Brown Pelican may not be the first bird to spring to mind when you think of the Sonoran Desert, but it turns out that this species regularly makes early summer incursions into southeast Arizona. The size of each year’s invasion probably reflects food availability in the Gulf of California: the more birds we see here, the [...]

Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Winter Wrens, Cetti’s Warblers: they’re all loud, but for sheer sonic volume to body mass, you just can’t beat Costa’s Hummingbird. Most males here in Tucson seem to have fallen silent these last couple of weeks, and many have probably already made their post-breeding migration to the deserts to the west, but this [...]

Looks like we’re off to the presses! Many thanks to the authors, photographers, and behind-the-scenes helpers who have made this upcoming issue of Winging It one that I know our readers will enjoy.
Not an ABA member yet? Easy enough to join: www.americanbirding.org.
With the Bangor, Maine, Convention coming up in (criminy!) three weeks, the front-page story, [...]

John, Darlene, and I made an early start for Marana, where the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher continues to dazzle an appreciative and growing audience. The beauty of the bird, and its unusual ‘tickability’ in a state where they rarely linger more than a day or two, are a large part of the appeal, of course, but as [...]

Darlene and I did see some birds in Madera yesterday, of course, and didn’t spend our entire time spenglerizing about North American birding.
Proctor Road was magnificent in the early morning, with Townsend’s, Wilson’s, and Black-throated Gray Warblers moving through the flowering ocotillo. As if they weren’t colorful enough, there were also Lazuli Buntings, Blue Grosbeaks, [...]