Arizona offers the opportunity of superb birdwatching in breathtaking scenery - deserts, canyons and mountains of stunning beauty. Without doubt this is one of the best areas in the USA for its bird life. The species list is impressive and includes several birds on the northern limit of their range. The Sonoran Desert with its landscape dominated by magnificent Saguaro Cacti is the home of Phainopepla, Cactus Wren, Gila Woodpecker and Gilded Flicker and it shouldn’t be too hard to find its most famous bird, the Greater Roadrunner.
Only a short distance away snow can still be lying at 8,000 feet in the Santa Catalina Mountains, where White-throated Swifts and Zone-tailed Hawks soar above beautiful canyons and the forests are alive with Pygmy Nuthatches and Yellow-eyed Juncos.
In the Chiricahua, Huachuca and Santa Rita Mountains resident Mexican Chickadees, Arizona Woodpeckers and Canyon Wrens will have been joined by countless migrants including colourful Red-faced Warblers, Elegant Trogons, Painted Redstarts and Vermilion Flycatchers.
At various wetlands we can expect to find migrating shorebirds such as Wilson’s Phalarope, American Avocet and Long-billed Curlew; there will be several opportunities to watch hummingbirds at feeders and there are eight species of owls that we can look for.
An option at the end of the tour may be to spend two nights at the spectacular Grand Canyon. There will plenty of opportunity to enjoy the truly awe-inspiring scenery and the chance to take a helicopter flight. We can watch sunrise and sunset over the canyon when the sun’s shifting angle turns the breathtaking cliffs into a kaleidoscope of colour. Birds here include Western Bluebird, Mountain Chickadee, Pinyon Jay and the reintroduced California Condor.