The Bajío dry forests is a tropical dry broadleaf forest

Tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests

The tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forest biome, also known as tropical dry forest, is located at tropical and subtropical latitudes. Though these forests occur in climates that are warm year-round, and may receive several hundred centimeters of rain per year, they have long dry seasons...

 ecoregion

Ecoregion

An ecoregion , sometimes called a bioregion, is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than an ecozone and larger than an ecosystem. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of land or water, and contain characteristic, geographically distinct assemblages of natural...

 of west-central Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

.

The Bajío dry forests lie in the southwestern portion of the Mexican Plateau

Mexican Plateau

The Central Mexican Plateau, also known as the Mexican Altiplano or Altiplanicie Mexicana, is a large arid-to-semiarid plateau that occupies much of northern and central Mexico...

. They are bounded on the southeast, south, and southwest by the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt pine-oak forests

Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt pine-oak forests

The Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt pine-oak forests is a subtropical coniferous forest ecoregion of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt of central Mexico.-Setting:...

, which occupy the folded mountains and volcanoes of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt

Trans-Mexican volcanic belt

The Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt also known as the Transvolcanic Belt and locally as the Sierra Nevada , is a volcanic belt that extends 900 km from west to east across central-southern Mexico...

 that form the southern edge of the Mexican Plateau. The Sierra Madre Occidental pine-oak forests

Sierra Madre Occidental pine-oak forests

The Sierra Madre Occidental pine-oak forests are a subtropical coniferous forest ecoregion of the Sierra Madre Occidental range of western Mexico and the southwestern United States...

 of the Sierra Madre Occidental

Sierra Madre Occidental

The Sierra Madre Occidental is a mountain range in western Mexico.-Setting:The range runs north to south, from just south of the Sonora–Arizona border southeast through eastern Sonora, western Chihuahua, Sinaloa, Durango, Zacatecas, Nayarit, Jalisco, Aguascalientes to Guanajuato, where it joins...

 bound the ecoregion on the northwest. The numerous mountains of the plateau which rise above the dry forests are occupied by sky island

Sky island

Sky islands are mountains that are isolated by surrounding lowlands of a dramatically different environment, a situation which, in combination with the altitudinal zonation of ecosystems, has significant implications for natural habitats. Endemism, vertical migration, and relict populations are...

s of pine-oak forest. To the north, the Bajío dry forests transition to the drier, more temperate Central Mexican Matorral

Central Mexican matorral

The Central Mexican matorral is an ecoregion of the Deserts and xeric shrublands Biome of central Mexico.-Setting:The Central Mexican matorral covers an area of on the southern portion of the Mexican Plateau....

. Most of the ecoregion lies within the basin of the Lerma River

Lerma River

The Lerma Santiago River is Mexico's second longest river. It is a river in west-central Mexico that begins in Mexican Plateau at an altitude over above sea level, and ends where it empties into Lake Chapala, Mexico's largest lake, near Guadalajara, Jalisco...

, and the dry forests extend around Lake Chapala

Lake Chapala

Lake Chapala is Mexico's largest freshwater lake. It lies in the municipalities of Chapala, Jocotepec , Poncitlán, and Jamay, in Jalisco, and in Venustiano Carranza and Cojumatlán de Régules, in Michoacán.- Geographic Features :...

 at the eastern end of the region, and into the endorheic basins of Lake Cuitzeo

Lake Cuitzeo

Lake Cuitzeo is a lake in central part of Mexico, in the Michoacán State. It is located at around . It has an area of 300-400 km². The lake is astatic, and the volume and level of water in the lake fluctuates frequently. It is the second largest freshwater lake in Mexico.Lake Cuitzeo lies in an...

 and Lake Pátzcuaro

Lake Pátzcuaro

Lake Pátzcuaro is a lake in the municipality of Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, Mexico.The natives believe that the lake is the place where the barrier between life and death is the thinnest....

 in the south.

Native Mammals include Mexican Wolf

Mexican Wolf

The Mexican Wolf is a subspecies of the Gray Wolf. It is native to North America, where it is the rarest and most genetically distinct subspecies.- Physical features :...

 (Canus lupus baileyi) and Pocketed Free-tailed Bat

Pocketed Free-tailed Bat

The Pocketed Free-tailed Bat is a species of bat in the family Molossidae. It is found in Mexico and in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas in the United States....

 (Nyctinomops femorosaccus). Birds include the Black-throated Magpie-jay

Black-throated Magpie-jay

The Black-throated Magpie-Jay is a strikingly long-tailed jay of northwestern Mexico.-Description:This species is 58.5 to 76.5 cm long, more than half of which is the tail, and weight is 225-251 grams...

 (Calocitta colliei), Thick-billed Kingbird

Thick-billed Kingbird

The Thick-billed Kingbird, Tyrannus crassirostris, is a large bird in the Tyrannidae family, the tyrant flycatchers. This bird breeds from southeastern Arizona, extreme southwestern New Mexico, and northern Sonora, , in the United States and Mexico, through western and western-coastal Mexico,...

 (Tyrannus crassirostris), Whiskered Screech Owl

Whiskered Screech Owl

The Whiskered Screech Owl or Whiskered Screech-Owl , is a small scops owl found in North and Central America.-Description:...

 (Otus trichopsus), Orange-fronted Parakeet

Orange-fronted Parakeet

The Orange-fronted Parakeet or Orange-fronted Conure , also known as the Half-moon Conure, is a medium-sized parrot which is a resident from western Mexico to Costa Rica.-Taxonomy:There are three subspecies:...

 (Aratinga caniculanis), Dwarf Vireo

Dwarf Vireo

The Dwarf Vireo is a species of bird in the Vireonidae family.It is endemic to Mexico.Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical high-altitude shrubland.-References:...

 (Vireo nelsoni), and Black-polled Yellowthroat

Black-polled Yellowthroat

The Black-polled Yellowthroat is a species of bird in the Parulidae family. It is endemic to Mexico. Its natural habitats are freshwater lakes and freshwater marshes.It is threatened by habitat loss.-References:...

 (Geothlypis speciosa).

The ecoregion is densely populated, and centuries of human use have reduced the dry forests to small pockets. Dry deciduous forest used to be the dominant vegetation, but thorn scrub and subtropical matorral are now more common, interspersed with agricultural and pasture lands. The cities of Guadalajara

Guadalajara

Guadalajara may refer to:In Mexico:*Guadalajara, Jalisco, the capital of the state of Jalisco and second largest city in Mexico**Guadalajara Metropolitan Area*University of Guadalajara, a public university in Guadalajara, Jalisco...

, Morelia

Morelia

Morelia is a city and municipality in the north central part of the state of Michoacán in central Mexico. The city is in the Guayangareo Valley and is the capital of the state. The main pre-Hispanic cultures here were the P'urhépecha and the Matlatzinca, but no major cities were founded in the...

, and Querétaro lie within the ecoregion.