Arizona in Winter Recap

We just wrapped up another successful trip throughout the best parts of southeast Arizona. This tour covered 1,027 miles of paved and dirt roads exploring hotspots like Madera Canyon, Portal, and the Huachuca Mountains abutting the Mexican border.

We had some incredible hummingbird experiences. Aside from the sizeable Rivoli’s and Blue-throated Mountain-gems we admired, the smaller Costa’s, Anna’s, and show-winning Broad-billed were thoroughly enjoyed. 

Flycatcher diversity was good this year. We experienced everything from differentiating Gray, Dusky, and Hammond’s from one another, to a family of Northern Beardless-Tyrannulets foraging close by. The rarest one was a Greater Pewee flycatching from cottonwoods in Patagonia. 

Of the four owl species we encountered one day, this Western Screech-Owl was ‘best seen’. 

Over the week we spent some quality time with the desert thrashers. We watched a Bendire’s Thrasher sitting up high singing its heart out and had lengthy scope views of a Crissal Thrasher while it preened atop dead shrub. On a barren dirt road, a single Sage Thrasher seemed out of place with only 1 bush to perch in.

One day we had a towhee sweep! At our home away from home we had Spotted and Abert’s under the feeders. In the grasslands to the north, we found a lifer Green-tailed for some and higher up in the mountains a Canyon Towhee sat perfectly still for ages.

With so much bird action I sometimes forget how good the woodpecker diversity is in southeast Arizona. Highlights among the 9 species we saw well were both adult male Williamson’s and Red-breasted Sapsuckers.