Spring Migration and the Painted Redstart

With temperatures forecasted close to 100 degrees Fahrenheit this week, there's no doubt that spring has arrived in the deserts of Arizona. Another sure sign of the season's arrival are the palo verde trees' bright yellow blossoms speckling the clear blue skies. And migrating birds are arriving from points south, with some just passing through the Grand Canyon State and others staying to breed.

It's hard to say exactly when this annual ritual begins, but it might start when orioles show up in the southern half of the state like has been happening for almost a month now. On Easter Sunday, I noticed a black-chinned hummingbird feeding off a fairy duster plant in my Phoenix neighborhood. He's most likely on his way to the mountains and river valleys in northern Arizona and beyond. In my own backyard the "who cooks for you" vocalizations of the just-arrived white-winged doves have replaced the softer trills of white-crowned sparrows that have just flown north after their winter-long stays.

The first weekend of April, I visited Madera Canyon in southern Arizona where migratory birds like hepatic tangers and Rivoli's hummingbirds had just recently arrived. This big and colorful hummer won't travel much farther north than these local high altitude forests so the destination is worth the easy two-and-a-half hour drive from Phoenix.

Another star attraction on that visit was the painted redstart. Like the tanager, he's migrating for the breeding season and will even travel beyond, into similar habitats across all of Arizona's pine-filled mountains. This striking warbler is always an exciting find at the highest elevations around Prescott where I do most of my summer birding.

I've spent quite a bit of time attempting to photograph the bird during my encounters even though, like with a lot of warblers, it quickly flits from branch to branch, high in the trees, barely ever stopping. As a result my pictures are never good but are blurry, obstructed, dark, or, more often than not, a combination of the above. However I had the luck of a lifetime on my recent stay at Madera Canyon, when a seemingly friendly painted redstart stopped for a brief moment on an oak tree just several feet away from me.

Broad-billed, black-chinned and Rivoli's hummingbirds were competing for the sugar water in a feeder that the Santa Rita Lodge had set out on my cabin's deck in earshot of gurgling Madera Creek. I was vainly trying to photograph the birds in their dogfights as they fought over access to the nectar. So I was also fortunate to have my camera at the ready when the piercing chirp of the redstart alerted me to his presence.

Snap. Snap. Snap. His pose, direction, and position, were different in each rapid shot: remember this tireless bird never pauses. But is he also focusing on me in each frame? Is he curious? Wary? I'll have some time this summer to further investigate when we meet again a couple of hundred miles away in the Bradshaw Mountains above Prescott.