Maricopa County: A Blue-headed Vireo

 On November 19th, I decided to go birding at the Lower Verde River to explore a stretch of the river I don't know much about.  This location lies south of the Box Bar Recreation Area and Rio Verde Ranch, and there is a lot to explore here.  By following Box Bar Road south past the turnoff to the actual recreation site, it leads to a dead end and a parking area.  From here, several trails and a wash head east to the Verde River.  It isn't a developed recreation site like the Box Bar and Needle Rock Recreation Sites just to the north.  In similar ways to those spots, it has impressive stands of cottonwood and willow riparian.  Adrian Smith told me about the spot on October 23rd when I ran into him at Box Bar, and we went over to this "new" area he had explored some of a few times.  I was impressed from what I saw in the field in the short distance we explored and from the looks of things while viewing the area on Google Maps.  It was high on my birding "to do" list, and after a long birding trip to southeastern Arizona on November 18th (will be mentioned in a future blog post), I decided to do something somewhat close to home.

The time in the field was awesome at this new place and the habitat is great.  I slowly worked the riparian stands, which are about a mile in length once hiking to the river from the parking lot.  Birds were everywhere and numerous, and when I got to the southern part of my route, there was a thick cottonwood, willow, and tamarisk stand that was close to the river and then ended up going right up to the river.  When I got to it I heard a big mixed flock of birds, with the most abundant being Yellow-rumped Warblers.  However, as I started to scan the first warbler I found was a Chestnut-sided Warbler.  At about 9:30, a bright vireo caught my attention.  I snapped pictures and it didn't take me long to wonder if it was a Blue-headed Vireo candidate with how bright it was.  A dark head that contrasted with a white throat, contrasty white spectacles with the dark head, bright white underneath with lots of greenish yellow on the flanks and vent.  While pictures gave off a greenish-yellow, the bird was more in the yellowish category by the looks I had in the field. I took these pictures from 9:33-9:54 A.M., according to the time on my camera. 

After talking to Caleb, he felt the vireo looked very interesting and was leaning toward Blue-headed.  But I needed better shots for sure, as Blue-headed and bright Cassin's Vireos can be indistinguishable.  I kept trying and eventually got back on the vireo.  This time my looks were closer and better.  From 11:02 to 11:09 A.M., I shot these following photos of the bird.

At times when the bird was in better lighting and close to me, I looked at it with my binoculars aside from taking photos.  I've never seen a more constrasty vireo in my time of birding in Arizona.  It's dark head really constrasted sharply with it's back and white throat and undertail coverts, as well as it's flanks that were more lemon yellow as well as having a slight hint of a greenish tinge at times too.  Caleb and others felt that it was a Blue-headed Vireo after looking at a few of the second set of pictures I was able to attain.

Vagrant Blue-headed Vireos in the west as well as vagrant Cassin's Vireos in the east pose major identification challenges much of the time.  A bright Cassin's Vireo can look very similar to a Blue-headed Vireo, and some of them have to be UN-identified.  It usually boils down to looking at a bunch of features.  I read a great article online about Blue-headed VS Cassin's Vireos written by Andy Birch.  As I studied his article, among the features my bird does have are:  A very dark bluish/gray head area that contrasts greatly with white spectacles around the eye.  The head area also constrasts sharply with the throat area, and as well with a lot of white on it's underparts.  Yellow flanks and vent area is also good for BHVI, which my bird shows much of the time.  At times, it appears to show a greenish tinge to the flanks too.  Another aspect is lore contrast with the head color.  If the lore appears to contrast and look much darker than the rest of the head, it tends to be more of a Cassin's trait.  On this bird the head is so dark that it doesn't contrast with the lores.  Another good mark is the contrast of the dark head along with the greenish back, which this bird shows.

This record has been sent to the Arizona Bird Committee, who will make the decision on whether the record will be accepted or not.  Hopefully it will be, but a conservative approach has to be done with this species due to such similarity with bright Cassin's Vireos.  There haven't been many accepted records of Blue-headed Vireo in Arizona, I believe there have been 5 or 6.  There have been suggestive birds that haven't been accepted as well.  

On the other hand, many others have chased this bird after my discovery, which is awesome.  Not only are more eyes on the bird for more documentation that may show traits I haven't captured, but this new spot is now getting a lot of attention.  

Chris McCreedy, Ronnie Reed, Adam Stein, Jeff Ladderud, and Roy Jones were among those who photographed the bird further and had photos to show the features of the bird well.

Jake Thompson and Anne Leight got audio recordings that are posted on eBird, and I eventually got audio too when I went back on November 26th.  

When I went on the 26th I wasn't able to see the vireo even though I got recordings, but Chris, Cathy Beck, and Janine McCabe were able to get eyes on it and McCreedy got solid photographs.

McCreedy also talked with Andy Birch, who wrote the excellent blog about Blue-headed and Cassin's Vireo identification.  He sent Andy my pictures and his pictures of this Blue-headed Vireo, and Andy said he was ok with it being called a Blue-headed Vireo.

