Aerial view of Pico de Orizaba = Citlaltépetl volcano at western border of Veracruz state (photo from Wikimedia)

7 October 2026

Today I leave Veracruz and Mexico to fly home to Pittsburgh.

I first became hooked on the River of Raptors when I saw this video (below) in 2013 but I did not act on it until this year. 100,000 raptors(!), tropical birds, and so much more!

Did I see what this video promised? I’m glad I came.

Birds in order of appearance in the video, include 4 occurrences of broad-winged hawks.

1. Broad-winged hawk
2. Common squirrel cuckoo
3. (not a bird. a tabby cat)
4. Blue-gray tanager
5. Boat-billed flycatcher
6. Osprey
7. Broad-winged hawk
8. Black vulture
9. Broad-winged hawk
10. Broad-winged hawk
11. Ferruginous pygmy-owl
12. Fork-tailed flycatcher
13. Crested caracara
14. Gray hawk
15. Great kiskadee
16. Hook-billed kite
17. Laughing falcon
18. Masked tityra
19. Lucifer hummingbird
20. Northern harrier
21. Peregrine falcon
22. Red-legged honeycreeper
23. Roadside hawk
24. Rose-throated becard
25. Ruby-throated hummingbird
26. Veracruz wren (split from rufous-naped wren in 2009)
27. Yellow-throated euphonia
28. Short-tailed hawk (white belly & throat with brown nape and head)
29. Swainson’s hawk
30. MYSTERY BIRD! Looks like a Common buzzard to me (Eurasia+Africa). It might be a very pale red-tailed hawk … but it has no patagial stripes.
31. Tropical/Couch’s kingbird
32. Turkey vulture
33. Wood stork
34. Zone-tailed hawk

Background music on the video is a 1992 song by Maná called Vivir Sin Aire (Living Without Air), a song about love lost with an apt line: Cómo pudiera un ave volar sin alas = How could a bird fly without wings?