The 51st annual Patagonia Christmas Bird Count was held on Dec. 14, 2023. A total of 4,155 individual birds of 109 species were counted by 46 bird enthusiasts in an area enclosed in a 15-mile diameter circle centered in Patagonia. Most participants spread out and hiked, while others reported what they saw at bird feeders in their yards. The consensus was that many bird numbers were down, especially doves and sparrows. Waterbird habitat was limited, so few ducks or shorebirds were reported.
The count was organized by Donna Edmonds, with the final tallies compiled by Louie Dombroski. In the table below are the totals for each species seen, with the most notable species in bold.
A few species missed on count day were seen during the “count week,” defined as the period three days before and after the count day. These included great horned owl, belted kingfisher, elegant trogon, brown creeper, winter wren, house wren, Wilson’s warbler, and a species common over most of the continent, but virtually unheard of in southeast Arizona, a downy woodpecker, photographed at the Paton Center for Hummingbirds on Dec. 17.
2 American Wigeon
6 Mexican Duck
10 Ring-necked Duck
77 Gambel’s Quail
43 Montezuma quail (reported by multiple parties)
25 Wild Turkey
28 Eurasian Collared Dove
44 Inca Dove
2 Common Ground Dove
1 Ruddy Ground Dove
150 White-winged Dove
314 Mourning Dove
5 Greater Roadrunner
19 Anna’s Hummingbird
6 Broad-billed Hummingbird
2 Violet-Crowned Hummingbird
2 Killdeer
5 Wilson’s Snipe
2 Great Blue Heron
1 Black Vulture
2 Golden Eagle
3 Northern Harrier
3 Sharp-shinned Hawk
5 Cooper’s Hawk
34 Red-tailed Hawk
1 Western Screech-Owl
2 Green Kingfisher
71 Acorn Woodpecker
125 Gila Woodpecker
40 Red-naped Sapsucker
1 Red-Breasted Sapsucker
75 Ladder-backed Woodpecker
7 Arizona Woodpecker
71 Northern Flicker
1 Northern/Gilded Flicker
10 American Kestrel
3 Merlin
3 Peregrine Falcon
2 Prairie Falcon
1 Hammond’s Flycatcher
10 Dusky Flycatcher
1 Hammond’s/Dusky Flycatcher
12 Gray Flycatcher
1 Unidentified Empidonax flycatch-er
13 Black Phoebe
44 Say’s Phoebe
1 Ash-throated Flycatcher
9 Loggerhead Shrike
4 Hutton’s Vireo
3 Plumbeous Vireo
1 Steller’s Jay
5 Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jay
239 Mexican Jay
24 Chihuahuan Raven
321 Common Raven
13 Unidentified raven
126 Horned Lark
105 Bridled Titmouse
40 Verdin
31 Bushtit
68 White-breasted Nuthatch
10 Rock Wren
6 Canyon Wren
60 Bewick’s Wren
2 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
2 Black-tailed Gnatcatcher
1 Black-Capped Gnatcatcher
180 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
17 Eastern Bluebird
56 Western Bluebird
1 Townsend’s Solitaire
37 Hermit Thrush
3 American Robin
30 Curve-billed Thrasher
4 Crissal Thrasher
9 Northern Mockingbird
11 Cedar Waxwing
14 Phainopepla
41 House Sparrow
1 American Pipit
182 House Finch
3 Cassin’s Finch
5 Pine Siskin
153 Lesser Goldfinch
21 Green-tailed Towhee
18 Spotted Towhee
19 Rufous-crowned Sparrow
41 Canyon Towhee
39 Abert’s Towhee
8 Rufous-winged Sparrow
31 Chipping Sparrow
27 Vesper Sparrow
13 Lark Sparrow
34 Black-throated Sparrow
1 Fox Sparrow
36 Song Sparrow
4 Lincoln’s Sparrow
1 White-Throated Sparrow
381 White-crowned Sparrow
4 Unidentified sparrow
90 Dark-eyed Junco
45 Chihuahuan Meadowlark
13 Western Meadowlark
10 Brewer’s Blackbird
1 Ovenbird
1 Louisiana Waterthrush
1 Black-and-White Warbler
13 Orange-crowned Warbler
107 Yellow-rumped Warbler
5 Black-throated Gray Warbler
3 Hepatic Tanager
57 Northern Cardinal
27 Pyrrhuloxia
1 Lazuli Bunting