Phoenix bird free#
You’ll need to obtain a free permit to visit, but it’s worth it for the seclusion and excellent birding. One of the newest birding areas in Phoenix, the 700-acre Tres Rios Wetlands is home to more than 150 species of birds, including American White Pelicans, ducks, Osprey, and grebes. Watch for several varieties of ducks near the zoo’s entrance and on its ponds. Just next door to the Desert Botanical Garden, the Phoenix Zoo also attracts a remarkable number of birds, and because there are so many people at the zoo, the birds there aren’t as skittish as they might be in more secluded areas. A comprehensive list of what was spotted on each week’s walk can be found here. If you’re new to birding, come on Monday when garden docents lead a bird walk. With its five trails showcasing different desert habitats, including a mesquite bosque, the 140-acre Desert Botanical Garden is one of the premier birding destinations in the Greater Phoenix area. Desert Rivers Audubon offers free family bird walks on the more than four miles of trails here every third Saturday, October through March.
(or sunset), or take an organized Saturday morning bird walk, October through May.Īlso known as Gilbert Water Ranch, the 110-acre Riparian Preserve at Water Ranch attracts more than 200 species of birds and is considered one of the best places in the Greater Phoenix area for spotting ducks and shorebirds. Bird on your own when the trails are open, sunrise to 7 p.m. Today, more than 250 birds have been spotted here. Once a dump site less than two miles south of downtown Phoenix, this 600-acre restoration area stretches along five miles of the Salt River and is home to the Nina Mason Pulliam Rio Salado Audubon Center. If you’re not sure what to do, he advises taking an organized bird walk, like the one held on Mondays at the Desert Botanical Garden.īirding is something you learn by doing, and in Phoenix, there are plenty of great bird sites to get the hang of it. A field guide helps, too, and most places known for birding will have a bird list available online or onsite. You notice the insects swarming near the water’s surface, the shape of the leaves on an unfamiliar tree, and-out of the corner of your eye-something grey slash in front of a tree and disappear behind a bush.Īs we continue through the Rio Salado Habitat Restoration Area, I ask him what it takes to get started birding. You’re not zipping past on a mountain bike or dutifully hiking a trail. Pausing to really experience a place gives you a deeper appreciation for it, I realize as we walk along the Salt River. When you stop and be fairly quiet, birds will start to appear. It’s also about stopping, being still and noticing your surroundings, which is why it’s such a great way to explore Phoenix. Birding, I learn from him, is just as much about what you hear as what you see. I don’t see the birds, but I continue to hear them, drawn by the call of “pish, pish, pish” Larson sounded before I arrive. “There weren’t any birds when I got here, but I started pishing, and they filled that tree,” he says, pointing to a mesquite. As soon as I do, the chirping comes at me from all directions. “Listen,” says Mark Larson, president of the Maricopa Audubon Society.Īfter parking, grabbing my notebook and rushing to meet Larson in front of the Nina Mason Pulliam Rio Salado Audubon Center less than two miles south of downtown Phoenix, I have to make a conscious effort to hear the sounds around me. © 2018 Tune In to Nature.Birding in Phoenix Reconnect with the sights and sounds of nature at these top spots for birding in Greater Phoenix. "Canyon Sunset" Paul Winter Canyon 1986 Earth Music Productions The bird's fire-fangled feathers dangle down.”īirdNote’s theme composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler. Poet Wallace Stevens imagined the mythical “gold-feathered bird” perched in a palm tree.
And in every version, it was exotic, literally one of a kind. All agree it **definitely had a golden aura. Some say it was the size of an eagle others, bigger than an ostrich - with bright red and gold or maybe even purple feathers. One myth says the dawn song of the Phoenix was so beautiful, the sun god Apollo would stop his chariot - and the sun - to listen.Īncient sources differ on the bird’s size and color. Then, a new Phoenix would rise from the ashes.īoth the Greeks and Egyptians associated the Phoenix with the sun. Just before its time was up, the Phoenix built a nest and set itself on fire. The ancient Greeks and Egyptians described a mythical bird called the Phoenix, a magnificent creature that was a symbol of renewal and rebirth.Īccording to legend, each Phoenix lived for 500 years, and only one Phoenix lived at a time.
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