Tucson birds....

I just got back from 10 days in Tucson at my sister's house.  I love sitting out in her back yard watching the birds.  Each day I saw 10 or 11 different species.  I can't decide exactly how to post everything we did, but will start with some of the birds from her yard.  Looking out her front window you see a typical Tucson view .....a  view of the Catalina Foothills mountains and very little vegetation other then cacti and some small trees, and a few wildflowers.

I love getting up early and seeing the sun beginning to light up the mountains.

Her back yard is different.....several nice tall trees and a small grassy area surrounded by a low wall.

All the birds like to come land at the top of the trees.  Here are a few of the birds that visited each day.  

 One of the first birds I always see is the Phainopepla.  This is the male in his black feathers and red eyes.

The female Phainopepla is gray.  They are both very pretty birds with their lacy looking topknots.  They are about the size of Cardinals.

 I love seeing the Gila Woodpeckers.  There is a pair that lives in the Saguaro cactus that you can see in the mountain photo.  They flit back and forth from there to the trees in Dorothy's yard.  She puts out some suet and a little bird seed, but doesn't feed the birds very extensively.  Can't see the head but think this is the female.  The male has a small red spot on the top of its head.

 This was sort of strange behavior to watch.  The female woodpecker picked that spot to hang under the "v" of the branch and hung there for at least 15 minutes.  While she hung there the Phainopepla arrived and then one of the House Finches.  They all seemed very chummy!

Another day, the Gila Woodpecker pair came together to sit on the tree before visiting the suet.  If you don't look too closely the tree looks a bit like a heart surrounding them :-)

 The House Finches in Arizona vary from red to orange to yellow.  This little female was putting on a wing display for the male and he was totally ignoring her.

 " I did my best!".....men!

 I love the Lesser Goldfinches.....similar to the Goldfinches back home but with a dark head.

 The male

Doing a bit of singing.

 This is one of the dullest looking birds.....the Abert's Towhee.  Sort of like a faded female Cardinal.  Usually it is digging around on the ground, but I caught it one day up in the tree singing.  Sounds a great deal like a Cardinal's song, but a little rougher.

 Another treetop singing......the Pyrrholoxia.  It look's similar to a Cardinal female also.

 And of course the Hummingbirds.  This female buzzed around a bit, but I'm not sure what kind it is.

 I think this is the Costa's hummingbird male.

And this one is a Broadbilled Hummingbird male.

Lot's of Mourning doves.  I thought this pair looked very comfortable.  There was a female nesting right outside my bedroom window and she hatched her babies right before we left.  My sister is suppose to keep me informed on their progress.  I could just barely see it one morning as the mother fed it.  Little ball of fluff with a big bill.

My favorite little bird was this Verdin.  A cute little gray bird with a yellow face.  It loved the oak tree and was eating the flowers each day.  It flits around so much, I had trouble keeping up with the camera and it was often hidden in the leaves and flowers.  I will probably post some more photos of it.  There is one on my sidebar from a previous trip sitting in an Acadia tree.

Enough for this post.