If you are a birder who has come, for the first time, to the Southwest from
a home in the Pacific Northwest, the Great Plains, the Eastern Woodlands or a
coastal region, you are likely in for a few surprises.
First, you may be taken aback by the number of species that have found
year-round or seasonal environmental niches in the Southwest desert basins and
mountain ranges.
Second, you might be astonished by the birds' resilience and resourcefulness
in coping with an arid and often unforgiving environment and in adapting to dynamic
and changing conditions.
Third, you might be surprised to discover that the birds' limited choices
of watering places in our arid region serve as an advantage for you. This is
because more species tend to concentrate in fewer and often more open areas,
making them easier to observe and photograph than in, say, a heavily watered
and densely foliated rain forest or estuary.
Diversity
The broad range of Southwest species, which thrive often under extreme conditions,
speaks to the tenacity of life. According to the National Park Service, more
than 300 species hold residence during the course of a year in the Mojave Desert's
Death Valley National Park, where summer air temperatures in the parched lower
basin routinely exceed 120 degrees Fahrenheit and soil temperatures may reach
180 degrees. Several hundred species occur in the Colorado River delta region,
in the northwestern Sonoran Desert, where summertime air temperatures near sea
level reach 115 degrees and soil temperatures, 130 degrees. Hundreds of species
occur in the northern Chihuahuan Desert, where summer air temperatures exceed
100 degrees and soil temperatures, 120 degrees. The species have found places
in the Southwestern deserts even though rainfall in those areas only infrequently
exceeds more than a few inches in the course of a year.
The broadest mix of species tends to occur at those places where different
environmental regimes intersect. Some 400 species have been counted, for instance,
in the Chiricahua Mountains, in southeastern Arizona, where the Chihuahuan Desert,
the Sonoran Desert, the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Madre all join forces.
Hundreds of species populate the slopes of Arizona's Mogollon Rim – the
southern edge of the Colorado Plateau – which rises abruptly some 2000
feet from the Sonoran Desert floor to forested slopes. Several hundred species
breed in or migrate through northern New Mexico and southern Colorado, where
high and arid sage-covered plains meet the San Juan Mountains.
While many birds of the Southwest take moisture from the fruits and seeds
of plants and from the tissues and moisture of prey, the populations tend to
congregate, as if drawn by magnets, in those areas where water occurs—the
mountain streams, the rivers, the riverine wetlands, the desert basin's ephemeral
playa lakes, and the river impoundments.
Birds of the Mountain Streams
On summer hikes along the banks of mountain streams at the higher elevations,
through stands of ponderosa pines and aspens, you will discover that "A
tremendous number of birds – large and small, silent and noisy – find
a congenial home in the forests of the West," as Spencer Whitney said in
Western Forests, one of The Audubon Society Nature Guides. Grosbeaks, tanagers,
warblers and bluebirds dart through the dark green streamside foliage – mere
flashes of gold, yellow, red or blue – sometimes making identifications
difficult. The Stellar Jay issues a raucous call; the raven, a taunting caw;
a drumming woodpecker, a miniature jackhammer sound. If you happen to peer into
a curious three-inch-diameter hole drilled into the lower part of the trunk of
a Ponderosa Pine, a Western Bluebird may flush from the nest cavity, right in
your face. Where a stream flows swiftly over a gravel bottom, you may see a charcoal-colored
American Dipper skittering along the surface, diving suddenly to the bottom,
and dashing underwater over the sand and rocks in a search for aquatic insect
life. Early in the morning, a raven may fly overhead, weaving through the trees,
with a certain arrogance in his call.
Once, early one morning when my family and I were camped beside the Mimbres
River up in the Gila Wilderness, in southwestern New Mexico, a cocky raven weaving
through the trees smacked into a branch of a narrow-leaf willow, hitting it so
hard he knocked a large dead twig loose. The bird perched dizzily for a moment
on a limb then flew on his way, perhaps a little chagrined. He returned the next
morning, cawing as loudly as ever to announce his presence, but...he flew
well above the trees.
Through the day near mountain streams, a Broad Tailed Hummingbird, marked
by a rose-colored throat, takes nectar from summer blooms awash in sunlight.
Come the dying light of evening, a Great Horned Owl takes wing, flying silently
and surely through the trees, a ghostly specter in search of rodents or birds
as prey.
Should you be in the bird-rich Chiricahua Mountains, along the stream that
flows through Cave Creek Canyon, you could have the exceptional good fortune
of seeing – or at least hearing – the Elegant Trogon, perhaps the
Holy Grail of birding in the Southwest.
