Southeast Arizona ranks high on many birders’ lists as the country’s top birding region. With numerous range-restricted species in beautiful mountain and desert landscapes, it’s no mystery why. This itinerary will allow you to soak in many of the ecological wonders Southeast Arizona has to offer. From the deserts of Tucson where we will get familiar with common specialties of the Sonoran Desert through four distinct “sky island” mountain ranges that birds like Elegant Trogon and Red-faced Warbler call home, we’ll get a thorough sampling of the best the region offers.

Our itinerary will take us to such fabled hotspots as Mount Lemmon, Madera Canyon, and Patagonia. Southeast Arizona in late summer – known as the second spring due to the monsoon rains that come through and green the desert at that time – is hard to beat. Birds abound as the land comes alive with occasional rains storms, and this itinerary is sure to net many of the highly sought-after species in this region. This is the time of peak hummingbird diversity—we could see ten or more species—and is a great time to find other regional specialties like Olive Warbler, Painted Redstart, Rose-throated Becard, Whiskered Screech-Owl, Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher, Black-capped Gnatcatcher, Thick-billed Kingbird, and many others.

Steve Huggins, (Red Hill Birding) & Harry Jones

You will meet the guide at the Tucson Airport. Tucson and the nearby town of Green Valley sit in eastern part of the Sonoran Desert, thus hosting many typical desert birds. We want to be sure to spend time taking in the wonderful landscapes full of saguaro, chollas, and ocotillos, and will venture out into the desert in the afternoon outside of Green Valley with a goal of spotting Gilded Flicker, Rufous-winged Sparrow, Harris’s Hawk, and possibly even Lesser Nighthawk among others.

This morning we’ll be birding in the Santa Rita Mountains south of Tucson, where Madera Canyon is located. Madera Canyon is home to the Santa Rita Lodge, which has a host of hummingbird feeders that are always a hit with participants. The flurry of birds here will be evident as soon as we pull in, with numerous Broad-billed, Rivoli’s (formerly Magnificent), Black-chinned, and Anna’s Hummingbirds all vying for spots on the feeders. Mexican Jay,  Bridled Titmouse, and Bronzed Cowbird all visit the regular feeders here, adding to the excitement of birdlife at the feeders. The trails that head into more forested areas are home to some of the sough-after Southeast Arizona, including Elegant Trogon, Sulfur-bellied Flycatcher, Arizona Woodpecker, and Painted Redstart. The road out of Madera is also home to Botteri’s Sparrow, a local denizen of the desert here that we’ll aim to track down.

The Santa Rita Mountains are also home to other canyons and hillsides that hold a variety of special and hard to find species. Some years one can rarities like find Five-striped Sparrow, Rufous-capped Warbler, and/or Black-capped Gnatcatcher in the area as well as the sparsely distributed Lucifer Hummingbird, so we’ll be keeping our eyes out for all while soaking in views of more expected species like Varied Bunting, Hooded Oriole, and Black-throated Sparrow.

Heading south from Green Valley, we’ll bird around along the De Anza Trail in Tubac, where in recent years Rose-throated Becards have consistently nested. This riparian area is also good for many other of Southeast Arizona’s top birds, including Gray Hawk, Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet, Dusky-capped and Brown-crested Flycatcher, Thick-billed and Tropical Kingbirds, Abert’s Towhee, Varied Bunting, and Rufous-winged Sparrow. We could also see the threatened western Yellow-billed Cuckoo along with many other typical riparian birds including Bell’s Vireo, Yellow-breasted Chat, Summer Tanager, and Blue Grosbeak.

From Tubac, we’ll head south to the border town of Nogales before turning back northeast en route to the famous birding town of Patagonia. After lunch in the heat of the day, we will bird along the valley of Sonoita Creek which contains a variety of bird species we haven’t run into yet on this trip. We’ll be sure to visit is the Paton Center for Hummingbirds. Now owned by the Tucson Audubon Society, this area is loaded with both hummingbirds and other regional specialties. We’ll aim to spot a Violet-crowned Hummingbird on the feeders here, as well as birds like Gray Hawk, Inca Dove, White-winged Dove, Vermilion Flycatcher, Loggerhead Shrike, Varied Bunting, and Pyrrhuloxia.

