Birding downtown Puerto Vallarta

Mar 19-22 2016 The Old Town

 Puerto Vallarta Jalisco Mexico.

Puerto Vallarta is an excellent place for bird watching due to its geographic location, as there are more than 350 species of birds in the area, including aquatic, land and marine birds.

On the Beach

A sense of place. Puerto Vallarta's old town beach. Nikon P100

Laughing Gull

Puerto Vallarta is a Mexican beach resort city situated on the Pacific Ocean's Bahía de Banderas.

Magnificent frigate bird with a fish it has just stolen from an elegant tern in mid-air.

Magnificent frigatebirds.

These frigate birds were taken in the downtown area on the famous Malecon promenade, a beachfront attraction that draws thousands of visitors during the day and pounds with the sound of music at night. Despite it all there is some really good birding right along the beach.

Birds of suburban creeks and parks. 

Yellow-crowned Heron

There are numerous small creeks running into Banderas Bay that attract a host of species including herons, egrets, pelicans, sandpipers, black-necked stilts and the odd eight foot long crocodile. Tread carefully when stalking birds as one never knows what could be lurking underfoot!

This crocodile was patiently waiting for a hapless bird or iguana to drop its guard. The beach was only a hundred metres downstream but only becomes a concern after rainfall and the creeks overflows into the beach area. They don't mention that in the travel brochures!

White ibis and tri-coloured heron in the background.

Green Heron.

Tri-coloured Heron.

Black-bellied whistling duck.

    In the trees were White-winged Pigeons, orchard and streak-backed orioles.The whistling ducks on the local golf club shot from distance through a fence.

White-winged pigeon.

Tropical Kingbird

Orchard oriole feeding on guamuchil seeds.
Inside the pod and covering the bean or seed is a white material the birds eat. The tree is not native to Mexico probably introduced by the many migrants from Asia and the Orient who have settled in the area.

A brightly coloured Streaked-backed Oriole.

Streaked back oriole( dull adult)

 The streaked-back is the most common resident oriole in thorn to tropical deciduous forest and lower pine-oak zone. 

Bourganvillia and streaked-back Oriole.
 I also photographed Bullock's in the mountains and hooded at the coast.

Hooded Oriole

This ends an exiting ten days in Mexico, my first ever birding excursion outside of Canada. It looks like it won't be my last!  

"It's never too late to start birding"

John Gordon

Langley/Cloverdale

BC Canada