A fantastic group of lynx-eyed birders at the Patagonia Picnic Table.

Black-bellied Whistling-Duck

Mallard

Green Heron

Plegadis sp.

Black Vulture

Turkey Vulture

Cooper’s Hawk

Gray Hawk

Swainson’s Hawk

Red-tailed Hawk

American Kestrel

Killdeer

Spotted Sandpiper

Long-billed Dowitcher

Rock Pigeon

Eurasian Collared-Dove

White-winged Dove

Mourning Dove

Common Ground-Dove

Greater Roadrunner

Lesser Nighthawk

White-throated Swift

Broad-billed Hummingbird

Black-chinned Hummingbird

Gila Woodpecker

Ladder-backed Woodpecker

Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet

Black Phoebe

Say’s Phoebe

Vermilion Flycatcher

Brown-crested Flycatcher

Tropical Kingbird

Cassin’s Kingbird

Western Kingbird

Thick-billed Kingbird

Loggerhead Shrike

Bell’s Vireo

Mexican Jay

Chihuahuan Raven

Common Raven

Northern Rough-winged Swallow

Cliff Swallow

Barn Swallow

Verdin

Cactus Wren

Rock Wren

Canyon Wren

Bewick’s Wren

Northern Mockingbird

Curve-billed Thrasher

European Starling

Phainopepla

Lucy’s Warbler

Common Yellowthroat

Yellow-breasted Chat

Summer Tanager

Western Tanager

Canyon Towhee

Rufous-winged Sparrow

Cassin’s Sparrow

Rufous-crowned Sparrow

Five-striped Sparrow

Lark Sparrow

Black-throated Sparrow

Song Sparrow

Northern Cardinal

Pyrrhuloxia

Blue Grosbeak

Indigo Bunting

Varied Bunting

Red-winged Blackbird

Eastern Meadowlark

Great-tailed Grackle

Brown-headed Cowbird

Hooded Oriole

House Finch

Lesser Goldfinch

House Sparrow

California Gulch

This photo, from the Tubac bridge, shows the yellow diffusion of the breast, the long (if somewhat foreshortened bill), the dull brown rectrices, and of course that notorious tail notch.

Eager birders visiting southeast Arizona or the Rio Grande Valley in late summer often rely too much on tail shape in identifying yellow-bellied kingbirds. It’s true that Tropical (and Couch’s, which has occurred once in Arizona so far) show a far deeper and better defined notch than the other species in fresh plumage–I repeat, in fresh plumage. This time of year, adult Western Kingbirds are beginning their tail molt, and nearly all the Westerns we saw this week were missing their central tail feathers, giving perched birds a nice deep notch and flying birds a funny frigatebird look.

Our tour was intended to add rarities and specialties to the list, but as usual, what I think most of us will remember is learning a little more about some of the common birds we might not have known so well. None of us will ever look at a kingbird again without at least trying to age it–and no tail notch will fool us again.

As is often the case with such amazing landscapes, it wasn’t particularly birdy; in fact, at this spot, Juniper Flats, the avifauna appeared to comprise half a dozen Rufous-crowned Sparrows and a male Spotted Towhee–so I was happy!

The towhee, a first-summer male (you can just see the molt limits in the photo above), perched up and sang at us for several minutes before deciding to make himself scarce.

A quick flight into the vegetation and he was gone, leaving us to turn our attention to the beautiful wildflowers on a delightfully cool morning.

A bindweed…

… and a dayflower, the reminder that even fine weekends of birding can’t last forever!