Take your time, enjoy the journey. Experience Yucatan's nature, history and wildlife at a relaxed pace. Our Classic tour includes the main locations to ensure the most representative birds, specialties and endemics of this area.
Day 1: Arrival day
We will pick you up at Cancun airport and transfer to the hotel in Playa del Carmen. Depending on your arrival time we can plan to go birding in the evening to try some crepuscular and nocturnal birds. We will have dinner together and will review the itinerary of the trip and answer any questions you may have.
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Day 2: Cozumel Island
Covering three key routes, this experience offers sightings of 60–70 bird species across diverse ecosystems, including lowland forest, coastal sand dunes, and mangroves. We will start getting to the ferry that will take us to the island early in the morning. The first stop is El Cedral, a southern town with open trails and flowering vegetation, ideal for spotting the Cozumel Emerald and Cozumel Wren, along with various subspecies. The tour continues through low jungle vegetation, where the Cozumel Vireo, Bright-rumped Attila, and Western Spindalis can be found. Next, we head east and north, stopping at coastal dune vegetation to observe shorebirds, terns, and gulls. Finally, we explore a wetland and mangrove zone in the north, where species like the Ruddy Crake and various herons can be seen.
We will stop birding before sun set and return to spend the second night in Playa del Carmen.
We will stop birding before sun set and return to spend the second night in Playa del Carmen.
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Day 3: Puerto Morelos - Colonia Yucatán-Río Lagartos
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We will leave the hotel to go birding in Puerto Morelos Reserve, a well-preserved medium forest area where our targets will be the Yucatan Flycatcher, Green-backed Sparrow, Orange Oriole, Rose-throated Tanager, among approximately 70 other species seen in the morning. Our next stop is Colonia Yucatán, where a mix of low and tall forest creates a diverse habitat perfect for birdwatching. In the afternoon, we will start birding in Río Lagartos, taking Mangrove Warbler, Clapper Rail, several species of herons, egrets, terns, shorebirds and more. Once the sun goes down and still in the boat we will look for the Yucatan Nightjar, a bird difficult to see in other places. Then, we will spend the night in Río Lagartos town to continue birding the next day.
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Day 4: Rio Lagartos
A day to have the best of Rio Lagartos Biosphere Reserve. We will start early morning birding in the lowland forest and mangrove vegetation at Rio Lagartos Reserve, with over 350 bird species documented. We will use this time in the morning to search for the missing species of the day before. This would spend our last night in Rio Lagartos to continue our tour the next day. |
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Day 5: Rio Lagartos - Chichen Itza
This morning we will be birding in the coastal sand dune and mangrove vegetation at Rio Lagartos Reserve, a site with a very particular habitat, home of restricted range birds. The Mexican Sheartail, Yucatan Wren, Black-throated Bobwhite, Zenaida Dove, Lesser Yellow-headed Vulture, Lesser Roadrunner will be some of the birds we will search. After lunch we will drive to the west by the coast of Yucatan to search for the Yucatan Gnatcatcher, an endemic restricted to that area. Then, our next stop is Chichen Itza, one of the most emblematic mayan ancient cities, which also is a great place to birdwhatching. At night, near our accomodation in Valladolid, we will look for the Yucatan Poorwill.
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Day 6: Valladolid
We will start early morning birding near Valladolid for several forest birds like the White-fronted parrot, Lesson's Motmot, Gray-headed Tanager, Gray-throated Chat. Then we will drive to Xocen Reserve, with a very active trail where we will have chances to see several forest birds like Thicket Tinamou, Mayan Antthrush, Rose-throated Tanager, and several others. This would be our second night in Valladolid.
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Day 7: Coba, Muyil and Felipe Carrillo Puerto
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The day starts near Cobá, on a forest trail with mixed vegetation that attracts various birds such as the Canivet’s Emerald, White-bellied Emerald, Yellow-winged Tanager, and Blue-gray Tanager. We then visit a nearby lagoon, surrounded by aquatic plants, where we can find species like the Ruddy Crake, Snail Kite, Pinnated Bittern, herons, egrets, and kingfishers. Next, we explore the Cobá archaeological site, where the Ocellated Turkey is often seen (depending on the season).
After lunch, we head to Muyil, the Sian Ka’an Reserve. We’ll walk through the village and the surrounding forest for about an hour and a half, exploring habitats with flowering and fruiting plants. Birds here include the Keel-billed Toucan, Collared Aracari, Lineated Woodpecker, Blue-gray Tanager, Yellow-winged Tanager, Squirrel Cuckoo, Wedge-tailed Sabrewing, and Black-headed Trogon, among others. We end the day traveling to Felipe Carrillo Puerto for an overnight stay. |
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Day 8: Felipe Carrillo Puerto
This is our last full day of birding, starting early in the morning, birding on the Vigía Chico trail. This is a place to look for any missing bird species from the humid forest of our tour through Yucatan, like the Mayan Antthrush or the Ticket Tinamou. Then, we will visit the archaeological site of Muyil within the reserve to observe the structures of the ancient coastal trading city. This is a protected area with taller trees that is home to other special species of the area, such as the Golden-olive Woodpecker, Ruddy Woodpecker, Gartered and Collared Trogon, Lesson's Motmot, Collared Forest Falcon, White-crowned Pigeon, Red-throated and Red-crowned Ant-tanager. This day at Muyil finishes with an optional boat tour to cross the lagoon by the site.
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Day 9: Airport drop off
Depending on the time of your flight ticket, we may be able to go birding at some places near the airport before drop you off in the airport. Near the Airport are two special places to go birding: Toh Reserve or Malecon Tajamar to try to spot any missing species of the targets.