Birds of the Rivers
Along the few rivers in the Southwest, you can expect the bird communities
to vary continually, reflecting the challenges raised by the changing conditions
of the streams. They have to adapt as water flows normally during years with
average upstream rainfall and snowpack, or rise and rush dramatically following
intense upstream thunderstorms, or disappear altogether during periods of prolonged
drought.
In normal years, given the right season, the right river conditions, and
good luck, you could see not only the birds of the adjacent arid lands, you could
find many water birds – in the hearts of the deserts! – including,
for instance, geese, ducks, herons, cranes, egrets, terns, sandpipers, rails,
coots, plovers, ibis, grebes and phalaropes. You might even see birds you normally
associated with the coastlines and estuaries, for example, the Franklin Gull
or the White Pelican or a Double-crested Cormorant.
I remember once, not long after we moved to the Southwest, that my wife and
I saw, to our astonishment, an Osprey once near the Rio Grande just below the
Big Bend National Park in Texas, hundreds of miles upstream from the Gulf Coast.
The Osprey, says Roger Tory Peterson in his Western Birds, is "Our only
raptor that hovers over the water and plunges into it feet-first for fish..." We
had not seen an Osprey since we moved from the Gulf Coast, near Houston, several
years previously. We learned later, from an expert on the birds of the Big Bend
region, that the Osprey makes fairly frequent appearances along the river, where
it flows through the Chihuahuan Desert, especially in those years with good stream
flow.
You will find that the San Pedro River, which rises in Mexico and flows northward
into Arizona to join with the Gila River near Hayden, about 75 miles southeast
of Phoenix, ranks as one of the top birding areas in the entire United States.
One of the last free-flowing rivers in the Southwest, the San Pedro's "...cottonwood-shaded
corridor supports about 350 bird species and provides critical stopover habitat
for up to 4 million migrating birds each year," according to The Nature
Conservancy's Internet site. "The San Pedro supports nearly two-thirds
of the avian diversity [emphasis mine] in the U. S.; about 100 species of birds
breed around the river and an additional 250 species use the corridor for migration
and winter range." You will see not only the usual resident and migratory
land birds and waterfowl, you may get a chance to see "green kingfishers,
gray hawks, and other birds rarely seen in the United States" since the
San Pedro lies at the northernmost tip of their range, according to Jon Christensen,
in an article published in the New York Times several years ago.
Birds of the Riverine Wetlands
You can know more of what to expect in the bird populations of the comparatively
stable riverine wetlands, which typically occur in broad stream bottoms with
high water tables. You can, of course, count on seeing the resident birds of
the deserts as well as nesting and migrating water birds.
Sadly, opportunities for visiting these areas have diminished as the wetlands
have given way, over the decades, to agricultural and urban development, but
you can still find several rewarding places, with perhaps the paramount example
being the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in central New Mexico.
The Bosque "...is among the best places to see a wide variety of
species in a small area," according to authorities John Parmeter, Bruce
Neville and Doug Emkalns, New Mexico Bird Finding Guide. "Birding can be
good to excellent at any time of year. During the height of the spring migration
in late April and early May, over 100 species in a half-day of birding is not
unlikely. Even in mid-winter 60-70 species can usually be found..." The
full checklist, according to the U. S. Geological Survey, "contains 377
species which have been observed on the refuge since 1940."
Any time at the Bosque, you can count on seeing a broad range of the
water birds, raptors, and the land and perching birds. Depending on the season – and
with reasonable luck -- you can see a Double-crested Cormorant, an Osprey, a
Golden Eagle or a Bald Eagle. With really good luck, you may see a Rose-breasted
Grosbeak, a Lazuli Bunting, an American Goldfinch or a Little Blue Heron. With
exceptional luck, you will see a Peregrine Falcon, a Whooping Crane (partnered
with Sandhill Cranes) or possibly even a Wood Stork.
In the winter months, when thousands of Snow Geese and Sandhill Cranes have
settled in for the season, you can experience some of the great experiences in
birding. If you come to the Bosque just after sunrise on a cold morning, you
will see geese and cranes rise from the water in concert, with an operatic chorus,
to head for the fields where they will feed for the day. If you come at sunset
with the evening chill setting in, you will see the Snow Geese come in for crash
landings in the water, where they will raft up for the night. You will see the
Sandhill Cranes approach by squadrons, silhouettes against an orange sky, calling
loudly, circling, then landing daintily in the shallows, where they will spend
the evening gossiping about their day's experiences.
Birds of the Playa Lakes
You will find unpredictable, but sometimes extraordinarily rewarding, ad
hoc gatherings of bird species at the playa lakes, those ancient, ephemeral and
mineral-filled ponding sites common in all our desert basins. Both resident and
migratory birds capitalize on the playas as targets of opportunities, sites where
water is intermittently available – sometimes more or less annually, sometimes
every few years – after localized rains.
