Lucy’s Warblers are one of the smallest warblers and has chosen to make the desert its home, making its nest in the driest of all warbler habitats.  

Dr. J. G. Cooper discovered this tiny and inconspicuous warbler at Fort Mojave in Arizona in 1861.  He named it after Miss Lucy Baird, daughter of his associate Dr. Spencer F. Baird. 

The Lucy’s Warbler is one of only two warblers that breeds in cavities. (The Prothonotary Warbler is the other.) If using a woodpecker hole, the warbler may fill the cavity nearly to the top with debris and put the nest on top so the bird can see out.  Abandoned Verdin nests are also a favorite nesting place.

I could not find if anyone has established the size of a Lucy’s Warblers territory. However, it is not unusual to find up to 5 nests in 1 acre.  When Tom and I do breeding bird surveys, the over lapping songs make it very hard to impossible to get an accurate count on the number of males singing.

Most people spot this bird while it is gleaning insects off foliage, and its quick movements catch the eye.  Remember, if you are in the dry desert do not eliminate all warblers when trying to identify a little gray bird!   It just may be a Lucy’s Warbler!

You might notice that I say he “ran”.  He did not fly.  Crissal Thrashers are known for their habit of running or walking around their territory.  Even when threatened by a predator or disturbed by us he runs for cover.  He does not fly unless death is imminent.  This unique habit makes things interesting when a Cooper’s Hawk flies over the bird feeders and a covey of quail are also in the yard.  They will all head for the same juniper/acacia tangle.  If the quail have young they win, if not the quail will usually head for the brush pile.

We have only found one Crissal Thrasher nest.  It was built close to the trunk of a tree, under a large branch.  Access to the nest was difficult for even the parent birds and should have provided great protection from predators and becauses of the location the nest was in a shady spot.  The Crissal Thrasher is only thrasher that lay unspotted eggs.

The energy of the Crisssal Thrasher inspired us to get moving or at least inspired me to get out to the office and write this blog.  You can find Crissal Thrashers and observe their habit of running by going to our Portal, Arizona birding map and looking for the big thicket.

Our yard has been fenced off from cattle grazing for about 10 years now.  We are fighting a battle with Russian Thistle and have noticed a definite decrease in this weed and several other noxious weeds.  The return of the Rufous-crowned Sparrow has given us hope that our yard will someday become a true desert scrubland haven for the birds.

Once paired the Rufous-crowned Sparrow remain on their territories year-round and stay bonded for life.  The are ground feeders and like to peck at the base of grass stems.  They are therefore most attracted to platform bird feeders in the winter, however prefer insects in the summer months.  The bird baths we have in our yard seem to be attracting them this year as we have not had much in the way of monsoonal rains. 

To help you find Rufous-crowned Sparrows download our Portal Birding Map and look along the Portal Road and the Foothills Roads in the scrub land before and throughout the big thicket.

But…..(you could hear that but coming, couldn’t you)…  we have a new bird feeder problem.  We have a young Cooper’s Hawk that has decided that our four tiered bird pond is a great place to soak it’s feet on a hot day.  It comes in and just stands in the water next to the water fall so that it gets a little splash, but not soaked.  We have never seen it attempt to hunt while it is here.  In fact it comes in with a great deal of wing flapping and hopping around.  It seems to want to clear every other animal out so that it has the bath to its self.  It is great to see the hawk stand so still for so long when you want to identify the bird or want to show it to a fellow bird watcher……but….you sure aren’t going to be able to show your fellow bird watcher any other birds when the hawk is around.

Now I realize that Cooper’s hawks have a rough life.  In a recent study of 300 skeletons,  23 percent showed old, healed-over fractures in the bones of the chest, especially of the wishbone.  The males have a particularly hard life.  Let me remind you that:

1. Cooper’s Hawks eat birds smaller that they are. 

2. The females will eat medium-sized birds.

3. Male Cooper’s Hawks are smaller than the female. 

 Are you getting the picture?

This tends to make the male submissive and he will make sure that his mate is in the mood before he makes his move, for reasons I’m sure are obvious to you.

The male will build the nest and will then feed both the female and the babies for the next 3 months, the time it takes for the young to be ready to go out on their own.

Now despite this rough life, I wish this particular Cooper’s Hawk would find some other way of cooling off this summer.  He is wreaking our chance to see the baby birds that would usually visit our yard.  It is always fun to watch the adult plumage slowly emerge.

We do have bird feeders on other sides of the house, so we haven’t been totally out of touch with the maturing of the baby birds, but it is just not the same when we fill our coffee cups each morning.

This hawk does not have a flight plan, so we can’t discourage him in the normal ways.  Our only solution is to let the pond go dry and water the birds in the other bird baths are offered around the yard.  I hope he gets the message soon.

Of course, we are not having to put out as much bird seed as usual, so we are saving some money. But, doesn’t the President want us to spend money right now?  Maybe I can get him to address this problem over a beer at the White House some time.

I am not sure why else they would be here.  Their preferred habitat is generally streamside willows, cottonwoods and mesquites.  They generally nest in cavities or under peeling bark of these trees.  The closest habitat of this sort is nearly three miles away from our property and there is not a tree large enough on our property to have cavities or peeling bark. 

These small active little elves have pale gray upperparts, plain gray wings and whitish underparts.  Both male and female have a rusty patch on the upper tail coverts.  The male has a very noticeable rusty red patch on the top of the head.  The bills are thin and very pointed and they have dark legs.  Overall size is smaller than some of our hummingbirds at about 4 1/4 inches.

Lucy’s Warblers are insect eaters and a great deal of the joy we have for these little tykes is watching them glean insects from the sage, acacia and mesquites which border our bird pond.  The acrobatics of these birds in catching their food is amazing as they chase small insects in every imaginable position up and down the branches of the plants.

