In San Blas, great birding begins right outside your hotel room. Within a few blocks’ walk are beaches, estuaries and tropical scrub-forest - all filled with birds. A few-minute’s drive away will bring you to extensive mangrove swamps, fresh-water marshes, lowland jungles, banana plantations, shade-tree coffee plantations, thorn forests, and montane pine-oak forests. Over 250 species are likely on this trip, including more than two-dozen Mexican endemics.

January 13 Our trip begins when we arrive at Puerto Vallarta this afternoon. After clearing customs, we use our remaining daylight to look for birds, including the neon-bright Orange-breasted Bunting, as we make the three-hour drive to San Blas. We check-in at the Hotel Garza Canela, our home for the next nine days, and have a late dinner at the hotel’s fine restaurant.

January 14 After an early breakfast, we spend the morning on a boat trip up the Rio San Cristobal to the freshwater marsh at Las Marismas. This trip will take us through mangrove swamps where we’ll see many waders, other water birds, and raptors, and look for the elusive Mangrove Cuckoo, Mangrove Vireo, and Gray-crowned Yellowthroat. At Las Marismas, we’ll look for Black-bellied and Fulvous Whistling-Ducks, which may be there in large flocks. We return to the hotel for lunch, and spend the afternoon and evening birding the scrub forest near our hotel, where we have a chance to see many great birds, including Elegant Quail, Russet-crowned Motmot and Yellow-winged Cacique.

January 15 This morning we leave the hotel very early to look for owls in the nearby Singayta jungle. As dawn breaks, a chorus of song greets us as the jungle awakens, including the haunting calls of the Collared Forest-Falcon. We spend the morning birding the jungle, and return to the hotel for lunch. This afternoon, we look for shorebirds, raptors, sparrows and seedeaters at the shrimp-farm ponds, fields and scrub north of town.

January 16 Today, we spend our morning on a boat trip to Elephant Rock, an offshore rookery for boobies and Red-billed Tropicbirds. This will give us a chance to see some ocean birds, and to look for the numerous whales and dolphins in these waters. In the afternoon, we visit Playa del Rey, an extensive beach backed by scrub-forest on the barrier island opposite town.

January 17 We leave early this morning for an all-day trip to the pine-oak forests of the remnant volcano, Cerro de San Juan, where an entirely different array of birds can be found. We’ll search for mixed flocks of songbirds, in hopes of seeing birds such as White-striped Woodcreeper, Crescent-chested Warbler, Rufous-capped Warbler, both Painted and Slate-throated Redstarts and Red-headed Tanager.

January 18 Our morning will be spent birding the shade-coffee plantations at La Bajada and the shores of nearby Matanchen Bay. This afternoon, we bird the thorn-scrub forest east of San Blas, and end the day watching flights of Military Macaws at Mirador del Aguila.

 January 19 This morning we will bird at the upper end of the Singayta jungle and the adjacent agricultural land. In the afternoon, we take a boat trip to the San Cristobal Estuary, where we may see the Rufous-necked Wood-Rail, and finish with an evening and night trip to the springs at La Tovarra and the sight of many Northern Potoos.

January 20 The itinerary for today is open for repeat visits to key birding locations, depending upon what birds we still need, and what you wish to do. 

January 21 After breakfast, we leave our hotel for the last time, and begin our drive to Puerto Vallarta. Our late- afternoon flight gives us plenty of time for birding stops along the way. Soon we arrive at the airport, and head home full of memories of this idyllic part of Mexico.

Arrival and Departure information:

The tour begins in Puerto Vallarta in the afternoon of January 14, and ends in Puerto Vallarta in the afternoon of January 22. Flights should be scheduled to arrive no later than 3 p.m. on the 14th, and depart no earlier than 2 p.m. on the 22nd. Westwings staff will meet you at the airport, or at your hotel, if you plan to arrive before the 14th - please call for exact coordinating information. We can make your flight reservations for you, if you wish. The tour price includes all transportation, meals, lodging and non-personal expenses during the tour. See the reservation form for further details on what’s included, and for additional Westwings, Inc. policies.

If you have further questions regarding this trip, please call (866) 552-0221, or e-mail us at cbirds@westwings.com