It all started with ‘if we could live anywhere, where would we?” Some folks think of a place, we thought of atmosphere… dark sky and birds. We found the perfect place in New Mexico. We can see the Milky Way stepping out our door, and we are on the Rio Grande Flyway.

Reeds, Pond with boardwalk in background.

Marsh Boardwalk - Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge

To keep track of the birds we see on the property I decide to keep our list here. More birds can be seen down the river at the Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge.

Seen on the Property

  1. Western Kingbird (N)

  2. Eurasian Collared-Dove (N)

  3. White-winged Doves (N)

  4. Ladder-backed Woodpecker (2020-9 excavated nest)

  5. Great-tailed Grackle (N)

  6. Common Grackle

  7. Raven (unsure if Common or Chihuahuan)

  8. White-crowned Sparrow (first seen again 9/20/20)

  9. Yellow-rumped Warbler – Audubon’s

  10. House Wren

  11. House Finch (N)

  12. House Sparrow (N)

  13. Lazuli Bunting

  14. Black-chinned Hummingbird (N)

  15. Brown Creeper

  16. Lesser Goldfinch (Green-backed form)

  17. Bullock’s Oriole

  18. Mourning Dove

  19. Ruby-crowned Kinglet

  20. Phainopepla (N)

  21. American Robin (N)

  22. Gamble’s Quail (N)

  23. Bewick’s Wren

  24. Black-headed Grosbeak

  25. Indigo Bunting

  26. Rose-breasted Grosbeak

  27. Say’s Phoebe

  28. Blue Grosbeak

  29. Brown-headed Cowbird (N)

  30. Red-winged Blackbird

  31. Northern Mockingbird (N)

  32. Curved-billed Thrasher

  33. Broad-tailed Hummingbird

  34. Rufous Hummingbird (returned – July 5, 2021)

  35. Western Tanager

  36. Peregrine Falcon – on pole eating a dragonfly

  37. Great-horned Owl (landed on a utility pole and talked to us while we were observing at 4 am, 9/21/2020 heard most nights early AM)

  38. Black-throated Gray Warbler (9/1/2020 – let the Fall Migration begin!)

  39. Warbling Vireo

  40. Western Wood-Pewee

  41. One of the Empidonax flycatchers – likely a Gray (they like pine/juniper)

  42. Bushtits

  43. Pine Grosbeak

  44. Wilson’s Warbler

  45. Townsend’s Warbler

  46. Bell’s Vireo

  47. Red-breasted Nuthatch (aka Super Sonic)

  48. Nashville Warbler

  49. Cooper’s Hawk – in tree by house

  50. Oregon Junco – Red-backed (arrived 9/29)

  51. Red-Shafted Flicker

  52. Hutton’s Vireo

  53. Pyrrhuloxia

  54. Spotted Towhee

  55. Canyon Towhee

  56. Starling

  57. Red-naped Sapsucker

  58. American Kestrel

  59. American Goldfinch

  60. Brewer’s Blackbird

  61. Western Meadowlark

  62. Hooded Oriole

  63. Hairy Woodpecker

  64. Green-tailed Towhee

  65. Summer Tanager

  66. Calliope Hummingbird (July 19, 2021)

Flyovers

  1. White-faced Ibis (in V formation, thought they were snow geese – until I realized they were black)

  2. Great Blue Heron

  3. Sharp-shinned Hawk

  4. Barn Swallows

  5. Turkey Vulture

  6. Nighthawk – likely Common but not definitive.

  7. Red-tailed Hawk (Dark morph)

  8. Sandhill Crane

  9. Northern Harrier

  10. American Crow

  11. Snow Geese – thousands of them, just a dawn flying north.

  12. Swainson’s Hawk

  13. A flock of Cattle Egrets


(N) = nesting, nesting behaviors including gathering material, territorial and mating behavior.