Birding

Being on the road and in southern Arizona, one of the premier birding destinations for North American birders, has gotten me all jazzed about birding again. A little treat for the returning birder in me, I had the opportunity to join Sheri Williamson, author of the Hummingbirds of North America Peterson Field Guide and director of the Southwestern Bird Observatory, for a hummingbird banding session. Hummingbirds, unlike some other more ‘fragile’ and sensitive birds, are pretty calm when being banded and they are able to let the public see them process the birds. They mist net the birds and then measure, weigh, and band them as part of an ongoing study at the San Pedro riparian preserve. As you can see by the photos, being up close and personal to hummingbirds is pretty amazing.

Some of my posts here are going to be pretty wildlife focused from here on out—so just skip ‘em if you aren’t interested ;)

I haven’t gotten to see even a quarter of the birds southeast AZ has to offer—we spent a little too much time in Yuma and want to move toward New Mexico to spend some time there before heading for Indiana. All is not lost though—I’m sure we’ll be back. One of the highlights so far though is seeing Vermillion flycatcher http://www.backyardbirdcam.com/gallery/flycatcher-vermillion.htm), an unmistakable scarlet red and black bird—to me, one of the most tropical-looking of our birds. Vermillion flycatcher’s range in the states is confined to just the southernmost portion’s of CA, AZ, NM and Texas. One of my other favorites thus far are Costa’s hummingbird and Broad-tailed hummingbird http://www.arizona-leisure.com/tucson-photo-9.html). Costa’s is a fabulous little bird with a hot purple gorget (the iridescent patch on a hummingbirds chin) that has droopy “whiskers” descending down. Broad-tailed (not seen until Gila National Wildlife refuge, New Mexico) has a lovely high “burr” when it flies, sounding almost like a swarm of honeybees ringing bells when it arrives.

Another highlight was finding a Curve-billed thrasher nest. Thrashers are large ground birds with big bills. Curve-billed is the most common observed here in the southwest, a loud obvious bird that doesn’t mind proximity to people and their houses and campgrounds. You don’t see them in California though! When we were staying in Benson, AZ, I saw a CB caring a fecal packet (keeping the nest clean!) and knew a nest was nearby. It was easy to find and I took some photos of the two babies.