Down from the Canyons

I suppose it’s a bit early still to proclaim the start of ornithological winter, but an adult male Phainopepla was perched in an ocotillo along our driveway this morning, giving the neighborhood a suspicious look-over with that red eye. This charming species is abundant at our elevation all winter long, but summers find them moving up into the higher foothills and mountain canyons. But it won’t be long now ’til their gentle “whoop” fills the air and my misteltoe and hackberries fill their stomachs.

This photo is of a February bird; the one we saw this morning was still molting its rectrices, making him oddly scissor-tailed atop his ocotillo perch.