Mexico's Monarchs, Humpbacks & Birds

Mexico is a fascinating and vibrant country: a colourful land steeped in history, myth and legend. This was the home of the ancient Aztec, Toltec and Maya civilisations, whose great pyramids rival those of Egypt, and landfall for the first of the Spanish Conquistadors as they searched for the fabled Cities of Gold. Today, Mexico is a modern, vibrant and welcoming country, full of natural history, scenic and cultural contrasts. It is also the stage for one of the most remarkable sights in the natural world, the winter gatherings of millions of Monarch butterflies.

Whilst south-eastern Mexico is clothed in thick tropical forests, in the north and west hot cactus deserts dominate. In between these extremes lie the cool Oyamel Fir forests of the central Mexican state of Michoacán. Here, the temperature, humidity and high altitude combine to create the perfect winter microclimate for millions of Monarch butterflies from the US and Canada which migrate south into Mexico every autumn to escape the cold further north. These are the third or fourth generations of butterflies that left Michoacán the previous spring and, to this day, little is known about how these delicate creatures navigate and how they find these small pockets of forest hundreds, if not thousands, of miles south from where they first emerged as adults.

As spectacular as the Monarch gatherings undoubtedly are, Mexico has many other wildlife facets to enjoy. During the same months that the butterflies gather in Michoacán, Humpback Whales congregate in Banderas Bay off Mexico’s Pacific coast, and numerous resident and wintering birds — including 25 Mexican endemics — can be found in the nearby wetlands, mangroves and forests. Although our tour takes in all these highlights, it begins with a flight to Mexico City from where we transfer to our first overnight stop at the pre-Aztec city of Teotihuacán (‘Place of the Gods’). We will explore the site the following morning, enjoying such birds as Vermillion Flycatcher, Canyon Towhee and Say’s Phoebe beneath the imposing triangle of the huge ‘Pyramid of the Sun’, the third largest pyramid in the world!

Next we drive west into the forested hills of Michoacán for three nights at Agua Blanca Lodge, near the town of Zitacuaro. From here we will visit two Monarch reserves. El Chincua is one of the best of these, attracting huge gatherings of butterflies each winter and less visitors than the nearby sanctuary at El Rosario. We plan on arriving mid-morning, at a time when the sun has warmed the forests sufficiently for the butterflies to start taking flight. It is a breathtaking spectacle. The trees here can become so laden with Monarchs that branches bend under their weight and, once the butterflies take to the air, the forest fills with the delicate sound of a million fluttering wings, turning the air into a whirlwind of orange and black! On our second day we will visit another of the reserves, choosing the one most favoured by the Monarchs during the time of our visit. If we can drag our eyes away from the mesmerising clouds of butterflies for a few moments, we are also sure to find an interesting variety of birds such as Red Warbler and Slate-throated Redstart.

For the second part of our holiday, we take a short flight to Puerto Vallarta on the Pacific coast. Once here, we will need to readjust our eyes from watching the small and delicate to the huge and mighty, for the next two mornings we take to the ocean in search of Humpback Whales. Humpbacks are one of the most entertaining whales to watch and during our time on the water we hope to witness a variety of behaviours, including spy-hopping, tail-lobbing and, for the fortunate, perhaps a full breach, whereby the whale launches itself fully out of the water before falling back with a resounding splash!

Moving on, we turn our attention to the excellent avifauna of Mexico’s Pacific coast, and drive north to the fishing village of San Blas. Mexico is home to nearly 1,100 species of birds, 10% of which are endemic. The estuaries, lagoons, mangroves and forests around San Blas attract a wide variety of these, including Boat-billed Heron, Golden-cheeked Woodpecker, Ivory-billed Woodcreeper, Citreoline Trogon and San Blas Jay.

Finally, after two days spent enjoying the birdlife of western Mexico, it will be time to return to Puerto Vallarta for our short flight to Mexico City, where we connect to our onward flight home.