Bird Museum in Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico

I love birds. I always have. I had them when I was a child; and, from time to time as an adult, I have bred them in numbers I am too embarrassed to admit. When we still lived in the USA, I had a basement full of assorted breeding cages, flight pens, aviaries, and nest boxes with which I brought hundreds of baby birds into the world. I bred American and English Budgerigars, cockatiels, Love Birds, Finches of every type, and diamond doves. I am sure I am forgetting some. I hand-reared the babies and sold them as pets. I was hooked. Even in Mexico, I bred budgies for a while.

We were headed to Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico, to see their infamous bird museum. Located in the northeastern part of the country, Saltillo boasts a population of between six and seven hundred thousand residents. This makes it the 20th largest metropolitan area in the Republic. The oldest city in northern Mexico, it was colonized by the Spanish in 1577. The city of Saltillo is the capital of the state of Coahuila, whose area once included the state of Texas. Until the Texas War for Independence, Coahuila was one monster of a state.

Saltillo is a modern Mexican city with a massive American car industry. It also has an appliance, silverware, and auto-part manufacturing complex called, "Grupo Industrial Saltillo." Some have told me they did not like the city because of its likeness to Detroit and its car industry. It is sometimes referred to as the Detroit of Mexico. Saltillo is a "sister city" of Austin, Texas.