Jardín Botánico de Vallarta

I had been excited for the chance to visit the botanical gardens of Vallarta.  Pictures online don't do this garden justice.  It's much more than what you'll see online. In fact, the pics can be somewhat underwhelming.  The garden is massive and dare I say it? A nature preserve!  I knew from my research that a good chunk of my life birds could be found here. I was on vacation so I spoiled myself for the day.  I hate carrying my camera around and especially on a public bus.  So for 17 bucks, I took an Uber up from my AirBnB.  It was 10 bucks to get into the gardens and my ticket was good for 2 visits. 

I didn't know where to start.  The gardens are VAST!  I got there at 9 when it opened up and the birds were super active. My first lifer was the beautiful and very present Yellow-winged Cacique(above).  It was hard to miss them as they were vocal and plentiful around the gardens. 

First off, this map above makes the gardens look tiny.  It's not.  It's a huge property.  And there are 4 main areas to focus for the birds.  There's the rain forested shady buggy area that has trails along a muddy creek(which is on the right side of the map).  That's a good area for wrens, trogons, ant tanagers and other forest birds. 

                                                                       San Blas Jay

The second part is the restaurant.  The food is amazing and you should consider eating lunch here.  The cold adult beverages are also very tasty on those hot and humid days. However, the gardens are at a higher elevation so it's much cooler than down in the city. It's here where one can go to the top of the canopy of the trees and see a lot of birds out in the open like Yellow-winged Cacique, San Blas Jays, and Yellow Grosbeaks.  There are also feeder stations below that you can watch.  This area is really birdy and fun to just drink and bird. Careful not to drop your camera because it's a long way down:)  The San Blas Jay and Yellow Grosbeaks are normally very difficult to get clear views of....so I cheated a bit with them at the feeders:)

                                                 The seating area of the gardens on the second floor

It was getting hot and sweaty by afternoon.  The storms were building and I promised myself that I would not leave until I finally saw that darn Yellow Grosbeak.  I waited a full morning to get one out in the open.  I was a little buzzed from my drink, and I almost didn't get a shot of the Yellow Grosbeak below.  I dropped everything to spy on this yellow bird.  People were giggling because I was definitely one of those "birder" people.  The birding at the gardens is super easy and I had made a list of the "gets".  And I got all of them except the Golden-crowned Emerald. The 3 "hardest" ones that I didn't want to dip on were Military Macaw, Yellow Grosbeak and the tight endemic, Mexican Hermit. 

                                           the often secretive Yellow Grosbeak makes a bold appearance

The feeders reminded me of the Santa Rita Lodge here in Southeastern Arizona. HOWEVER, there is a world class restaurant here with clean bathrooms and a lovely gift shop full of nice souvenirs. The Santa Rita Lodge now has a lovely coffee shop but no restaurant. It doesn't need a restaurant, but the coffee shop was a nice add. 

                                                                      San Blas Jay

The third part of the gardens are what I call the "greenhouses" where they have their orchids and ferns.  These houses were open to the outside AND this is where you'll get your hummingbirds as there are open flower gardens next door.  The hummingbirds fly in and out of the greenhouses while also feeding from the flower gardens nearby. 

I was so focused on ALL the birds that I had forgotten about some of the ones I needed to find. Most of the birds at the gardens were either rarities in Southeastern Arizona or completely new.  And to be honest, it was great seeing each and every one of them in their regular habitat. 

                                                                    Yellow-winged Cacique

Hermits are a headache because they are so fast!  I had forgotten that I really needed to focus on the Mexican Hermit. It's a true western Mexico endemic.  There were a lot of Mexican endemics but only a few western Mexican endemics that I needed to focus on. Because if I did my homework properly, I wouldn't have to retrace my steps in Puerto Vallarta again.  Not that I'd mind revisiting but there are so many birds to discover out there. 

                                                         Mexican Hermit(Jalisco Subspecies)

The Mexican Hermit zipped into focus as I was studying some of the other hummers.  This one however liked the outdoor flowers better.  And they are fast!  This current species may be broken into 3 even tighter populations down the road.  There are the Nayarit/Jalisco populations and further south, there is the Guerrero population followed by the Oaxacan one. I added the Jalisco subspecies. And I gave myself a mental pat on the back for this one.  This hummer is not always a given.  I felt good that I was able to observe it well for a few minutes. 

Let's go from the harder hummingbird to an easier one, the Cinnamon Hummingbird. Now, over the years, I think I've seen this hummer 3 or 4 times but I've never been able to get clear views.  However on this trip, I was definitely able to count this bird on my life list. In fact, this is a hummingbird that is hard to miss at the gardens.  They were everywhere. What a gorgeous bird!

                                                   Cinnamon Hummingbird, a common resident

I continued onwards to the other green houses searching for little birds like wrens poking around the plants for bugs.  There I found a Sinaloa Wren.  They are quite common at the gardens.  Also abundant? Thrushes!

