The Big Yard: Notes from a Pajama Birdwatcher

February 5, 2025

Some birds are harbingers of what’s to come. Like the first appearance of a rufous hummingbird. The long-distance migrant stopping by the feeder on its 2000-mile journey from southern Mexico to northwest Canada and Alaska. How the male’s bright orange flare signals the start of the spring migration. Or how the earliest dark-eyed juncos signal winter’s sparrow invasion from the north, including this year’s impressive irruption of pine siskins—I counted 142 this morning at dawn where a flock waited in my pear tree for a handful of thistle seed.

A male Rufous, normally the first hummingbird to arrive in early spring (I’m still watching and waiting).

I’ve seen more Pine Siskins this winter than any year previous.

I’ve been thinking about winged harbingers in these early days of February with the surprise daily visits of a stunning violet-crowned hummingbird. My monsoon bird. The season the orange-billed, snow-breasted heavyweight among hummingbirds normally visits the yard from the Pacific slopes of central Mexico where it resides most of the time.

I’ve never seen a violet-crown this early in the year.

A new herald of spring’s hummingbird migration?

In the US, Violet-crowned Hummingbirds are only found in southeast Arizona and far southwestern New Mexico.

I saw my first violet-crowned hummingbird in Mexico near Alamos, Sonora, in 2006 with birder extraordinaire Michael Bissontz. The same area where I saw my first chachalaca on the Rio Cuchajaqui (I love saying that out loud). The hummingbird was an alabaster hole cut into the dark green thornscrub.

Here in the yard, I see them all summer. In places with streamside woodlands like the Mule Mountains and nearby Guadalupe Canyon and Sonoita Creek near Patagonia, the come as rare summer residents—although this wasn’t always the case. Before 1948, only two records exist of violet-crowns in Arizona. Then, in 1958, researchers found them nesting in Guadalupe Canyon. Observations have steadily increased since. According to the Arizona Breeding Bird Atlas, their year-round status has also grown and “numbers are now arriving much earlier in the spring than they have in the past.”

What’s going on?

Maybe the violet-crowned hummingbird isn’t a harbinger of spring migration. But of something much greater.

A warming planet.

The Violet-crown is the only hummingbird in the US that doesn’t sport a “gorget,” a French word for the colorful throat patch of male hummingbirds. It makes up for this with an awesome toupee.

As of this morning, the rare (for southeast Arizona) White-throated Sparrow continues putting in an appearance—going on two and a half months!

Thanks for reading and supporting the Big Yard! More to come as migration time arrives!