AZFO Newsletter

June-July 2025

What We Do

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

Save the Date(s)!

Our Annual Meeting will be

October 3-5, 2025

We are excited about how our Annual Meeting is shaping up this year! Stay tuned on our website, AZFO.org, for details about registration, field trips, speakers, and more!

To assist your planning :

Location -- Mesa Community College, Mesa, AZ

Mini Field Expeditions Friday and Sunday

Saturday --full day of science presentations, papers & posters

Saturday extras--raffle, book sales, silent auction, quizzes

Saturday --Banquet with Keynote Speaker Dave Pearson

Remember, we offer two Youth Scholarships to assist young birders with the cost of attending the annual meeting.

Details Here

Have a candidate for our Achievement Award this year? We would love to hear from you.

Details Here

Annual Meeting

Annual Meeting : Call for

Papers and Posters

Want to present at this year's AZFO Annual Meeting? Abstracts are due September 2, 2025!

Click for Details

Gale Monson Grants Awarded

We are pleased to announce two Gale Monson grants for 2025. Congratulations to awardees Gracie Ann Fisher and Matt Jenkins! We are proud to support your research efforts.

Each year, AZFO provides up to two $1,000 awards to qualified applicants seeking to conduct field research focused on Arizona's birds. These grants are key to our mission of increasing the knowledge of the changing status, identification, distribution and other aspects of Arizona's birdlife.

Gale Monson Grants

Two New Field Expeditions

Santa Maria Mountains

May 23-25

Over Memorial Day weekend, 13 birders explored the hard-to-reach Santa Maria Mountains northwest of Prescott. Our teams added a good amount of breeding-season data to records for this region, including Gray Hawk, Dusky-capped Flycatcher, and Gray Vireo--all unusual this far north. NIght birds included Flammulated and Elf Owls. Overall, our Expedition provided over 120 new checklists for this under-birded area. Adding to that, we had perfect weather and an excellent group campsite.

Thanks to our Field Trips team for organizing this successful Expedition!

San Francisco River

June 20-22

As this newsletter goes to press, our AZFO field expedition to conduct bird surveys in the San Francisco River backcountry will be underway! In collaboration with New Mexico Ornithological Society (NMOS), we will be conducting an avian survey of remote stretches of the San Francisco River between AZ and NM. The goal is to compare results to a study conducted back in the 1970s and identify changes in bird species composition and possible range-expansion species such as Sulphur-bellied Flycatchers.

More New Content in our Online Journal,

Arizona Birds!

Arizona Birds has several new posts, including articles about Gray-cheeked Thrush and a melanistic Northern Harrier.

Arizona Birds

Our June Bird of the Month is the Yellow-Green Vireo

Photo by Adam Stein

We remember Rich Glinski, AZFO contributor and respected AZ raptor specialist.

Photo by Michael Stewart

2025 AZ Big Day :

Statewide Summary

Global Big Day 2025

We are pleased to report that many AZFO members and friends contributed to the spring Global Big Day counts on May 10.

Thanks to all!

We tallied 309 species, an excellent showing.

Above find the link to count data.

Santa Cruz Flats Raptor Count

January 18, 2025

Each year, AZFO volunteers head out to Pinal County's Santa Cruz Flats for this survey. The purpose of this survey is to assess the number of wintering raptors and to establish a useful baseline for monitoring winter raptor population trends. This data assists in evaluating future plans that could impact the habitat and raptors at this location.

Raptor Count Results

Job and Internship Postings

If you are considering a new position or an internship in field ornithology, we offer this link to an ornithology job board. And our best wishes for a great new position!

Ornithology Exchange