Photo Gallery
Rich Hoyer
The winter week in Arizona is based at the Crown C Ranch near Sonoita, a comfortable and charming place with birds all around and wonderful views out to the Santa Rita Mountains. It’s well located and gives us easy access to interesting habitats…
Photo: Crown C
…such as the high-elevation grasslands, an important area for many wintering specialties…
…such as this Baird’s Sparrow—a species normally more difficult to find than this one was!
Photo: Chris Wood
We’ll spend time in the upper Sonoran Desert, characterized by diverse cacti and shrubs…
…where we may see Crissal Thrasher…
…or Rufous-winged Sparrow, endemic to the Sonoran Desert.
As water is scarce in the desert, riparian areas are a magnet for many species…
…such as Neotropic Cormorant, sometimes common at Patagonia Lake State Park…
…or Elegant Trogon, one of which is sometimes found overwintering in the area.
We’ll venture to higher elevations as well, where pine-oak woodland dominates.
Here, Acorn Woodpeckers are a characteristic species.
We could see up to four varieties of Dark-eyed Junco, including the “Pink-sided” subspecies.
A hike up famed Scheelite Canyon might result in the long-resident Spotted Owls…
Photo: Anthony Collerton
…while in any grove of live oaks we may bump into a Whiskered Screech-Owl.