Gilas and other misc. birds from Arizona.....

(Since I am tired of posting about Arizona, I will just slip this in behind my most recent post and if anyone notices....fine.....and if they don't....fine. I did enjoy the Arizona birds and flowers and finally got some quail pictures that I'm happy with and saw many other birds both in the wild and at the Desert Museum.)

The Gila Woodpeckers that visit Dorothy's backyard would like me to stay there all the time and feed them. In the above picture both the male and female came at the same time and they like that double branched tree.....gives them both a trunk to cling to. They often land on that tree and play "peek-a-boo" around the trunk while deciding if it is safe to jump to the suet feeder which I hung from one of its branches.
Sometimes it would land on this post feeder and then leap over to the feeder with the peanuts mix in it. There were many Mourning Doves that visited each day, also. This one was taking a bath and lifting her wings up like this. Maybe it is her way of airing them dry.

I only saw one Lesser Goldfinch. Not a great shot, but at least you can see the differences. The whole head is black and on down the back it is much darker.

I kept trying for a better picture of the Phainopepla, but it never came closer then the very top of a tree in the backyard. This picture shows the general shape and size. You can't see the ragged crest in this pose, but I showed it in another pic. The females are grey.

The Pyrrholoxia didn't pose well either, but here you can see the red "bleeding" on the breast. It looked like a lovely bird, if I could have seen it better! Has a large yellow beak....cracker type.

This is one of the House Finches that has a more yellow or orange coloration. All of the "familiar birds" for me seemed just a little different in the west.

Another soaring bird.....white bands on the tail. This was at Montezuma's Well. There were several birds soaring overhead. There were also ducks on the water of the well and some sort of swallows sweeping up bugs from the air over it.

The following birds were at the Desert Museum in their aviary. This Stilt was one of several taking a nap by the water running through.

I never identified which oriole this is because it was way over my head and I didn't get a top view.....but the color was certainly pretty.

This last one is an Inca Dove....feathers are marked different than Mourning dove. I think they have a sort of "crackled" appearance. The parrott thing in the middle I have no idea about. All at the aviary.