonderful experience and I'd recommend it to anyone.
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Posted On : 2024-03-26 15:25:24

Posted By : TheHumbleTravellers
What a wonderful birding day it was, sighted 50+ species & captured almost 30-35 in camera. Carlos is super guide with all the insights and knows exactly what all locations to target for bird sighting. He is a experienced photograher also & even assisted me in getting my camera's focus at right place as some birds were so small that I was not able to focus. Truly master of his art.

The area also is like paradise for bird watchers and this tour is much recommended for a half day birding tour in this region.
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Posted On : 2022-06-03 01:52:50

Posted By : Happiness816064
Carlos is an excellent bird guide. I always worry that bird guides really are better at sales than birds. Carlos is honest at sales and just what really active birders need in the field. Carlos set up a great one day birding tour from Akumal. I worked with him for about two weeks, providing a target list, discussing options etc. He was always pleasant to work with. To meet my needs, he actually brought a second excellent bird watcher/guide along. It cost a little more for the two guides but still reasonable, and well worth it. He knows the birds, their songs and calls, and where to look for the best chance. This often resulted in driving down dirt roads in villages for just that special spot. If someone came out to see what we were doing, Carlos quickly explained, and always got positive support from the land owners..

I would recommend Carlos to any skill level of birding.
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Posted On : 2021-11-23 20:09:22