15 Things You Never Knew About Desert Birds
southwest garden guide 
The birds of the Southwestern deserts are often quirky and as unique as the land they live in. Here are 15 things you may not know about them.
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The birds of the Southwestern deserts are often quirky, often elusive, and generally as unique as the land they live in. Here are 15 things you may not know about them.
1 - The Arizona State Bird Is Huge - in the Wren World Anyway.
The cactus wren (Campylorhynchus brunneicapillus) is the largest species of wren in the United States. The average size is around 7 inches long, from beak to the tip of its tail (between 7.1 and 7.5 inches). This giant-sized wren weighs in at less than an ounce and a half, or more technically between 1.18 and 1.65 ounces, with an average weight of 1.37 ounces (that's around 38 grams for our metric friends).
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2 - The New Mexico State Bird is Hard to Track.
The greater roadrunner (Geococcyx californianus) whose name means “earth-cuckoo” does indeed love the earth – running rather than flying. And if you spot it's tracks - it is hard to say which direction it is heading! This bird that has 2 toes pointing forward and 2 toes pointing backwards, a trait shared with very few bird species.
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3 - Worst Sibling Rivalry
That hawk screeching in the background of every western movie you ever saw is the red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis), and it has one of the worse cases of sibling rivalry in the bird world.
Food can be scarce in the desert, and Mama red-tailed hawk might not be able to feed every one of her babies as much as they would like. When this happens, the hungry nestling that hatched first, and thus has a few days feeding ahead of the nest mate and is larger, may just shove the younger, smaller sibling out of the nest.
Bird Gardening Class is Here!
The “Bird Gardening" class is done and up!Hope you will consider it. As always the Gardening With Soule Membership Club folks get the class for free - it's one of the "perks." So if you have thought about joining - why not today?!
By the way - There are a number of videos plus a downloadable plant list as part of the course.
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4 - Fastest Birds to Leave the Nest
Some birds don't wait to be kicked out of the nest – they leave almost as soon as they hatch! Introducing the quails of the western deserts – the Gambel's quail, the scaled quail, the Mearn's quail, and masked bobwhite quail. These desert quail are precocial, meaning the parents guide them out of the nest and onto the ground running to find food almost as soon as they hatch.
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5 – Fastest Bird in the West?
We are back to our friend the greater roadrunner. This bird with the unusual feet is ranked the third fastest ground bird in the world, after the ostrich and the emu (both birds that are far far larger we might note). No wonder Mr. Wiley Coyote had such a hard time trying to catch this bird!
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6 - Most Death Defying Bird?
If
you have ever watched the ravens swooping and soaring in the winds
that rise out of the Grand Canyon, you might think it is them – but
there is a smaller bird that lives even more dangerously – the
mockingbird!
Mockingbirds happily live alongside humans in our urban environments. Humans okay, house cats - not so much. In fact mockingbirds have in general declared war on house cats. Mockingbirds will “dive bomb” cats and yank tufts of fur off their backs to line their nest with. They have excellent memory and will target cats that have been threatened them in the past, while leaving non-hunting cats strictly alone.
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7- Owls are Incredibly Strong
Death-defying mockingbirds are easily outdone by great horned owls - which is the reason my house cats are indoors only. Great horned owls (Bubo virginianus) are known to take the death-defying house cat attack one step further, and battle the cats directly. They can lift a moderate sized cat and fly away with it. The owl later drops poor Fluffy from a great height onto a rough surface (including city streets) and Fluffy may land on her feet but have a broken back, rendering her harmless to the hungry owl.
Great horned owls are the largest western owl and can lift 4 times their own weight and fly away with it. They weigh in at around 3 pounds, and thus can lift a household pet of 12 pounds or less. Imagine if a 250 pound human could lift 1000 pounds and then stroll down the street carrying it.
