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The Ría Lagartos Natural Park is located on the northern coast of Yucatán. Its habitat contains coastal dunes, mangroves, tulares, reedbeds, grasslands, low deciduous forests, and petenes; habitat for the endemic Mexican Sheartail, Orange Oriole and Yucatan Wren. In the center, where there are concentrations of salt water and fresh water, we will take a boat tour in the mangrove ría to search for the American Flamingo, Mangrove Warbler, Clapper Rail, several species of herons, egrets, terns, shorebirds and more.
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Considering that Rio Lagartos is less than 3 3-hour drive away from Merida, we recommend starting birding before sunrise or arranging accommodation to stay the night before to have chances of the Yucatan Nightjar, a bird difficult to see in other places. Otherwise, if coming from Merida, it's advisable to go at least 2 hours before the sun rises.
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After the boat tour, we will continue to a site with a particular habitat, home of restricted-range birds like the Mexican Sheartail, the Yucatan Wren, the Black-throated Bobwhite, the Zenaida Dove, the Lesser Yellow-headed Vulture, and the Lesser Roadrunner. This area represents the vegetation of Ria Lagartos reserve, with its mangrove forest and coastal dune vegetation.
The Ría Lagartos Biosphere Reserve is a protected area located in the northeastern part of the Yucatán State, 106 kilometers north of Valladolid. It encompasses vital wetlands recognized by the Ramsar Convention. It presents a great diversity of environments, such as mangroves, semi-evergreen forest, low deciduous forest, coastal dune vegetation, petenes and savannah, grassland and reedbeds, which are the main nesting sites for marsh and sea birds. In this particular habitat, we can find around 300 species, some of which are restricted (or more common) to this area.
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