Patagonia-Rufous-backed Robin

Eric writes: Greetings from Tucson,

I had some time to bird this holiday weekend, and with a Rufous-backed Robin in Patagonia, that was the direction I headed.  My first stop was at Florida Canyon in the Santa Rita Mountains to look for a pair of Rufous-capped Warblers.  I had never birded this canyon and I was sorry it took so long for me to bird here for the first time!  The habitat is spectacular; the trail splits and goes up two different canyons.  One is relatively dry and the other is lush.  Due to this, you can see completely different species in each canyon.  I dipped on the Rufous-capped Warbler but it was good to see the layout of the area and I will be back sometime soon to look again!

Cactus Wren-one of the species that inhabits
the dry hillsides of Florida Canyon

Rufous-crowned Sparrow-another species of the dry hillsides

Black-throated Gray Warbler-many of these were
using the canyon both days I visited

The next morning after birding Florida Canyon for a second time, I headed down to Patagonia Lake State to look for a reported Elegant Trogon.  I hiked up and down Sonoita Creek, saw many birds, birded with a lady (I am spacing on her name) from California, but never saw the trogon.  I wasn't too disappointed since I will see this species later in the year when they start breeding in some of the mountain canyons.  After we gave up on the trogon, the birder from California and I headed over to Spirit Tree B&B and ran into a birding couple (again, sorry, spacing on names, I think I need to start writing them down).  After looking around for about 15 minutes, the Rufous-backed Robin was spotted and I was able to get a couple identifiable photos.  An Elf Owl nests nearby so we all waited around for the owl which showed on cue to end a great day of birding.

Rufous-backed Robin

Rufous-backed Robin

 -Eric