Southeastern Arizona is where Mexico’s Sierra Madre mountains, and the Sonoran and Chihuahuan Deserts all spill across the international boundary. With them come an array of “Mexican” hummingbirds found nowhere else north of the border, as well as the richest overall bird species diversity of any land-bounded area in the entire United States. August is the month to see it. Summer rains have greened the landscape, started the creeks, and decreased the temperatures. Late-arriving, tropical specialties like the Berylline, White-eared, Lucifer, and Violet-crowned Hummingbirds compete for nectar on flowering agaves with returning Allen’s, Rufous, Broad-tailed, and Calliope Hummingbirds, already moving south to their winter quarters in the Sierra Madre. Naturally the breeding hummers: Blue-throated, Magnificent, Broad-billed, Black-chinned, Costa’s, and Anna’s, strive heroically to stem this tide of colorful invaders. The result is “feeder fights” of literally hundreds of birds. To observe these pinwheels of iridescence in combat at favored agave stands, mountain meadows, and feeding stations such as Patagonia, Cave Creek, and Miller Canyon, is to behold one of the great bird spectacles of the entire United States. It is not uncommon to observe 10 species of hummingbirds on a single day, and up to 15 species are possible over the course of the tour. During our seven full days we will also look for resident Gray and Zone-tailed Hawks, Montezuma Quail, Elegant Trogons, Vermilion Flycatchers, Black-capped Gnatcatchers, Bendire’s and Crissal Thrashers, Painted Redstarts, Red-faced Warblers, Painted Buntings, and jazzy purple and red Varied Buntings. Along with Yellow-billed Cuckoo and Rose-throated Becard, Varied Bunting is one of the last species to arrive on its breeding grounds in Southeastern Arizona.  August is much better than May for these species, as well as for a vagrant Aztec Thrush. Altogether over 190 breeding birds occur in an area roughly the size of Rhode Island. The national “Big Day” record for the month of August—199 species—was set in this corner of Arizona in 1998. More recently Plain-capped Starthroat (the “unicorn” of Mexican hummers) has become almost annual at feeders in the border ranges. It joins a list of tropical specialties like the Eared Quetzal and the Flame-colored Tanager which attract national attention every time one strays north of the border. Other wildlife we will watch for on our bird walks include collared peccary—locally called javelina, pronghorn antelope, coyote, Apache fox squirrel, the coati (a tropical relative of the raccoon), and the smallest form of whitetail deer in the U.S., excluding the Florida Keys. The scenery ranges from magnificent stands of tree-sized Saguaro Cactus near Tucson to the southernmost Engelmann Spruce in North America in Arizona’s high, cool Chiricahua Mountains.  Our comfortable accommodations are adjacent to national monuments and national forests, nature preserves, and both research and wilderness areas.

Leaders: Moez Ali & Rick Taylor