2022 Death Valley Trip Part 2 - Birds

In terms of birds in Death Valley, there weren’t that many. However, in some of the areas surrounding Vegas we had a more than just a couple birds, such as in locations like Corn Creek Field Station and Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve.

Our first bird of the trip was a female Anna’s Hummingbird (Calypte anna) that had made its nest on a clothesline at my Grandparent’s house. Every so often, it would flit away to grab some food for its babies, but then quickly come back to feed them. Unfortunately, the nestlings were not to be seen as they had only very recently hatched.

Being a desert, Death Valley wasn’t really a bird-infused area, so most of my bird pictures came from the various parks around Las Vegas, like in the instance, of one of Red Rock Canyon’s Woodhouse’s Scrub-jays (Aphelocoma woodhouseii) foraging for food in the early morning sun. A guy was feeding the jays, so they did come in close, but usually only one picture, before flying back down hill.

Also at Red Rock Canyon was this Spotted Towhee (Pipilo maculatus). Oddly enough for a Western shrubby desert place like Red Rock, there were no other towhee species, and there wouldn’t be until next winter when they’d get Green-tailed Towhee (Pipilo chlorurus). Interestingly, only about an hour to the Southeast is Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve, where we had Abert’s Towhee (Melozone aberti). This makes sense, because although Abert’s Towhee is found in typically more drier areas, it still sticks to more riparian habitats.

A bird that we were not expecting at all was Black-chinned Sparrow (Spizella atrogularis). This sparrow prefers rocky outcrops and canyons, so it’s not entirely a surprise, we just didn’t think we’d see it. This is also a sparrow that has a range, albeit limited, in the Bay Area. I was planning to go see it at some point at Mount Diablo, but it turns out I won’t need to make that long drive after all.

A member of the Phoebe genus Sayornis, the Say’s Phoebe (Sayornis saya saya) is a small Tyrant Flycatcher whose namesake call can be heard penetrating throughout the arid Western landscapes it inhabits. There are two subspecies of this Phoebe, one, quiescens, is found in Baja California, and the other, saya, is found throughout the Western US, Canada, and surprisingly enough, central Alaska, which does kind of make sense, because though Alaska is cold, it can be pretty dry.

Less than 50 miles away from the 90 degree heat of Red Rock Canyon is Mount Charleston, a large mountain that is packed tight with not just coniferous and deciduous trees, but also snow. With temperatures low enough that we had to wear jackets, Mount Charleston seemed to be in direct contradiction to the desert that surrounded it. However, with the cold and the dramatic change in habitat came Gray-headed Dark-eyed Juncos (Junco hyemalis caniceps). These are most similar taxonomically to the Red-backed subspecies (J. h. dorsalis), but the Dark-eyed Junco in general is a incredibly complicated and confusing species when it come to taxonomy. While Red-backed and Gray-headed Juncos may be less confusing, there are many other subspecies “groups” of juncos which total up the number of subspecies to 15! There are around six groups, many of which only contain one subspecies, that are each relatively distinct visually, but within each group, it can get ridiculously convoluted. For instance, the Oregon Junco group (which is the group we have in the Bay Area) has 8 subspecies, each of which are virtually indistinguishable. Not to mention, due to the absurd number of Dark-eyed Juncos that the average area contains, both variation and vagriation are very common, making separating subspecies even harder.

With that excessively-long paragraph about junco systematics that doesn’t even scratch the surface of their complexity out of the way, let’s take a look at a very fat junco.

…and another one.

Almost Verdin-like (Auriparus flaviceps) in nature, Lucy’s Warbler (Leiothlypis luciae) is the smallest species of New World Warbler. It is also one of two species of the same family that nest in cavities, the other being Prothonotary Warbler (Protonotaria citrea). It took me a very long time to even get this not-so-great picture of the bird, due to how often it moved, a trait shared by many other small and dull-colored passerines.

The only species of wren we saw on this trip was the Rock Wren (Salpinctes obsoletus). As their name suggests, they live on rocky outcrops and cliffs. They live throughout most of the Western US and Mexico, with their range going as far South as Costa Rica.

An opportunistic White-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys) diving in to grab an errant corn flake during a lapse of our attention.

The same White-crowned Sparrow standing dejected after a Whitetail Antelope Squirrel (Ammospermophilus leucurus) wrangled the flake from its grasp.

The only place that wasn’t a desert, Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve was by far the best place we went in terms of birds. Out back, there were around seven large ponds for ducks and other riparian birds to enjoy, but there were also a couple bird feeders where we had many Mourning Doves (Zenaida macroura) and Red-winged Blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus).

Speaking of blackbirds, a couple of Yellow-headed Blackbirds (Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus) also visited the feeders. These Icterids were a tad uncommon in the preserve, but their mechanical and metallic grating calls could be heard from miles away.

Here’s another view of a different Yellow-headed Blackbird.

A rare sight on the open water, we had many Common Gallinules (Gallinula galeata) floating from reed bed to reed bed, most of the time out in broad daylight. These birds may look similar to American Coots (Fulica americana), and that’s because they are closely-related and are both in the rail family. However, despite the relative friendliness of coots, almost all other rails are secretive birds that spend their entire lives hidden deep within marshes and reeds.

The feeding behavior of dabbling ducks may seem slightly odd to the average viewer, but rest-assured this is completely normal. Usually, they dabble in pairs or alone, but sometimes they form these circular structures that drag fish into them like a whirlpool. These two particular feeding circles are consisted entirely of Northern Shovelers (Spatula clypeata), a very apt name given due to the duck’s almost rectangular beak.

Very common in the preserve were Yellow-rumped Warblers (Setophaga coronata). These birds are by far the most widespread warbler in the United States. There are a couple different subspecies, but this one is an Audubon’s Yellow-rumped Warbler (Setophaga coronata audoboni).

Giving off a similarly-annoying noise to that of the Yellow-headed Blackbird, we had a couple Great-tailed Grackles (Quiscalus mexicanus) that, though having a wider variety of songs than those back home, were still generally unpleasant.

Another view of the same grackle.

A bird that long pained me throughout this vacation was Verdin (Auriparus flaviceps). These pesky little passerines were by far the hardest avian lifeforms for me to photograph. They loved flitting around and only holding still for half-a-second. This photo was the best I got for waiting over an hour at a very picturesque spot that they often frequented. Interestingly enough, Verdin are the only member of the Penduline Tit family that made it over to the New World. Also, they are the only member of this family to not build elaborate hanging bag nests, not dissimilar to but usually more elaborate than the nest of an average Bushtit (Psaltriparus minimus).

Unlike Verdin, the White-crowned Sparrows that came to the same spot stayed for a much longer time, and I was rewarded with such photos as this one, although this individual is a bit ratty.

Imagine if this was a Verdin.

This concludes the Two Part miniseries about my trip to Death Valley. Click here to go back to Part One. I hope you stick around for later blog posts!