McCreedy also talked with Nathan Pieplow, who is an expert at bird sounds, about the recordings that were obtained.  Between Anne and Jake's recordings, Nathan got what was mostly a Blue-headed Vireo vibe.  In Jake's recording, some of the phrases of the song sounded a little like Cassin's Vireo in midst of what mostly sounded like the Blue-headed Vireo.  The recording wasn't great, and Nathan wasn't sure of what to make from some of the notes.  Luckily, when he listened to my recording he was able to conclude Blue-headed Vireo out of it, according to sound.  

This vireo has certainly been an interesting one to find and learn about.  In the past, I've encountered a few vireos at Hassayampa River Preserve that looked like Blue-headed Vireo candidates and I wasn't able to get close enough to them for any sort of good documentation.  Good thing I had the encounter I did with this one!

From 10:13 to 10:15

 On October 29th, 2021 (in other words, a few weeks ago), I was out birding in the northeastern part of Maricopa County.  My plans were to bird along Sycamore Creek via the Old Beeline Highway and Mt. Ord.  I got to Sycamore Creek right after dawn, and I slowly worked my way south for a 1.5 mile duration.  Birds were plentiful, and when I got to the southern limit of my hike, I looked up and saw a Lewis's Woodpecker before heading back north.  The woodpecker flew south into the Sunflower community after I observed it for a few minutes.  During this fall, Arizona has seen quite the irruption of different species come to lower elevations.  Steller's Jay and White-breasted Nuthatch have been two examples, especially the former.  In a previous trip I took in the area closer to the Slate Creek Divide area, I probably had close to 35 Steller's Jays, but a few days prior to this hike Gordon Karre counted 61 birds in the same 3,500' route that I was traveling.  The irruption has had me coming back to these mid to high elevations in Maricopa County, and it was to my surprise that I only had three Steller's Jays along Sycamore Creek on this day.  Besides Steller's Jays, I've hoped that this odd year could possibly bring birds like Clark's Nutcracker and Pinyon Jay into Maricopa County.  Time will tell, and as I write, it hasn't happened yet and at this point I'd be surprised if it did happen.  Pondering and looking for these things are fun as well.  I had close to 50 species on the morning along Sycamore Creek, and regardless of what's seen, the place is always worth a hike and visit.  Little did I know that I would be in for a big surprise at a random time.  When random sightings happen that are a matter of being in the right place at the right time, one probably won't look at a scene the same way again.  In this case the one ended up being me.  It all started on this dead tree.

When I was finishing up my route and was nearly back to my truck, I looked in a bare tree to see a raptor perched in it.  At the initial glance I suspected Red-tailed Hawk, but a half-second later I realized it was an accipiter.  Looking through my binoculars I got the vibe that it was too big to be a Cooper's Hawk.  A standout supercillum, the patterning on the back, and the fact I thought for a half-second it was a freaking Red-tailed Hawk made me start firing pictures away.  The hawk utilized the branches of the tree and started to hop up on branches.  It had a slim and athletic but yet bulky look to it, and it's front side was heavily streaked.  I believed it was a young Northern Goshawk from the second half of the second I looked at it through my binoculars.  The more the bird moved, I made a few steps to get slightly better angles.  When the hawk got higher in the tree, it started to fly slightly to the northwest before it made a sharp turn to the south and fly directly over me.  The bulk of the bird was more evident and it's strong wingbeats that were somewhat like a Peregrine Falcon stood out to me as something unlike a Cooper's Hawk.  It made a quick circle nearby before heading further off to the south.  As I shot pictures and was wrapped up in documenting the bird, I had plenty of documentation.  Upon close inspection with the photos I took, I looked at the tail.  Uneven tailbands were on the bird, which supports Northern Goshawk.  The supercillum was striking and white, the entire front of the bird was heavily streaked down to the flanks.  White bars were on the greater coverts of it's wings, and the wings were wide and bulky.  It was a Northern Goshawk, and a Maricopa County Northern Goshawk!

 

This is one of my biggest birding highlights of 2021 so far, and a geeky celebration followed.  It was my second Northern Goshawk for Maricopa County, with the first being at Granite Reef along the Lower Salt River in September of 2010.  The first one was also a juvenile bird, and it was only a sight report when I was unable to get photos. Importantly, this time I did get that documentation, as Goshawks are considered to be very casual in Maricopa County.  My favorite part of the sighting came when the Goshawk started to fly west and then did a sharp turn south and flew right over me to allow me to get the flight shots that I did.  Looking at the time on my camera, I shot pictures from 10:13 to 10:15 A.M.  I'd probably guess it happened late in the 13 and early into the 15, because the sighting went by quickly.  Who knows if I'll see another Goshawk in Maricopa.  This sighting also made me like juvenile Goshawks way more than I have in the past.  I had always thought they were dull compared to adults, but after this close up sighting and seeing one well out of it's usual habitat, things have changed.  What a great few minutes it was in time for me.  That memorable scene comes to mind again, I'll call it Goshawk habitat..