Mexico has more bird species than the USA including Hawaii and it has double the amount of bird species found in Canada. The Yucatan Peninsula is one of the best Bird Watching spots in Mexico. It has 548 different species including 11 endemic varieties; in the wintertime one finds even more species as migratory birds visit the warm region. The Yucatan offers great Bird Watching year round due to its subtropical position. Renowned birding sites near the Riviera Maya are:

•    Sian Kaan Reserve
•    Cozumel Island
•    Rio Lagartos Biosphere Reserve
•    Botanical Garden Dr. Alfredo Barrera Marin
•    Coba Ruins
•    Punta Laguna

All these bird watching sites can be visited on one day tours from the Riviera Maya. The Riviera Maya is an excellent birder destination as it allows the visitor to enjoy its tourist infrastructure and comfortable hotels while going out on day trips to specialized birding sites. One can also choose to stay in rural areas with less comfort but many more birds!

This is a short introduction to these 6 Bird Watching Destinations that can be visited from the Mayan Riviera: 

The steep walls of the Sumidero Canyon in Chiapas, Mexico are still sacred spaces where humans meet ancestors and deities much in the same manner as they did 2000 years ago before European influences came to this continent. This practice is maintained up to date by the so called “traditioners” (costumbreros). According to archaeologist Enrique Mendez Torres from the Mexican School of Anthropology and History (ENAH), surrounding Tuxtla, Chiapas and mainly on the Capoya Plateau, the Mountain Range and the Sumidero Canyon –whose walls rise to 1200 meters (4000 feet)- caves, rocky shelters and gullies are found that have been used for ritual means since pre-Hispanic times.