The murmuration of blackbirds stretched out for greater than a kilometre. The birds’ joint motion seemed like an extended ribbon fluttering and twisting within the wind. This was one of many many great sightings we had on our February 2016 birding journey to Arizona, USA.
We began our journey in Phoenix. A good friend took us out to Buckeye for the morning, to seek for two of my goal birds. On the way in which there, we discovered the primary chicken, a Ferruginous Hawk, the most important buteo in North America, perched on a phone pole. We had an extended take a look at it, earlier than it took off and flew out of the world. After we reached Buckeye, we looked for Le Conte’s Thrasher. There have been different thrashers singing, so we had extra of a problem to search out the precise chicken. We lastly noticed it perched on a low shrub. We had a fast look earlier than it hopped off the bush and ran away.
In Tucson we met up with our information for 3 days in southeast Arizona. At Catalina State Park, a Rufous-backed Robin within the parking zone was fairly tolerant of all of the exercise round it. We additionally noticed Pyrrhuloxia and Abert’s, Inexperienced-tailed and Canyon Towhees. In feedlots at Santa Cruz Flats, huge flocks of blackbirds included Brewer’s and Yellow-headed Blackbirds and Lark Bunting. Within the fields we discovered a solitary Sprague’s Pipit and 25 Mountain Plovers. In ditches close to the farms, there have been Burrowing Owls perched outdoors their burrows.
Rufous-backed Robin
At Florida Canyon (pictured at high of article), we discovered a Black-capped Gnatcatcher, a uncommon chicken discovered solely in that space. In Madera Canyon, a household of Mexican Jays joined us for lunch. Our information tossed them nuts, to maintain them away from our meals. We spent the remainder of the afternoon watching the feeders at one of many lodges. Even when my husband stated we had been being lazy, that straightforward birding was numerous enjoyable. Some notable birds had been a pair of Arizona Woodpeckers, a pair of Hepatic Tanagers, Acorn Woodpecker, Bridled Titmouse and Magnificent Hummingbird.
Acorn Woodpecker
On our last guided day, we went to Pena Blanca Lake. Our goal chicken was one other rarity, a Rufous-capped Warbler, which we fairly simply discovered. It gave us high quality seems to be and the little man even sang for us. Like so most of the locations we visited, the mountain surroundings was magnificent. The climate was great, too. We had been fortunate to reach after greater than a month of chilly. On daily basis was sunny and within the mid to excessive 20s Celsius.
Rufous-capped Warbler
On our final day within the Madera Canyon space, our information gave us instructions to discover a male Elegant Trogon. We spent loads of time ready in a single spot, till some hikers informed us it was farther up the path. We hiked to the spot and nonetheless no trogon. We had been heading again to the automotive, when a long-tailed chicken slipped into a close-by grove of timber. We noticed a flash of pink, too. I figured that needed to be our quarry. We adopted the chicken and had high quality seems to be on the male trogon. This chicken made us work the toughest on our journey, however he was definitely worth the effort. Though we had been on the very begin of spring migration, we noticed 123 species in 4 days of birding.
Be aware: Acorn Woodpecker and Rufous-capped Warbler images taken from Pexels, a web-based supply of copyright-free images. Different images by the Kinrys household.