Pyrrhuloxia

Did you  see the cute hummingbird I posted a a few minutes ago?


This fellow has been showing up the last several days.  Dapper in looks and cheerful in song, the Pyrrhuloxia is a tough-as-nails songbird of baking hot deserts in the American Southwest (SE AZ, S. NM, W. TX) and northern Mexico. They’re closely related to Northern Cardinals, but they are a crisp gray and red, with a longer, elegant crest and a stubby, parrot-like yellow bill. During breeding season Pyrrhuloxias are fiercely and vocally territorial, but in the winter they forget their disputes and join together in large foraging flocks.

Try this view.

They have a sharp 'chip' very much like the Northern Cardinal but an ear attuned to them can tell the slight difference Click of the 'Listen' button on this website for this bird and on this one for the Cardinal.

Thursday, I'm making my first trip to Madera Canyon since the fire in the Santa Rita Mountains.