Southeast Arizona Update No. 3

The little bird with the long name called an airy, energetic “peeeh-peeeh-peeeh-peeeh!” Each rendition was a reminder that we were out of the mountains and into the the riparian lowlands in the good company of Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet. Breeding in the US only in riparian thickets of southeastern Arizona and southern Texas, this is our lone member of a large tropical subfamily, Elaeniinae, composed mostly of South American flycatchers. Yep, it’s plain — but this is a bird with pep and spirit. (There is indeed a Southern Beardless-Tyrannulet but not in North America.) Click on that image for a larger view.

The Swainson’s Hawk below also has pep and spirit. It’s a female who had just completed a meal and a copulation. Take a close look at her beak to find a few feathers and at what’s in her left set of talons, the remains (pink legs and feet) of what I believe was a White-winged Dove. She was eating happily until a male came along and mounted her. (Sorry, I wasn’t quick enough to get the dirty photos.)

Other highlights from the Patagonia- Sonoita Creek area include Gray Hawk (that’s him up top at my blog title), Thick-billed Kingbird, Tropical Kingbird and Violet-crowned Hummingbird. I’m up to 13 hummingbird species on my trip (including Lucifer Hummingbird, Berylline Hummingbird and this one below, White-eared Hummingbird, from back in the Huachuca Mountains a couple of days ago. Two more day of birding on this Vermont Bird Tours trip, and I don’t want it to end. But, oh, will I have photos for you when I’m done!