Mike in the Wild

Ever since my last visit to Mazatlán a year ago, my thoughts were on a tufted jay, an endemic bird found in the Sierra Madre Mountains in Sinaloa and two neighboring Mexican states.  During that trip, the tour guide taking my ship's group to the mountains even saw one from our bus as we took a busy highway out of the bustling port city.  I never witnessed the bird myself, even when we stopped at several towns in mountain communities like Concordia and Copala.   On my return to Mazatlán this month, I sought out the assistance of a birding guide to take me around the area in pursuit of the tufted jay and other endemic birds.  Unfortunately no one was available to escort me on the single day that my ship was in port.  However the tour company Birdwatching Mazatlán did offer me advice on where to go birding in the city.  As a result, for only a ten-dollar taxi ride, I found myself in the city's Parque Central, an extensive expanse of landscaped parkland wi...