Highlights from Arizona - Oct. 2020

We flew into Phoenix, drove southwest through Wilcox to the Cave Creek Canyon to see a pair of rare Eared Quetzals which had taken up residence there.  This species is threatened by "loss of habitat" in its native Mexico mountains and is present only in extremely low numbers according to the Audubon.  We were able to find the pair in Cave Creek Canyon, thanks to fairly precise GPS coordinates in eBird and the half dozen other birders also looking for it.  The pair of quetzals have celebrity status amongst birders, because this species is so rarely seen north of the Mexican borders.  Fortunately they have taken a liking to a deciduous tree which produces berries that is close to the paved main road - it wasn't hard to spot the 14" tall bright green birds when they flew in to dine.  Avi and I stayed only a few minutes to admire them, snap a few [not very good] photos and proceed to our next destination to give the birds a little space to be wild.  It is a fine line on how much birdwatching affects their normal behaviors, potentially endangering them.

We then proceed south to the Mexican border, stopping at several hotspots until heading north up through the Tucson area and back to Phoenix.  It was a fabulous birding trip, with 54 new species added to the list, many fun memories, a lesson learned about picking your feet up when you hike down a steep trail and a broken camera (if I haven't told you the story about how we got the Elegant Trogon pictures, see the next post).