AZFO Newsletter

December 2024 - January 2025

AZFO - Dedicated to increasing the knowledge of Arizona's birdlife.

Join a Christmas Bird Count (or two)!

If you have not already joined your local Christmas Bird Count (CBC) this season, AZFO encourages you to sign up today.

Count dates run from December 14- January 5.

AZFO provides the only statewide listing of counts, with dates and contact information. We encourage everyone to sign up, join a count team, and have a great day of winter birding! Simply select a day that works for you, wherever you are in Arizona, and contact the number/person provided on our list to join in this day of fun and citizen science.

New Expedition!

Locating Bendire’s and LeConte’sThrashers

AZFO needs your help - January 11 & February 2

Join us in making a difference for thrasher conservation!

Starting in early 2025, the Great Basin Bird Observatory and the Arizona Game and Fish Department will deploy lightweight GPS transmitters on a small sample of Bendire's and LeConte's thrashers. The purpose of this initiative is to track the movements of these interesting birds and to understand how they respond to the installation of industrial-scale solar facilities.

We are looking for volunteers to help mark the territories of thrashers, which is essential for capturing and tagging them. Target areas for this project include Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land in Arizona and Nevada, particularly around Gila Bend, Buckeye, Lake Havasu, and Pahrump. We will conduct surveys along transects on roads and washes, utilizing call playback and opportunistic searches. Data collection will be streamlined using the Field Maps app, and the GBBO will provide account access.

Your participation is essential for gathering accurate location data, which will significantly contribute to a conservation project enhancing beneficial management practices for these species.

Greenlee: Our Most Recent Field Expedition!

Eighteen birders joined our Greenlee Expedition from Nov. 8-10 and found several new bird species! Our full report will be on the AZFO.org website when all the team data is in. For a great summary of the expedition's adventures, check out this newspaper article and photos submitted by AZFO member Diane Drobka about our Expedition:

Gale Monson Grant Applications

The Gale Monson Grant program is requesting applications/proposals for projects that will occur in Arizona in 2025. The deadline for proposals to be submitted is March 1, 2025, with funding to be available by April 1,2025. More details can be found at:

New Arizona Bird Committee Report

The latest issue of the journal Western Birds (Vol. 53, No. 2, November 2024) includes the most recent report of the Arizona Bird Committee by Gary H. Rosenberg and Andrew Core. This article, "Arizona Bird Committee Report, 2021-2023 Records," can be viewed and downloaded from the Western Field Ornithologists website by clicking on this link. In this report 5 species were added to the official Arizona state list, bringing the total to 570 species. Only Texas and California have bigger state lists, and both states have extensive coastlines, which Arizona does not.

More new content in our online journal,

Arizona Birds!