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 whale shark is the biggest fish in the world. It has a massive body that can reach up to 18 meter (60 feet). Its coloration is gray or dark blue on its back, with circular spots and light colored white or yellowish horizontal and vertical lines and a white belly. In Mexico these patterns give the whale shark its local name: "domino."

Named after the shark’s nickname Domino: The Mexican Atlantic Whale Shark Project was created in Mexico in 2003. The project was established for whale shark conservation and allows whale shark tour operations to run Whale Shark excursions for visitors that would like to swim with the animals. 

The archaeological site of Palenque is famous for the 1952 discovery of the tomb of Pakal, one of the most important rulers of the ancient Mayan city, inside the Temple of the Inscriptions.
Major construction to be seen in Palenque, in addition to the Temple of the Inscriptions are: The Palace with its unmistakable four-story tower, galleries, courtyards and boards with hieroglyphs and human images; The structure of the crosses, composed of the Temples of the Cross, the Sun, the Conde and the Foliada cross, most of the cross structures have relief of a corn plant in the form of a cross resting on a Maya representation of the "earth monster"; and the Temple XIII, where the remains of the famous Red Queen were found.
At Bonampak, it is interesting to see the murals of the acropolis style structure I which depicts the glorious Chaan Muan II or Jaguar Bird, one of the last rulers of this Mayan city. In the paintings, which were created in the eighth century, one finds images that refer to the preparations for a battle and religious rituals.

At the waterfalls of Agua Azul (cascadas de Agua Azul), we can observe the different colors in the water ranging from green to sky blue water. The river has been formed by the river spills from the highlands of Chiapas.
The Montebello Lakes (Lagos de Montebello). Although the lakes are situated in the mountain region of Chiapas, these lakes were formed in cenote style; underground rivers from which the roofs have collapsed. The variety of organic matter gives different shades to the water.

More than 300 caves and cenotes, of an estimated 2 thousand existing caves in the Puuc region of Yucatan, Mexico, have been registered by the Mexican Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH). These are spaces in which archaeological remains have been found associated with household activities and rituals of the ancient Mayan culture. The Puuc region stretches along the southern and southeastern part of Yucatan state, and has archaeological sites such as Uxmal, Chacmultún and Oxkintok. The project is focused on preserving the archaeological Mayan heritage deposited in these spaces, and to determine its satellite locations, dimensions and topographic characteristics. Uc Eunice Gonzalez, researcher and project leader of the Yucatan INAH Center, said that so far the database already has information on 300 of these underground spaces. “We have found underground walls with masonry constructions, underground accesses with jambs and lintels, rock carvings, materials such as mortars, pottery and dishes, and sometimes even a mural on the walls of the caves." Throughout 11 years of work, the specialist has developed a classification system that divides the underground chambers into three groups depending on the purpose given to the space by the ancient Maya: spaces of ritual, domestic work or extraction of minerals. Each category has particular physical characteristics that have helped to investigate the daily lives of the ancient people that inhabited the Puuc Route. After explaining that the term aktun means caverns or caves in the Mayan language, the archaeologist Uc Gonzalez clarified that within the classification of these spaces the areas used for ritual stand out. These were the caves where only the Mayan priests could enter; in the entrances of these spaces pre-Hispanic walls made of mortar have been found which shows that the access to these caves were restricted.  They have furthermore found lintels that hide special chambers with rock carvings and drawings in shades of blue, a color associated with the sacred.