What a treat!  White-throated Thrush is a bird I don't get to see often but here they were all casually catching bugs around the pavement and human made structures. This bird was definitely a morning bird and out in the open.  As it got later in the day, they disappeared into the forest. 

                                                         White-throated Thrush(Northern subspecies)

A Tropical Parula was taking a little bath in the fronds. Remember, to look for the little birds around the human structures. They love foraging about the array of plants and trees in and around the greenhouses. 

                                                                           Tropical Parula

This is why it's so hard to focus on lifers.  Until that day at the Vallarta gardens, I have never had such views of a Tropical Parula.  I've seen them many times but in dark forest conditions.  Here, this little warbler was out in the open in nice light. 

                                                Rufous-backed Robin, another common resident

Of course Rufous-backed Robin and White-tipped Doves are all around the pavement areas.  Both these birds are secretive here in Arizona and northern Mexico but here at the gardens, they weren't as skittish.  Again, what a treat!  

    the secretive White-tipped Dove comes out for a morning stroll before the tourist crowds arrive

Now let me get to the final part of the gardens.  The wild forest along the river.  You can swim there!  But be careful for the current.  If there's a storm in the area, stay out of it.  The 4th part of the garden is truly the most magical but also the roughest.  But it'll be worth your while.......parrots.

                                                                      Military Macaws flyover

Due to Mexicans (and apparently the Chinese now!) stealing birds from the wild for the illegal caged bird trade, Military Macaws are hidden from the lists on ebird.  And yet I had a 13 percent chance of seeing them somewhere in the state of Jalisco. That's actually quite good but I had to review my personal notes on macaws to figure this mystery bird out.  If I couldn't figure it out, I'd have a day with a personal guide who might be able to help me out.  Thankfully, I was spot on.  The birds are there in a healthy number.  I'll do a separate post on them in this series. Anyhow, I lucked out and had these Macaws fly over me by the river into the forest preserve.  Winter is better for them and again, I'll go into details about them in a future post. 

Ok.  Look at this picture above!!!!  That's all part of the garden. There are trails through all of that but so many people don't have time to do it all in one day.  So that's why you can go back again during the same week and check out the rest if you want. This is where your parrots and parakeets will be hiding out. And of course.....trogons!  Maybe even a Collared forest falcon!  I saw a Common Black Hawk along the river and was thrilled. 

                                                              female Red-crowned Ant-Tanager

In the hot sweaty forest, I followed the bird song.  I found a female Red-Crowned Ant Tanager.  Then I heard the unmistakable sound of a trogon!  Oh I've seen all of them before but still......a trogon!  

                                                                     Elegant Trogon

Two trogons are similar and can be found in this area, the Mountain and Elegant Trogon.  Their tail helps us with ID marks.  It sounded like an Elegant Trogon but I am not familiar with these birds so far south of Arizona. So I assumed it was a Mountain Trogon.  The thing is, THAT trogon is found higher up in pine forest habitat.  The bar code on the tail was wrong for Mountain Trogon and matched Elegant.  The thing is......it didn't look like the Elegant Trogon we have in Southeastern Arizona.  Kinda sounded like ours though. 

This is why local guides are so important, especially if you're at that level of birding in your life.  Thank you to Mark Stackhouse for clarifying that there are several subspecies of Elegant Trogon. It explains the slight variation of bolder and darker colors on this bird in the area.  I saw MANY Elegant Trogons during my birding adventures around Puerto Vallarta. 

                                                            West Mexican Chachalaca

Often you'll hear very loud chatter!  Those would be the Chachalacas, specifically the West Mexican Chachalaca.  They love the forest edge near clear openings.  The gardens are great for these birds.  I happened to catch these birds off guard out in the open.  I didn't make any fast moves. And we all moved together slowly.  It was an enjoyable observation.  In the past, on a networking trip to Chiapas, I had seen them on a hillside of a mountain with coati.  One of our guides just blew the bird off and said it was "just" a West Mexican Chachalaca. There's no such thing as "just" when you guide people. Every bird matters! I remember this particular bird observation when I'm guiding a group of people in Southeastern Arizona and ask what birds they hope to see making sure I keep my ears open for them.  I made amends this time making sure I had lovely views on my own. Later, a group of those chachalacas came to the feeders and I fell in love with the babies. 

If you're an independent birder, like I try to be most of the time, this is a great place to find many of your West Mexican endemics.  In fact, I think it's one of the best hotspots in Puerto Vallarta. There are MANY more.  But this is a good first stop.  

I took a taxi back into town which was around 20 bucks.  Again, you can take the public bus but I have expensive camera equipment and it's better to be safe than sorry. Although I will say I felt safe the entire time I was in Puerto Vallarta. Still, one never lets their guard down. Here is my ebird checklist from the gardens. Once you're in the gardens, you are safe on the trails. Next time, we'll visit the Marieta Islands for some more fun.  Until next time.....