About a year ago I signed up for a guided birding trip to Chihuahua, Mexico. I’ve birded in Mexico on several occasions, but never in Chihuahua. The trip was titled “Madera Chihuahua and the Thick-billed Parrots,” a teasing title that captured my imagination. The trip took place this past weekend, and it certainly lived up to its billing.
After leaving Tucson Friday morning, we made a brief stop in St. David, in southeastern Arizona, before continuing to Douglas where we crossed into Sonora, Mexico. Our route took us in a southeasterly direction, where we crossed into the state of Chihuahua. We made numerous birding stops along the way and saw forty-seven species (in Mexico) on Friday.
Saturday morning, we continued driving, pushing further south before finally heading west. We basically birded the entire day—for about twelve hours—before arriving at our hotel in Madera, Chichuahua around 7:00 p.m. This is my style of birding—from sunrise to sunset. When we tallied our bird list, we came up with sixty-eight species for the day.
The description of the four-day trip included the following statement, “This short but very sweet trip is offered mainly to see the target species of the highly endemic thick-billed parrot and eared quetzal. These two birds are found only in the high pine forest of the Sierra Madre Occidental and exist in very low numbers.”
The write-up also stated, “Thick-billed parrots only nest at elevations over 8,000 feet, and require a very specialized habitat of dead old growth trees that they utilize for their nest cavities. Many of these cavities were excavated decades ago by the now extinct imperial woodpecker.”
Early the next morning we headed up to the higher elevations near Madera where we encountered our target birds—thick-billed parrots and eared quetzals. We saw probably between 15-18 thick-billed parrots, which was very exciting, considering there are only about 2,000 left in the wild. We also saw the male eared quetzal bringing food to its nesting cavity. Wow!
It was truly one of those magical days where the birds were cooperative. We not only found our target birds, but many other high-elevation species such as mountain trogon, slate-throated redstart, Montezuma quail, tufted flycatcher, buff-breasted flycatcher and pine flycatcher.
On Monday we got on the road before daylight and we didn’t get back to Prescott until after 10:30 p.m. We were on the road for about sixteen hours! For the four-day trip we saw about 150 species.
Little did I know when I signed up for this trip last year that a week after seeing thick-billed parrots in the wild, I would have the opportunity to attend the Arizona Field Ornithologists (AZFO) 2023 Annual Meeting where the keynote speaker’s topic is “The natural history of thick-billed parrots in Arizona: an interdisciplinary perspective.”
Evidence shows that thick-billed parrots may have been native to Arizona and the presenter will discuss why they are no longer in the region. The AZFO meeting is September 15-17 at the Eastern Arizona College campus in Payson. The meeting is open to the public, and you can register at azfo.org. Part of the annual meeting includes several mini field expeditions to explore the diversity of birds along the Mogollon Rim.
As a reminder, the submission period for our 15th annual wild bird photography contest is now open. I hope you will consider participating. We will announce the winners of the photo contest, as well as the 2023 Birding Challenge, at our 20th anniversary celebration event on Saturday, October 28th. Put it on your calendar, as you won’t want to miss it!
Until next week, Happy Birding!
Eric Moore is the owner of The Lookout, in Prescott, where you will find a Hallmark Gold Crown Store, wild bird products, and Vortex and Swarovski optics. Eric has been an avid birder for over 55 years. Eric can be contacted at eric@thelookoutaz.com.