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8 - Smallest Western Raven
We mentioned the flight antics of ravens – truly awe-inspiring to watch. The smallest raven in the world is a desert native - the Chihuahuan raven (Corvus cryptoleucus). There are crows bigger than this raven, although scientists are now debating where exactly the line between raven and crow should be drawn.
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9 - Some Western “Warblers” may not be Warblers.
Those pesky scientists. They sit in their labs testing DNA of birds. Now they have decided that the yellow-breasted chat (Icteria virens), which was once considered a warbler is no longer a warbler. But to make up for kicking it out of the warbler family, they have decided that it is so unique it deserves it's own family all to itself. I did say that our western desert birds are unique as the land they live in.
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10 - Baby Hummingbirds need Spiders to Survive.
Let's make up an urban myth right here - “Baby hummingbirds are bitten by spiders at birth and that's how they can fly so fast.” Okay – if you believe that one I have some beach-front property in Arizona for sale.
Seriously now – without spider silk, there would be no baby hummingbirds. Hummingbird nests are about the size of half a walnut shell and are held together with spider silk which the hummingbirds carefully collect. Please leave the spider webs in your garden and around your home – especially during nesting season.
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11 - Desert Birds Nest in Boots
This is no urban legend! The Gila woodpeckers carve out a nest cavity inside the giant saguaro cactus. The cactus then forms a layer of callus tissue which hardens, and is boot shaped. The woodpeckers make a new nest each year and other desert birds move into this highly desirable penthouse dwelling.
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12 - Ironically, There's A Desert Bird Named after a Wetland Plant
Juncos have a name that derives from the name for the wetland plant genus of rushes - Juncus. Yet these birds are seldom found among marshy rush plants because juncos prefer dry soil.
The desert populations of juncos are “snow birds.” They leave their Western “sky island” mountains every winter to live in the warmer desert valleys. They eat mainly insects and seeds. They usually nest in a well-hidden location on the ground or low in a shrub or tree.
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13 - Snow Loving Desert Birds
Some sky island birds never leave their snowy peaks, and those are the chickadees. Two species of chickadee call the Sonoran Desert home – the mountain chickadee (Poecile gambeli) and the Mexican chickadee (Poecile sclateri).
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14 - The Crimson Eyed Snow Bird
(That's not it's real name.) One bird that lives in the sky islands in summer and migrates to the valleys in winter is the phainopepla (Phainopepla nitens). This bird of startling crimson eyes is a member of the silky flycatcher family – a tiny bird family with only four species in the family (compared to doves with over 400 species in the family).
Often wrongly called a “black cardinal” this flycatcher has a beak made for eating bugs – and bugs are scarce in the mountains in the winter. Interestingly, the phainopepla nests and raises it's young in the valleys, the male calling the female to his perfect nesting spot with a gentle “to-meee, to-meee” whistle. More about this lovely bird in the upcoming class Bird Gardening.
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15 - Lady Gila Woodpeckers are Just as Territorial as the Gents
In
many species of birds, like the phainopepla, only the male calls and
declares his territory, trying to attract the beautiful damsel of his
dreams to come share his space.
The Gila woodpeckers do this differently. They set up housekeeping together and then both males and females drum on things (like your air conditioner, chimney, or weather vane) to declare their territory. In my Bird Gardening class, I discuss some tips to help prevent this annoying habit.
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There you have it!
Unique
birds, unique climate, unique corner of the world with a unique
climate and some real gardening challenges.
More Bird Gardening Coming Soon
I am working on a short course on Bird Gardening in the Land of El Sol right here on my NewZenler Gardening Membership site. Along with the video there will be a downloadable workbook and plant list to go with this course.
If you take this chance to register with Gardening With Soule, and you will be on my newsletter list. I share monthly tips for desert gardening, and when the Bird Gardening course is ready I'll even send you a discount coupon.
PS – because the NewZenler course site is based in Europe, the sign-up is a tad more formal than here in the USA. Don't let it worry you.
Peace -
Jacqueline