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Pictures of some common birds in the area around Portal, Arizona and Rodeo, New Mexico. And some
landscapes. Taken in winter 2006-2007, spring and autumn 2007.
Southern Arizona consists of desert grassland, interspersed with isolated mountain ranges sometimes called the 'sky islands'. Portal is situated in the South-East of Arizona, at the foot of one of those ranges, called Chiricahua Mountains. It is a well-known birding hot spot. See for instance the description given here. Rodeo is situated in the San Simon Valley, east of the Chiricahua Mountains. We also made some excursions direction South and West, and visited places such as Ramsey Canyon and Whitewater Draw. I begin in winter 2006-7. A more elaborate version of this part is here. |
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| San Simon Valley. Desert grassland with a sky island. |  |
| Near Rodeo, there is this water tank called Willow Tank. It used to be a prime birding spot but, due to the drought that has existed here for the last 7 years, it has almost entirely disappeared. |  |
| View Eastward from Willow Tank in an unusually colorful light. |  |
| Here we are in the Chiricahua Mountains. In a canyon called Cave Creek Canyon.
This picture shows the view from my in-laws' cabin at Cave Creek. Many bird pictures have been taken here. |
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| Year round, the Acorn Woodpecker is very present. Lives in
families of some 5-10 birds. At the time, three such families were around,
each with their own territory, upstream, middle, and downstream.
In the course of that winter, the middle family ceased to exist. Fights over the middle territory followed, which were ultimately won by the upstreamers. |
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| This area is the only place where you can reliably find the Yellow-eyed Junco in the USA. Here on a feeder at our cabin. |  |
| Cooper's Hawk. Look for these when you notice that all birds have become invisible.
This is a juvenile, which you can see from the brown head and the white dots on the wings, but it already has orange breast feathers. |
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| Arizona Woodpecker. |  |
| Cactus Wren. The birds here are not too shy. It let me get quite close. |  |
| Blue-throated Hummingbird. Some of them stay in winter, counting on human support. This one is at the Cave Creek Ranch, where people are around all year. |  |
| Ladder-backed Woodpecker. Cute little woodpecker. Very common year-round, only in the SW of the US. There is some peanut butter on his bill. |  |
| Northern Cardinal, very noticeable, how can they survive. Here on a feeder at Cave Creek Ranch. |  |
| Here we are at Dave Jasper's place. Dave is a professional bird
guide. He maintains a good bird feeder place that you can visit.
The bird here is a Green-tailed Towhee. A bird of the western US, in winter only near the Mexican border. |
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| Also at Jasper's, a Mexican Jay. Always in groups, very noisy, but rather submissive w.r.t. other birds. In the US confined to this area. |  |
| Harris' Hawk. Near Elfrida, on a little trip. Very much a desert bird. A social hawk. Always, if you think you see two or more Red-tails together, do realise that they might be Harris'. |  |
| Next, pictures made in spring: first half of May 2007. A more elaborate version of this part is here. | |
| A storm over highway 80. |  |
| State Line Road. New Mexico on the left, Arizona on the right. This is a very good area for bird watching. |  |
| A roadrunner is sunbathing in the morning, exposing its back. |  |
| If you hear noises that seem to come from a steel factory, look
for a black bird with a big tail.
This discussion took place in Rodeo, NM. The two yelled a lot but they never touched each other. |
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You see this everywhere. A male Gambel's Quail calling from a high point. You
hear them from very early until very late.
Here are some recordings of the sound. |
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| The rarer and shyer cousin. Also called Cottontop. |  |
| Lazuli Buntings don't breed here, they are still migrating. |  |
| The rarer cousin, quite sensational: Indigo Bunting. At Jasper's feeders. |  |
| A showy Cardinal. |  |
| One morning at Jasper's feeders, all the birds flew up to the treetops, yelling, alarmed. Some scare, I thought. Unexpectedly, the scare came for a drink. It was not afraid of me, but when the camera started clicking it calmly walked away. |  |
| The Summer Tanager has just arrived, this is mid May in Portal, AZ. |  |
| Bullock's Oriole. Another pretty summer bird. |  |
| Ocotillo in the Chiricahua mountains. |  |
| The entrance to Cave Creek Canyon. |  |
| Cactus Wren, singing (well, purring) on top of a barn at Cave Creek Ranch. |  |
| The Curve-billed Thrasher is abundant here and very unafraid.
This bird was always very busy bringing food to its nest, which was in a tree right in front of the ranch. |
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| A big finch, the Black-headed Grosbeak. These birds always look as if they have eaten enough, which is probably not the case. |  |
| Western Tanager. Quite shy, every other bird dominates him. |  |
| Scott's Oriole. A bird of dark places. |  |
| White-breasted Nuthatch. The upside-down bird. |  |
| This is how you almost always see the Spotted Towhee. Foraging on the ground in dark places. |  |
| White-winged Dove, displaying. There is beauty in doves. |  |
| Higher up into the canyon. This is a very common image, birders searching rare birds, in particular the Elegant Trogon. |  |
| A Black-chinned Hummingbird at a feeder at the South-Western Research Station. |  |
| A showy Magnificent Hummingbird, same place. |  |
| The bird that everybody is looking for. |  |
| Here you can see why it's sometimes called "copper tail". |  |
| Very nice, a Painted Redstart. Never sits still.
This bird used to be more common al along the Cave Creek but it has suffered from the drought (which has already lasted for 7 years). The creek is now mostly dry at the lower altitude. |
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| Next, pictures made in the autumn: November 2007. A more elaborate version of this part is here. | |
| Autumn colors in Ramsey Canyon, AZ. |  |
| More of the same. |  |
| The White-crowned Sparrows are abundant here in winter. This picture was taken at Cave Creek Ranch. |  |
| The Canyon Wren is a bird of somewhat higher altitudes, it comes down in winter. |  |
| Red-naped Sapsucker. There is white on the chin, which makes this
a female. The white nape is unusual according to Sibley.
This Juniper tree, right at the Cave Creek, attracts many birds. |
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| Another user of the berries is the Juniper Titmouse. One of those little birds that never sit still for more than 0.01 second. Fortunately, the camera needed only 0.00125 seconds to take the photo. |  |
| Good picture of this White-breasted Nuthatch. The feeder is just below the tree of the previous pictures. |  |
| The smaller red-breasted cousin, same place. These would usually be seen only at highr altitudes. |  |
| Autumn landscape at Whitewater Draw, near Bisbee (AZ). |  |
| Same. |  |
| Same, with Cranes and one Snow Goose. These two species will become very abundant here in the next months. |  |
| The wonderful and elusive Vermillion Flycatcher is at Whitewater Draw in winter. Elusive because, somehow, my Canon 20d does not like to autofocus on this bird. This time it was not too bad. |  |
| Crissal Thrasher, a rare bird. Can reliably be found at Jasper's place. People come to this place from all over the USA to add the species to their life list. |  |
| Very pretty, a Phainopepla, in the 'center' of Rodeo. |  |
| Pyrrhuloxia, the desert cousin of the Northern Cardinal. |  |
| Loggerhead Shrike, quite common along State Line Road. |  |
| Black-throated Sparrow, picture looks a bit like a painting. |  |
| Sunrise over San Simon Valley, as seen from State Line Road. |  |
| Stormy weather above the valley. |  |
| This Roadrunner jumped onto the fence just as I was driving by. |  |
| Cottontops hiding because a hawk just flew over. You can count 5 of them here. They stayed hidden for a long time. |  |
| This was probably what the Cottontops tried to avoid. |  |
| I end with a rare bird, a White-tailed Kite. Quite spectacular. Picture taken at State Line Road. |  |