While waiting on the Presque Isle ‘Weekend Update’ (spoiler: ducks and gulls), time to revert back to warmer climes in Arizona back in August. These shots from a SE Arizona Birding Festival field 1/2-day trip to Florida Canyon and Box Canyon, both northeast of world-famous Madera Canyon outside the town of Green Valley.
Sound like the locals: “Florida” is the Spanish pronunciation = flo-REE-dah.
ID tip on Cassin’s Kingbird: strongly gray head and chest with starkly delineated white throat.
Bird of the day, a lovely Thick-billed Kingbird, mostly found in Mexico:
ID tip: similar colouration to other ‘western’/tropical kingbirds, with brown-ish wings, gray head, yellow underside, gray breast, and white-ish throat. but relatively large sized + chunky bill. This location (upper Box Canyon) has typical vegetation for this bird = mature sycamore + streamside.
Here, a beautiful Scott’s Oriole (f) on probably Century Plant (Agave americana):
Finally, an amazing Golden Eagle:
Very nice shots of ‘local’ birds. Great place to go to. It’s always nice to see birds in their natural (and not so natural) settings!