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Treat yourself to a world class birdwatching vacation in warm and welcoming Northwest Mexico. After a resounding success in 2009, this fledgling festival promises to become the most important event of its kind in Latin America.
The Mazatlan Bird Festival is a bird watching event at the end of January in the beautiful port city of Mazatlan, at the gateway to the Sea of Cortez in Northwest Mexico. Within easy reach of this world-class resort destination, ecosystems ranging from vast coastal wetlands, rolling hills of thorn forest to the canyons and high elevation pine-oak forests of the Sierra Madre Occidental host a tremendous diversity of bird life, making this one of the worlds best bird watching destinations. The Mazatlan Bird Festival features tours, conferences, art exhibits and workshops to promote awareness and conservation of the more than 400 species of birds that can be found here. The 2009 Mazatlan Bird Festival featured well attended conferences and workshops by keynote speaker Peter Alden , an internationally known birding expert, as well as Dr. Ernesto Enkerlin, Director of CONAMP (Mexico's National Comission of Protected Natural Areas), Humberto Berlanga, National Coordinator of the North American Initiative for Bird Conservation, Dr. Gustavo Danemann, Executive Director of Pronatura Noroeste, and Dr. Paul Opler, and internationally know butterfly expert, among others. The festival also featured an art exhibit by David Tomb , and sold-out tours to a variety of habitats. Guided day tours went to the Tufted Jay Preserve, a small preserve situated at 6800 feet in the Sierra Madre, the protected Islands of Mazatlan, the salt flats of Playa Ceuta, the Mesa de Cacaxla preserve and the lagoons of the Estero del Yugo. Extended pre- and post festival trips explored extensively into the Sierra Madre Occidental and the wetlands around San Blas. Sendero Mexico and Pronatura Noroeste would like to thank the tourism boards of Mexico and the state of Sinaloa for their generous support, the guides, speakers, and volunteers for all of their time and hard work, and all the participants who made the First Mazatlan Bird Festival a success. |
