Favorite Birds of 2019
2019 has been an excellent year of birding. In California, we trekked from the lofty mountains to the rugged coast, as well as back and forth across our Great Valley's grasslands and wetlands. Beyond our state's borders, birding trips led us from the deserts and sky islands of Arizona to the Low Country of South Carolina, as I tallied up nearly 100 "lifers" in the last 365 days. Quite the prize: an Elegant Trogon in southeastern Arizona In Southeastern Arizona, a birder's dream destination, we spent time in the Santa Rita and Huachuca Mountains, enchanting places of unexpected natural beauty that boast a never-ending assemblage of incredible birds. Some of my very favorite and most exciting birds were Elegant Trogons, Elf Owls, Whiskered Screech-owls, and Rivoli's, Broad-billed and Violet-crowned Hummingbirds. Rivoli's Hummingbird in southeastern Arizona Other lifers in Arizona included: a flock of Neotropic Cormorants; Zone-tailed and Gra