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WingsWest Birding
Mexico Tours
THICK-BILLED PARROTS AND EARED QUETZALS OF THE SIERRA MADRE August 2025 cost per person double occupancy: $1,675 $300 single supplement
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This trip offers the unique opportunity to visit breeding locations for the endangered Thick-billed Parrot and the dazzling Eared Quetzal within 250 miles of the US border. Elevations visited will range from 5,000-9,000’ mostly in the Sierra Madre of west-central Chihuahua. Trip originates in Deming, NM but participants can be picked up at airports in Albuquerque or El Paso.
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Day 1:
Drive from Deming to Madera, Chihuahua. (approx. 300 miles) with stops at customs in Palomas and a birding stop at Laguna de Fiero outside Nuevas Casas Grandes. After traversing a long section of the Chihuahuan Desert in both countries, we start to gain elevation in northern Chihuahua. Passing through 2 sets of oak-dominated foothill ranges, we arrive at the mountain logging town of Madera (7,000’). Night is at the Hotel Santana with our host Aracely Palacios.
Day 2:
Just north of Madera is the most easily accessed remaining breeding area for the Thick-billed Parrot called Region Priortaria para Conservacion. A local guide working for a Mexican conservation organization, will take us high on the mountain ridges to the groves of old aspens that the parrots favor for breeding. We will be able to see birds visiting and occupying nesting cavities. This is also the area we have opportunities for seeing breeding Eared Quetzal-a stunning denizen of humid canyons in the Sierra Madre Occidental. Slate-throated Redstart, Pine Flycatcher, and Russet Nightingale Thrush also breed here. Night stay back in Madera.
Day 3:
This morning we head west from Madera birding along the Huapoca Road that switchbacks into a massive canyon system of the Rio Papigochic. Amazingly, this river is a tributary of the Rio Yaqui that reaches the Sea of Cortez just west of Obregon, Sonora. We will bird part way down looking for Rusty Sparrow, Elegant Trogon, and Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher among others. Then we retrace back near Madera and head due south for Rancho Sirupa. This ranch, also owned by the folks at Hotel Santana, is higher up on the Rio Papigochic, also in an impressive part of the canyon. Among other features near the ranch are some aguas termales which can be visited (optional) in the late afternoon. Night in cabins at the ranch. For those interested we will embark on an owling excursion, hoping to encounter Elf Owls.
Day 4: This morning we will walk along the river. Being several thousand feet below Madera, we can access lower elevation species such as Violet-crowned, Broad-billed, and Berylline Hummingbirds, Brown-crested Flycatcher, and Vermilion Flycatcher. After lunch, we ascend back to Madera for a late afternoon walk near Hotel Santana.
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DAY 5 We will return to the RPC for additional encounters with the parrots and to find species we might have missed on our first day here such as Mountain Trogon and Brown-backed Solitaire. On our way back to Hotel Santana, we will bird Capilla Santo Nino on the outskirts of town. In August 2024 a pair of American Goshawks bred here and it is also a chance to find Aztec Thrush. Night at Hotel Santana.
Day 6:
After breakfast at the hotel, we start our return drive north to the states. Our main birding stop will be at Laguna Babicora about an hour drive from Madera. With shorebird migration in full swing, that will be our birding focus. Among the 11 shorebird species seen in August 2024 were Solitary, Stilt, and a second state record for Semipalmated. We will cross the US border late afternoon/ early evening and drop clients at their hotels either in Deming or Las Cruces.
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