Looking at Some Birds

Here are some images of various birds we have seen while traveling. This is not an all inclusive list rather a sampling of some of our feathered friends that we have seen along the way.

This is a Cactus Wren and it is sitting on top of a satellite antennae that is on the roof of a trailer belonging to some of our friends here at the RV Park. Unfortunately it was not determined if the wren improved reception or hindered the signal. Further research is needed. There are a lot of Cactus Wrens here.

Here is a somewhat standard looking Red-tail Hawk. It has a belly band of darker colored feather tips across it's chest or belly. This is a distinct field mark that helps define the Red-tail. Some of the feathers are ruffled by the wind, this bird needs to work on feather control

In contrast, this is a another Red-tail Hawk that we saw along one of the back roads on a ride around the country. The belly band as seen in the Red-tail above is either very faint or missing. Some percentage of the Red-tail in the south west have very limited belly bands such as this bird. Neat bird.

Just outside of Wilcox, AZ is a golf course and adjacent to that is a series of ponds containing reclaimed water. The Great Blue Heron was sitting in the cattail reeds apparently warming in the sun when we spotted him just sunning itself.

This is a Western Screech Owl. It was living in a large Cottonwood Tree right behind San Pedro House. The house and surrounding area are situated along the San Pedro River Valley which is an important area for migrating birds. There are generally a lot of different species that can be found near the San Pedro House.

In the same general area in Wilcox where we saw the Great Blue Heron we found this group of Northern Shovelers, they are ducks. This bird favors broad, shallow marshes where it can use the comb-like teeth along the edges of its large bill to strain aquatic animals, plants, and seeds from the water. It is called a dabbling duck or dabbler in a broad general classification of ducks.

The Yellow-headed Blackbird is neat to see. The bright yellow contrasting with the black body makes for a great looking bird. If you have seen and heard them before you probably know they have one of the worst calls or bird songs ever. It is like a garbled choked off squawk. How such a great looking bird can have such a terrible sounding call is a puzzle.

Here is a tree full of lots of Yellow-headed Blackbirds. There is actually a mixture of blackbird types in this tree. We were surprised to see so many Yellow-headed Blackbirds.

With the large number of blackbirds in this flock there had to be someone looking for a meal, this large of a flock would certainly attract attention. At one point the large flock took off swirling around and this Prairie Falcon came in and snatched one for an evening meal. Unfortunately a farmer came racing along the dirt road we were on and scared the falcon off before we could get better images.

This image gives you a little different perspective of the large flock of blackbirds and Yellow-headed Blackbirds seen above. Here they are spread all acroos the road covering the tree on the left and moving in mass to the right. They would move about from trees to ground to open field to brushy areas.

In trying to look through all the individual blackbirds we found this one lone white bird. One would think with all these darker colored birds we could easily spot a white one, not so. The bird, which we think is an albino or white colored yellow-headed blackbird would always stay down low in the brush and at times seemingly hide from our searching eyes. We looked for quite a while hoping to get a better image but this was as good as we got. Fascinating bird.

This is a Northern Harrier. It is a type of raptor and it swoops and dives and glides low over marshy areas or brushy fields or open areas searching for food. It used to be called a Marsh Hawk because they will spend a lot of time in and around marshy areas. They are very acrobatic in their flight movements and can detect a vole from 12 feet simply by hearing it's movements. They are fun to watch when hunting and we don't often get a chance to see them perched as seen here.

And finally, I know that many of you, who initially saw this list of birds, wanted to see lots of sparrows, commonly called LBB (little brown birds because they all look alike and are confusing to identify). So as not to disappoint you, here is one. It is a Vesper Sparrow identified by the prominent white eye ring, lightly streaked breast, dark coloration on the cheek, and the rusty spot on its shoulder. For some reason there are not the sparrows here in Southern Arizona that we have seen in the past. We have chatted with many folks and no one seems to know why but everyone says the sparrows just aren't here in any large numbers. Nonetheless, here is one sparrow.

That gives you a view of some birds that we have seen. Hope you enjoyed this post and as always let us know if you have any comments or questions.

All the best - George and Deanna