Advanced Birding Series: Juvenile Bird Identification with Alex Patia

Advanced Birding Series: Juvenile Bird Identification with Alex Patia

Saturday, June 21st, 6-9 am

$35/member, $50/non-member.

Trip Difficulty: Easy. Walking distance: around 1 mile. Trip Duration: 2.5 – 3 hrs. Elevation gain: none, but with chance of slight inclines/declines. Ground condition: groomed gravel trails. Drinking water and restrooms available at park’s entrance. Benches available at periodic intervals around the Wetlands.

June may be the month that Sweetwater Wetlands gets the least number of human visitors… but the birds are still here! Most of our breeding birds will have finished nesting but fledglings and juveniles will be all over. These little fluffballs don’t always look like their parents either, creating identification challenges for even the most experienced birders. In this workshop we will focus on finding these young birds (often through their begging calls) and identifying them successfully. Young birds we might find include: Green Herons, Common Gallinules, American Coots, Ladder-backed Woodpeckers, Vermilion Flycatchers, Song Sparrows, Abert’s Towhees, and Common Yellowthroats. Migration is minimal this time of year but late migrants like Yellow-billed Cuckoo are possible! Limited to 12 participants.

The Wetlands are located at 2511 W Sweetwater Drive.

Leader: Alex Patia (apatia@tucsonbirds.org)

Header image: Gambel’s Quail with young, by Tom Brown