The birds, both resident and migratory, appear at the occasional waters,
which may cover several square yards to some square miles in area and measure
several inches to several feet in depth. They celebrate an awakened and refreshed
community of life—including, example, amphibians such as the Spadefoot
Toad, crustaceans such as the Fairy Shrimp, and salt-tolerant plants such as
the Saltbrush. You may find a surprising number of bird species or no more than
a single bird species. I have seen sizable playas where three or four Black-necked
Stilts, feeding on the temporary playa banquet, were the only representatives
of the bird population.
While you can never be sure just what birds you will see at desert playas,
you may find, according to the Northern Arizona University Internet site, that
one of the most reliable is southeastern Arizona's 40-square-mile Wilcox Playa,
especially the Arizona Game and Fish Department's 600-acre Wildlife Area. Many
large waterbirds as well as numerous raptors visit the playa, especially during
wet seasons. Often "migrating northern flickers, white-necked ravens, and
many songbird species," find feed and cover in the shrubs and trees along
the playa periphery, said the university's site. "Sometimes more than
10,000 birds will congregate at the playa." The most notable visitors,
especially during wet winters, are sandhill cranes. They may come by the thousands
to feed and court in the shallows before they leave in the spring, headed for
their summer breeding grounds in the northern Great Plains.
Birds of the River Impoundments
While the damming of rivers of the Southwest has undeniably drowned wild
and free waters, damaged stream ecologies, flooded spectacular canyons, and submerged
invaluable prehistoric and historic archaeological sites, you will find that
expanded bird populations and new species have set up permanent or seasonal housekeeping
at the reservoirs as new environments were created. As the NPS said in its Internet
site, new birds were attracted as "...dams for power generation and
flood control in the southwestern United States created the first large bodies
of open water in this arid region since the late Pleistocene ice age, which ended
approximately 10,000 years ago." For example, as Lake Powell began to fill
behind Glen Canyon Dam after it was completed in the 1960s, "rare bird species
and species previously unknown to the region were documented."
You will discover that the Southwest's major impoundments – for instance,
the Elephant Butte and Caballo Reservoirs of central New Mexico; Lake Powell,
on the Arizona/Utah border; Lakes Mead and Mojave, on the Arizona/Nevada border;
and Lake Havasu, on the Arizona/California border – offer an exciting mix
of birding and adventure, especially if you have a boat that can take you to
the more remote and sheltered areas.
According to Parmeter and his associates, Percha Dam State Park, immediately
downstream from the Caballo Reservoir, which is only a few miles downstream from
the Elephant Butte Reservoir, "is the best site for landbirds along the
entire length of the Rio Grande in New Mexico and one of the best sites in the
state. Birding is excellent at any time of year..." The authors called
the park "a migrant trap with a good concentration effect for migrating
passerines."
At Lake Powell, embodied by the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, the
bird population "is very diverse," said the NPS, "with 325 documented...species.
This diversity can be attributed to the colonization of Lake Powell by aquatic
birds, augmented by the presence of the Colorado River, which is most likely
a migration corridor for aquatic and riparian birds."
At Lakes Mead and Mohave, surrounded by the Lake Mead National Recreation
Area, the dams created "vast bodies of water...that immediately attracted
many kinds of water and shore birds. The vegetation that developed around the
shores became fine feeding grounds for numerous insect-eating birds." More
than 240 species have been recorded so far.
Lake Havasu, set within desert, mountain and lake and river environments
and located near four National Wildlife Refuges, ranks among the top birding
areas in southern California and western Arizona. At the Bill Williams River
National Wildlife Refuge, the U. S. Geological Survey says in its Internet site
that the riparian habitat "draws a variety of neotropical migratory birds—winging
their way from Central and South America to their breeding grounds in the north.
"About a dozen endangered Yuma clapper rails spend the summer months
in the cattails of the marsh and may overwinter. More likely heard than seen,
their dry kek-kek-kek echoes at dusk and dawn."
Photographing the birds
If you have come, for the first time, to visit the Southwest, you will likely
want to photograph, not only the birds, but also our striking landscapes. You
might consider bringing a digital single lens reflex with a wide angle to short
telephoto zoom lens and a short to long telephoto zoom lens. Canon, Nikon, Leica,
Olympus, Pentax, Sony, Panasonic and others all produce reasonably priced cameras
that yield high quality images, exactly what you will want to memorialize your
experience.
For more information on photographing birds, see Bird
Photography.
For more information on Nature Photography, see Things
to Do: Photography.
Follow DesertUSA