The region is famous for the “Patagonia Picnic Table” where birders have found numerous rarities at a roadside rest stop, often while searching for other mega rarities. We’ll look for local specialties like Thick-billed Kingbird, Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet, and Black-capped Gnatcatcher, along with more widespread species like Greater Roadrunner, Lucy’s Warbler, and Zone-tailed Hawk.

We’ll have a full day and the following day to visit another Sky Island, the Huachuca Mountains. Similar to the Santa Ritas, these mountains hold many wonderful birds and has vast potential for obscure or rare birds for the US. In recent years, Rufous-capped Warbler has been found to regularly occur and nest here, and Sinaloa Wrens have been found nesting as well.

We will spend our time in the Huachuca’s exploring various canyons throughout these beautiful mountains, including the well-known Garden, Ramsey and Miller Canyons (note that Garden Canyon is in Fort Huachuca, an active army instillation, and access rules can change anytime). Here we hope to track down birds like Elegant Trogon, Spotted Owl, Buff-breasted, Sulphur-bellied, and Cordilleran Flycatcher, Canyon Wren, and Red-faced and Grace’s Warblers.

Another great attraction in the area is Beatty’s Guest Ranch, where birders stop in to check out the very busy hummingbird feeders. The hummingbird show is always impressive, and we will search through the abundant Black-chinned Hummingbirds for the less common White-eared, Rivoli’s, Blue-throated, Broad-tailed, Broad-billed, Anna’s, and maybe even a Berylline or Lucifer Hummingbird if we’re lucky. The Huachuca area also will give us an opportunity to look for Montezuma Quail, a devilishly hard species to track down but well worth the effort involved.

Depending on how the birding has gone, we may head into the Huachucas for one last bout of Sky Island birding. Afterwards, we will start the journey back to Tucson. The route we take will depend on our birding desires.  

If we want to see some waterbirds, we’ll take the route straight north in order to visit the sewage treatment pond in the town of Benson, which should provide us with great views of the recently split Mexican Duck, and possibly both shorebirds and White-faced Ibis.

Or we could head back west before heading north, stopping for another visit in Patagonia or swinging through Las Cienegas National Conservation Area in search of Chihuahuan Meadowlark and Cassin’s Sparrow. 

We’ll wrap up our drive back into Tucson, where we will spend the last two nights of the tour.

We will be up early today, starting our birding at the tallest mountain in the Santa Catalina Mountain range north of Tucson: Mount Lemmon. The Catalina Mountains are one of the “Sky Islands,” a series of mountain ranges in Southeast Arizona that rise thousands of feet above the surrounding terrain and essentially isolate birds found there from the surrounding desert. These mountains are home to many birds that occur nowhere else in the United States. At elevations greater than 8,000 feet, Mount Lemmon’s pine forests are home to mixed feeding flocks which should include Arizona specialties like Red-faced, Olive, and Grace’s Warbler, among more widespread birds like Pygmy Nuthatch, Plumbeous and Hutton’s Vireo. We will also keep our eyes out for Band-tailed Pigeon, Violet-green Swallow, and Red Crossbills and will keep watch for the very rare and sparsely distributed Short-tailed Hawk.

Following a morning at Mount Lemmon, we’ll head to lunch before descending into Tucson proper in the desert below for some afternoon birding. One hotspot we may visit is Sweetwater Wetlands – a constructed wetland located within the city boundaries. It’s in these areas we will find a many common lower elevation Southeastern Arizona birds including Gambel’s Quail, Ladder-backed Woodpecker, Black Phoebe, Tropical Kingbird, Cactus Wren, Verdin, Abert’s Towhee, along with shorebirds on their way south.

Tucson is a great birding town, so if we find ourselves with more time in the afternoon, we may head somewhere like Danny Lopez Park, Reid Park, or another Tucson hotspot.

We’ll end the day with a final group dinner and saying our goodbyes, before tomorrow’s departure for home.

Today is a departure day, and you can schedule your departing flight for any time today.