San Blas & the Durango Highway

If you love southeastern Arizona, then you’ll love this trip. It’s Arizona squared! All of the specialty birds that US birders hope to glimpse in the sky islands of southeastern AZ are common in northwest Mexico, and are joined by a host of Mexican species that US birders can only dream of ever finding north of the border. Making it even more compelling is the presence of 35+ Mexican endemics of which we routinely see at least thirty. Many of these, like the Tufted Jay and Mexican Woodnymph, are confined to extremely small geographic areas.The trip will combine visits to the northern Sierra Madre along the Durango Highway in the Mexican state of Sinaloa and to the tropical lowlands surrounding San Blas in the state of Nayarit. Despite the small size of the geographical area covered during the tour, we will visit a rich diversity of habitats including dry tropical deciduous forests, higher elevation coniferous forests, estuaries and mudflats, palm forest, shade coffee plantations and mangroves. The trip will also include two boat trips on the San Cristobal River outside of San Blas. This complex variety of habitats will provide an opportunity for participants to see around 300 species of birds during the tour including more than 30 of Mexico’s endemic species! The trip will begin and end in the coastal resort town of Mazatlan where we will spend the first 3 nights. From Mazatlan we will drive south to the coastal village of San Blas where we will stay at the lovely Garza Canela hotel for 7 nights and in between we will spend a night at the Tufted Jay preserve located at an elevation of 6500 feet.