Cactus Wrens are charismatic, year-round residents of the Southwest deserts and sometimes Tucson suburbs. They build their football-shaped nests in chollas or other thorny places, creating an interior nesting space that's entered from a hole at one end of the structure. Their song is a series of scratchy croaks that sounds like a car whose engine turns over but won't start!

Photo by Justin Risley

Northern Mockingbirds are medium-sized birds colored shades of gray with a large white patch on their wings. They are expert singers, incorporating into their varied songs the songs of other bird species and sometimes other ambient sounds like car alarms or ringing phones. They build cup-shaped nests in well-protected spots in trees. These hungry mockingbird chicks were in a palo verde tree at Mission Garden.

Photo by Kendall Kroesen

Bell's Vireo is a somewhat rare and declining bird since it inhabits thicker vegetation along rivers, streams and large washes, which have become scarce in our area. In the last couple of years a pair of these vireos have nested in the Mission Garden orchard, which must resemble its prefered streamside habitat. It's song is an unmistakable series of six or so scritchy chirps, unlike any other bird in our area.

Photo by Kendall Kroesen

Lesser Goldfinch inhabits the Southwest, coastal California and Mexico. It is smaller than its eastern cousin the American Goldfinch. The male has a bright yellow breast and belly, an olive-green back, black wings with white highlights, and a black head. Females are a more muted yellow. These small birds have adapted well to Tucson suburbs and are found almost everywhere around Tucson. The make a variety of soft whistles and fast chirps, and sometimes mimic other birds like mockingbirds do.

Photo by Kendall Kroesen

Anna's Hummingbird is one of our most common backyard hummingbirds, and is the one most reliably found here in the winter (although some others species are increasingly common in winter around feeders). A female is pictured here at the Mission Garden feeder. Males look similar except for a head and throat that flashes bright magenta when the sun hits it right.

Photo by Kendall Kroesen

Turkey Vultures soar almost continuously, tilting in the wind as the look, and sniff with their very sensitive noses, for carion. There often seen on roadways eating roadkill.

Photo by Kendall Kroesen

Curve-billed Thrashers, like Cactus Wrens, like to build their nests in chollas or other thorny places. But, their large, almost plate-sized nests, built on a base of coarse twigs, are open on top to expose beautiful turquoise eggs. At Mission Garden thrashers most often nest up on the adjacent hillside and come down to forage in the garden. They must like our wheat field because their strident, usually two-note, call sounds like "wheat-wheat"!

Photo by Kendall Kroesen

Green Heron is a rare visitor to our acequia (canal), eating some fish or frogs before it heads off to find wetlands, like Sweetwater Wetlands, that have more cover and places to nest.

Image captured by Trail Camera at the Mission Garden acequia.

Cooper's Hawks, like other hawks of the Accipiter genus, mostly chase and eat other birds, though they sometimes take rodents too. Mission Garden has lots of birds and rodents, so it's not unusual to see Cooper's Hawks flying fast and low, darting around trees to try to catch prey off guard. They usually nest around town pines, eucalyptuses, or large native trees.

Photo by Kendall Kroesen

Greater Roadrunners are seen frequently in the garden, which also provides many of the varied prey they seek. They eat a wide variety of grubs, beetles, lizards, mice, caterpillars and even the young of other bird species. A prominent, large bird, they have to watch out for the Cooper's Hawks and have been seen eluding them several times in the garden. They nest in dense citrus trees in the garden or in some of our ramadas.

Photo by Kendall Kroesen

Black Phoebes are flycatchers that usually catch flying insects around water. Our acequia has created a pretty good habitat in which to forage for this food. Although they have not nested in the garden, we expect they might some day. A small ledge on a rock, or on some other structure, is all they need to affix their nest to, using sticks and mud.

Photo by Justin Risley

Abert's Towhee (not Albert's!) are a species that has probably declined some from the loss of riparian areas like the Bell's Vireo. However, it is seen in some desert areas with dense vegetation and is starting to adapt to older neighborhoods with mature vegetation, if it can find a large, thorny shrub to nest in! They find plenty of insect and seed food at the garden and have nested several times.

Photo by Kendall Kroesen

Great Blue Herons are another occasional visitors, trying to catch fish in our acequia. Here our trail camera caught only the bottom half of this very, very tall bird! They nest in large nests in very tall trees, most famously in the eucalyptus trees on a small island in the big lake at Christopher Columbus Park in Tucson.

This image was captured by the Trail Camera on the acequia at Mission Garden.

Gambel's Quail look much like their cousin the California Quail, but are adapted to more open, desert areas and therefore are much easier to see! In the spring and summer it is not unusual to see adult quail being followed around by a group of hungry newboard chicks. Quail forage for seeds and other vegetable foods except for the chicks, who look mostly for insects in the first few weeks of their lives.

Photo by Kendall Kroesen

Gambel's Quail nests are usually on or close to the ground. Sometimes they are frustratingly placed in people's flower pots. Chicks are precocial, meaning that they are able to walk around and forage for food with adults within only a few hours after hatching. They are even able to fly pretty early on, when still so small you'd expect them to have to walk. Quail have nested many times at Mission Garden. Although often seen on top of the garden's peripheral wall, they sometimes simply walk in through the front gate when it's open!

Photo by Kendall Kroesen