Reprinted by permission of the Tucson Audubon Society
A Thick-billed Kingbird was the latest newly arriving spring migrant at the Paton Center this past week. After a few brief occurrences of birds giving their distinctive buzzy metallic calls as they flew over and away, one cooperative individual spent several minutes perched in the top of a pecan tree early one evening, a life bird for birders visiting from as far away as Poland.
Thick-billed Kingbird. Photo by Martin Molina
The odd songs of Yellow-breasted Chats have once again been reverberating through the air and it didn’t take more than a few days for them to discover the suet feeders and oranges in the back yard, giving birders great views of this normally skulky, difficult to see summer resident.
Yellow-breasted Chat, photo by Matthew Studebaker
Broad-billed Hummingbirds are ever-present and getting a glimpse of a Violet-crowned Hummingbird at the cluster of feeders by the elderberry tree in the back yard typically requires just five or ten minutes of patient watching and waiting.
Violet-crowned Hummingbird, photo by Greg Lavaty