Phainopepla

We visited Corn Springs yesterday and spent some time west of the oasis in the vicinity of the teddy bear and pencil cholla.  I did a post on the phainopepla earlier this month and mentioned their proclivity for mistletoe berries. