Resident Birds of the Gomez Farias Region, 
Tamaulipas, Mexico 
Fred 5. Webster, Jr. 
The Gomez Farias area of Tamaulipas is a 
unique and fascinating region, and highly ac¬ 
cessible to North American birders, being just 
over 200 miles south-southwest of Brownsville, 
Texas, on good highways. Its ornithological 
features include Middle America’s northernmost 
cloud forest, with an avifauna quite unlike that 
found in southern Texas, a succession of 
vegetational zones that, within 20 miles, go from 
tropical lowlands — thorn and deciduous forest — 
to pine forest at 7000 feet. 
Rancho del Cielo, which is a convenient center 
from which to explore this area, is a field station of 
Texas Southmost College, and is located at 3800 
feet in the Sierra de Guatemala. An equally con¬ 
venient center nearby is Rancho Cielito, in the 
lowlands, situated on the bank of the Rio Sabinas, 
the river in George M. Sutton’s At a Bend in a 
Mexican River , New York, 1972. 
DESCRIPTION OF THE AREA 
Rancho del Cielo is located in the heart of Mid¬ 
dle America’s northernmost cloud forest. 
Although major components of this forest — 
towering oaks and sweet gum, with some hickory, 
maple, walnut, redbud and magnolia — also are 
common to certain parts of the eastern and 
southern United States, the resemblance ends 
there; myriad epiphytes — including many species 
of orchids and bromeliads — trees such as 
podocarpus, and other tropical plants not found 
farther north, add to the beauty of this verdant 
area. In places the lofty canopy is broken by rocky, 
moss-covered hillocks where large trees find no 
foothold; these rock piles support the growth of 
such plants as agave. 
.. Middle America's northernmost cloud 
forest, with an avifauna quite unlike 
that of southern Texas . . . 
Avifauna is predominantly tropical. Of the 
species that breed in the cloud forest, less than a 
dozen nest anywhere in the United States. The 
most common breeding bird is the Black-headed 
Nightingale-thrush. Rufescent Tinamou, Singing 
Quail, Mountain Trogon, Blue-crowned Motmot, 
three species of woodcreepers. Blue Mockingbird 
and Flame-colored Tanager are some of the other 
Mexican species which nest here. Larger mam¬ 
mals include black bear, coati, tayra, jaguar, 
puma and brocket deer. 
The cloud forest is on the eastern slope of the 
Sierra de Guatemala, a disjunct segment of the 
Sierra Madre Oriental. The presence of cloud 
forest at elevations between 3,000 and 4,000 feet 
(approx.) is owing largely to the configuration of 
the range and the rapid upsurge of moisture-laden 
winds from the Gulf of Mexico, about 90 miles to 
the east. 
The Sierra de Guatemala offers a unique op¬ 
portunity for comparing the ecology of a variety of 
vegetation zones within a distance of less than 20 
miles (crow flight). From thorn forest and tropical 
deciduous forest at lower elevations, one may 
progress altitudinally through tropical semi¬ 
evergreen forest, cloud forest, humid pine-oak 
forest, dry oak-pine forest, and montane 
chaparral. Pine is most common at higher 
elevations of this range, which reaches nearly 
7,000 feet. 
Cloud forest, tropical deciduous forest, and 
tropical semi-evergreen forest (also called tropical 
'4926 Strass Drive, Austin, Texas 78731. 
Volume 28, Number 1 
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