I do not know if this pair flies from the better habitat three miles away or if they are nesting closer and are utilizing a non-traditional nesting site.  Today, however, they showed up with a juvenile bird.  The youngster was fully feathered and was catching its own food on the various shrubs.  It was similar in looks to the female but had some buff on the underparts.  Now we have three of these little birds to enjoy and enjoy them we will.

In our yard there are days when we are sitting with coffee mugs in hand, and have more interesting birds at our bird friendly pond than at our platform bird feeders.  Now we can always count on our bird feeders to bring in many of the seed eating birds, but some bird families such as the flycatchers, swallows, thrushes and warblers don’t eat seed so must be attracted by other means.

Any water feature for birds should be very shallow, just a couple of inches is all that is needed.  The bottom of the water feature should not be slippery.  If this is a problem for your bird bath cover the bottom with clean gravel. 

You will be able to attract more birds if the water is moving. This happens at my bird friendly pond by recirculating  the water.  On our bird bath we have a mister in the center.  This is really attractive to the hummingbirds.

To further explain my position, for the past two days I kept a list of the birds that came to our bird bath or bird friendly pond that otherwise would not have stopped at our yard:

Western Tanager

Plumbeous Vireo

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Greater Roadrunner

Wilson’s Warbler

Western Kingbird

Northern Mockingbird

Virginia’s Warbler

Yellow Warbler

Plus watching happy birds splash and preen after a bath is always entertaining.

A calm and peaceful Black-throated Sparrow was the only thing in our entire feeding station whe the day started.  He was selectively picking out his favorite seed when a “gang” of roudy Scaled Quail aproached from behind the red sage.  The male was calling and guiding his “harem” to the bird feeders for a quick breakfast before showing them his territory.

The Black-throated Sparrow calmly moved to the triple tube feeder to continue his breakfast.

Suddenly, from behind the rock fence (why it is a fence is another story) we heard another male Scaled Quail who thought that the platform bird feeders were clearly in his territory and was not about to loose face in front of his girls.

The Black-throated Sparrow calmly continued his breakfast.

Both male Scaled Quail shouted and circled around each other.  Then suddenly the first male attacked the second one by flying straight at him.  The chase was on!  Male #2 ran until he figured out that flying to a higher perch would give him an advantage.  He then flew straight at  the first male and  chased him around and around the firethorn bush.

The Black-throated Sparrow calmly continued his breakfast.

This territorial dispute continued until a raven stopped in to try for a bite of peanut butter from the oriole feeder.  It seems that he really did own the territory and both flocks of Scaled Quail recognized his superiority.

The Black-throated Sparrow hopped to the opposite side of the triple tube feeder away from the raven and calmly continued his breakfast.

None of the Scaled Quail had much time for breakfast, they were to busy claiming the territory to eat……. is there a moral somewhere in this story?

Shelter can be provided to birds and other wildlife in three basic ways:

• birdhouses for nesting
• brush piles for roosting, nesting and foraging
• plantings to provide nesting, roosting and and safe foraging areas.

While not a large number of bird species use nestboxes, many very desirable species do.  For these species the following components are important:

• size proportional to the bird species you wish to occupy it
• thick wood construction to provide insulation from the heat and cold
• an easy way to remove one side or the top for cleaning and clean it out when nesting is over to prevent parasites and disease
• the proper size hole opening to discourage predators
• no perch (perches are used by predators, not occupants)
• a rough interior or grooves on the inside under the opening to assist the young birds in leaving the nest
• box must be hung in the right habitat, at the right height for the species meant to occupy it and the opening must face away from prevailing winds

Brush piles provide a favorite nesting place for many bird species including quail, doves, towhees, juncos and several of the native sparrow species.  A simple pile of branches and yard cuttings will provide homes and hunting areas for many species of birds.  It will be a hub of activity during the nesting season and will provide great shelter in the winter time.  After a year or two move the brush pile and you will find a wonderful layer of compost beneath it which your garden plants will love.

You can also use plantings in your yard to provide shelter.  Massed plantings of evergreens are useful for nesting and protection from wind and bad weather.  Thick shrubs and trees will assist in providing nesting places and safe foraging areas for birds.  This is the hardest aspect of a backyard bird habitat to provide sometimes as it almost always seems like it takes forever for the plants to grow to a useful size.  Be persistent and it will come.

Remember the three Cs when providing shelter for your birds; cleanliness, comfort and consistency.  Then, sit back, enjoy a cup of coffee in your bird themed coffee mug and enjoy these beautiful and interesting birds you have attracted to your backyard bird habitat .

We started our day looking out the sliding glass door, looking at our bird feeders and 4 tier pond.  After a little breakfast we headed out to spend sometime doing some casual bird watching in the Portal area.

Our plan was to start on the desert scrub where the sunlight hits first and then continue on up into the canyon.  It was a great plan, but the wind came up and 40 mph winds just don’t do much for birdwatching.

Here is a list of birds we saw on our pleasant but brief birding trip: Green-tailed Towhee, Brewer’s Sparrow, Lark Sparrow, Black-throated Sparrow, Mourning Dove, Cactus Wren, Mockingbird, Chipping Sparrow, Vesper Sparrow, Lincoln’s Sparrow, Canyon Towhee, Northern Cardinal, Curved-billed Thrasher, White-crowned Sparrow, Lesser Goldfinch, Pine Siskin, Mexican Jay, Acorn Woodpecker, Arizona Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, Hutton’s Vireo, Bridled Titmouse, Dark-eyed Junco, Black Phoebe, Cooper’s Hawk, Says Phoebe.

There are reports of Townsend’s Warblers in the canyon, but with the wind coming up we were unable to confirm this.