This past month our business attended the Verde Valley Birding and Nature Festival. We’ve been a vendor for over a decade and look forward to it every year. In addition to having a booth at the event, we lead bird walks, give classes and enjoy seeing friends new and old.
Birding festivals are a treasured part of the tight-knit community. It’s a place where people with a common passion can exchange ideas, learn from each other, and of course see great birds! The draw of any good festival is a full schedule of trips to local hotspots with a guide who intimately knows the birds in the area. Out-of-town folks can attend a festival and glean knowledge from regional experts while applying the limited time to seeing as many new birds as possible. It can be a whirlwind for a person recently exposed to the hobby, but birdwatchers are generally very welcoming and forthcoming with info to newcomers.
Arizona hosts six annual festivals spread across the year. Starting in January there’s Wings Over Willcox, where you can see sandhill cranes by the tens of thousands. It’s also a great opportunity to study shorebirds and the birds of prey that winter in the area.
In May, Southwest Wings hosts its Spring Fling in Sierra Vista, nestled along the Huachuca Mountains of southeastern Arizona. People come from all corners of the world see the many birds the area has to offer.
Once the doldrums of midsummer birding have passed with the onset of our annual monsoons, late July brings the biennial Sedona Hummingbird Festival. While hummingbirds are the stars, no bird is left out, and this coming season will bring the next event.
Hot on the heels is the late-summer installment of the Southwest Wings Festival, which we attend as well. That’s right, the birding is so great in southeast Arizona they need multiple festivals! Species like the Montezuma quail, elegant trogon, Arizona woodpecker and varied bunting can all be observed with some effort. It really is spectacular.
Just a week later, the festival season wraps up with the Tucson Birding Festival, which covers many of the same great spots as the longstanding SW Wings.
Back to our very own Verde Valley festival at Dead Horse Ranch State Park in Cottonwood. With the ever-evolving Verde River cutting a channel through the heart of the park, it provides a glimpse into one of Arizona’s iconic riparian corridors. Guided trips to the valley’s many great birding locations are likely to reveal otherwise uncommon species, such as the common blackhawk (actually not so common), brown-crested flycatcher, Lucy’s warbler, painted redstart, and red-faced warbler. A leisurely stroll along the park’s roads will likely reveal great birds such as nesting bald eagles, fiery summer tanagers, the very chatty yellow-breasted chats, and maybe even an impossibly red vermilion flycatcher. Many festivals choose this bird as an annual theme, and this year it’s on the standard for the Verde Valley festival.
Flycatchers are a diverse and widespread group of birds, and Arizona is home to between ten and 20 related species. Some are quite common, others take significant effort to observe. While every species is beautiful in its own way, many flycatchers are relatively understated in their visual appeal. Among them the vermilion flycatcher stands out.
As the name suggests, the males carry vivid plumage that’s very hard to miss, even given its diminutive frame. No other species in Arizona can match its crimson saturation, and the contrast with its crisp black mask, back and tail creates an unforgettable experience. We’re fortunate that they are relatively common in the southern half of the state, with the Verde Valley at the historic northern edge of their range.
A trip to a city park in Tucson will likely turn up a vermilion flycatcher, and once found they are typically quite tame. A respectful birder can expect to see opportunities for close-up observation of this stunning bird. For someone from another part of the globe this may be the most memorable moment of a birding trip!
Birding festivals bring people together. Birding brings people together and, by and large, birders are a great group of folks. This hobby has introduced me to so many great people from all over the world (halo Michael und Magda!). So if you want to see fantastic birds, meet amazing people and support a piece of local economy, please consider checking out a birding festival near you!
In April I added several species to my 2023 The Lookout Birding Challenge list. These included two surprise broad-winged hawks, our state representative cactus wren, evening grosbeak (remarkably beautiful), Cassin’s vireo, warbling vireo, western screech-owl, osprey, black-throated gray warbler, blue-winged teal, Harris’ hawk and green-tailed towhee.
My year count now stands at 165 species!
Migration is coming to a close, but birds are actively seeking mates and vocalizing like crazy right now. They’re all essentially saying, “I’m over here!” to any potential love-interest. Standing on my deck for just a few minutes the other day revealed a cacophony of sounds that included bushtits, northern cardinal, ash-throated flycatcher, house finch, brown-headed cowbird, lesser goldfinch, mountain chickadee, a red-tailed hawk, Gambel’s quail and black-headed grosbeak. Use your ears this time of the year to help pinpoint our feathered friends. Learning vocalizations is a lifelong process that can be perplexing and frustrating, but stick with it — for all the effort you will become a much more effective bird-watcher.
The Prescott Audubon Society is an official chapter of the National Audubon Society. Check it out online at PrescottAudubon.org.
