Yucatan Endemics
Birds of the Yucatan Peninsula
The Affinity that the coastal vegetation of the peninsula has with the Caribbean region provides habitat for birds from that region that are found nowhere else in Mexico.These include: Zenaida Dove, White-crowned Pigeon, Caribbean Dove, Caribbean Elaenia, Yucatan Vireo, Stripe-headed Tanager, and, unfortunately, of recent introduction, the Shiny cowbird. The White-lored Gnatcatcher has an equally unusual distribution, found only on the north coast of the state of Yucatan in eastern Mexico, while also inhabiting parts of the west coast of Mexico and Central America. The Yucatan Peninsula is home to an astounding 555 bird species in 74 different families. Birding can be done almost anywhere.
Yucatan Peninsula Endemics
14 endemic species are found throughout the region, as described above, including: Ocellated Turkey, Yellow-lored (Yucatan) Parrot, Yucatan Poorwill, Yucatan Nightjar, Red-vented (Yucatan) Woodpecker, Yucatan Flycatcher, Yucatan Jay, Yucatan Wren, Black Catbird, Rose-throated Tanager and Orange Oriole,Cozumel Emerald,Cozumel Vireo and the Cozumel Thrasher(probably extinct). The Black-throated (Yucatan) Bobwhite could also be considered an endemic except for a few disjunct populations, including one in Honduras. Another such species is the Mexican Sheartail, which apart from the north coast of the peninsula is only found in central Veracruz.
Rio Lagartos Endemics
Yellow-lored (Yucatan) Parrot, Yucatan Nightjar, Red-vented (Yucatan) Woodpecker, Yucatan Flycatcher, Yucatan Jay, Yucatan Wren and Orange Oriole.
The Black-throated (Yucatan) Bobwhite could also be considered an endemic except for a few disjunct populations, including one in Honduras. Another such species is the Mexican Sheartail, which apart from the north coast of the peninsula is only found in central Veracruz.
Cozumel Endemics
Cozumel Emerald,Cozumel Vireo and the Cozumel Thrasher(probably extinct).
Barbara MacKinnon is the author of the Yucatan and Rio Lagartos bird Lists
In the past 10 years Diego Nuñez has personally added 6 birds to the Rio Lagartos List
Bárbara MacKinnon de Montes is recognized as the Yucatán Peninsula’s most important bird life authority and she has been a Yucatán resident for the better part of her 41 years in Mexico. She was the founder of the Amigos de Sian Ka’an Association, for which she continues to serve as emeritus advisor.
MacKinnon de Montes oversees almost all bird-watching guide training in the region and her manual on the subject is used throughout the world; she has documented avian distribution on the peninsula over the last 34 years. She is regional sub-editor of North American Birds, and is the author of over fifty publications on birds and their conservation; she has also been a featured speaker at conferences throughout the world. In 2006 she was awarded Mexico’s National Prize for Ecological Merit, given by that nation’s Secretariat for the Environment and Natural Resources, on behalf of her numerous contributions to her specialty field of study.
For seven years, MacKInnon de Montes coordinated the “Toh” Yucatán/Mexico Bird Festival, whose realization is the culmination of work undertaken over 35 years. As part of the 2009 festival, she presented two interactive CD-ROMs entitled 200 Aves de la Península de Yucatán (200 Birds on the Yucatán Peninsula). A large number of the documented species are endemic to the Yucatán; MacKinnon de Montes specifies the Spanish, English and (where applicable) Maya rubric for each, as well as its average size, whether it is a permanent or seasonal resident, and the species’s prevalence, among other data