Dermot Breen's Blog: Arizona 9th February 2015

Thursday 12 March 2015

Arizona 9th February 2015

We had another go at the Sinaloa Wren in the morning. Thankfully we managed to see the bird as it tends to be much more active and vocal. The bird was always distant and keep low in the understorey vegetation much as one would expect a wren to behave I suppose! It made several visits to a nest bringing in feathers that it presumably constructed in recent weeks.

Having scored on the Sinaloa we made our way to Florida Canyon where we spent several hours. This is another well known spot with a good list of speciality species. Unfortunately we didn't see too many on this occasion however the highlight here was definitely a pair of Black-capped Gnatcatchers. These are very restricted in the US being found only in a small area in SE Arizona. The hike up the canyon was a little tough for some of the group but everyone made it all the way up to where the very rough track seemed to peter out. Along the way up we had a few good birds like Hammond's Flycatcher, Hutton's Vireo and Black-chinned Sparrow.
Afterwards we had Black-throated Sparrow and Mexican Jays nearby.

I forgot to mention that the previous evening we were extremely lucky to get excellent views of Whiskered Screech Owl, another species restricted to SE Arizona. Can be a tough one to see at the best of times. No photos unfortunately.