Olive Warbler - Mount Lemmon

The Olive Warbler is rare to the United States. It's range is limited to southeast Arizona in the US and central Mexico. It prefers the tops of ponderosa pine, though it will sometimes visit other pines and firs -- above 7,000 feet. Given its limited range and habitat, not as much is known of this little warbler. It primarily eats insects gleaned from the pine trees by creeping over the branches, twigs, and needle clusters. It  sometimes can be found in flocks with other warblers, titmice, and nuthatches, though higher up in the trees. It nests high in the pines usually 15 - 20 feet out from the trunk.

After successfully finding the male Olive Warbler last week, I decided to go back up Mount Lemmon and see if I could get a better photo. The spot was the Alder Picnic area at 8,000 feet atop Mount Lemmon. As soon as I arrived I heard this little warbler. It took about 20 minutes to find him, but he was quite agreeable. Here are some of the photos I took: 

Finally Success: Male Olive Warbler

I have posted several times over the past month about my trips up Mount Lemmon in Tucson, Arizona looking for Warblers in general and a Male Olive Warbler in particular. I'm guessing 30-40 hours in total.

Olive Warblers are only found in parts of Southeast Arizona, Southwest New Mexico, and the extreme Southwestern part of Texas. And only at or above 7000 feet. On top of that they like the tops of very tall pine trees. That means they are usually 60-80 feet off the ground. 

Complicating matters more, female Hermit Warblers are often mistaken for female Olive Warblers. As a general rule, I assume Hermit Warbler unless it is a male. The male is unmistakeable with its rich butterscotch head, face and throat. Then the dark mask over the eyes is convincing.

But back to my story. This last trip on Thursday I came home not realizing that I had actually found and photographed a male Olive. Now you might ask how that is possible, but again a five inch bird  60-80 feet off the ground and buried in pine needles. I remember the place, it was above the parking lot for Mount Bigelow Trail -- not on the trail itself. This is the area just above Incinerator Ridge. The bird was a mere silhouette to me at the time, so I didn't know what it was.

It wasn't until I got home and sorted through 500 photos that I came across the following Olive Warbler photos;

would have been perfect if in focus

Success at last. And an exciting day.

Birding Mount Lemmon - IX: Female Hummingbird Feeding it's Young

Mount Lemmon provides great birding for a variety of warblers, typical mountains birds, AND for nesting hummingbirds. Rose Canyon Lake on Mount Lemmon provides perfect hummingbird habitat. so it is not uncommon to see hummers and even find their nests. 

On this particular occasion I came across a juvenile Broad Tailed Hummingbird (native to the interior Southwest US) sitting on a dead branch and not willing to move no matter how close I got. I suspect its mother told him to wait right there so it did what it was told as good children do.

Soon mom came zooming in, sat on an adjacent branch, and started feeding the little guy. Here is a series of photos I took of the event:

Birding Mount Lemmon - VI

More from Birding Mount Lemmon the past two (now three) weeks:

Broad Tailed Hummingbird on Nest

Western Tanager

Painted Redstart

Dusky Flycatcher

Hermit Thrush

Birding Mount Lemmon - V

More from Birding Mount Lemmon:

Stellar Jay

Spotted Towhee

Tree Swallow

Pygmy Nuthatch

Hermit Thrush

Birding Mount Lemmon - III

More from the last two weeks of birding Mount Lemmon:

Western Bluebird

Western Bluebird

Gilded Flicker

Band Tailed Pigeon

Black Headed Grosbeak

Birding Mount Lemmon - II

Continuing with photos from Mount Lemmon over the past two weeks:

lesser goldfinch female

western bluebird female

stellar jay

spotted towhee

red shafted northern flicker

Birding Mount Lemmon - I

Over the past two weeks I've been trying to focus on Birding Mount Lemmon. First, because it is just "up the hill" from where we live; Second, because I have only had three hours or so each day; Third, because the birding is quite good; and Fourth, because it is 30 degrees cooler than our 100 degree days down below.

Here are what I think are the best birding spots (in order of ascending the mountain):

Molino Canyon Vista
Molino Basin Campground
Cypress and Middle Bear Picnic Areas
Rose Canyon Lake
Incinerator Ridge
Bear Wallow Trail
Sykes Road and Inspiration Rock
Alder Picnic Area
Summerhaven to Marshall Gulch Road
Sky Center to the Observatory


So over the next few days I'll show you some of the photos I've taken during that time.

Tree Swallow

Dusky Flycatcher

Black Headed Grosbeak Female

Black Headed Grosbeak Male

Pine Siskin

Birding Mount Lemmon

A trip up Mount Lemmon yesterday yielded some nice results:

House Wren Chick

Western Tanager Male

Hermit Thrush

Audubon's Yellow Rumped Warbler

Mount Lemmon, Red Faced Warbler

I had been up to Incinerator Ridge on Mount Lemmon several times looking for the Red Faced Warbler without luck. That's not to say I didn't find and photograph several other birds of significance (Townsend's, Wilson's, and Tennessee Warblers, Ruby Crowned Kinglets, Pygmy Nuthatch, Western Wood Peewee, and more).

But, finally on Monday, I was successful in getting the beautiful little Red Faced Warbler. Of course, after seeing the resulting photo, I realized that a flash probably would net me a photo with more detail and clarity. So, today I'm going to head back up to Incinerator Ridge and try again with the flash. Nonetheless, here's the photo I got on Monday:

Red Faced Warbler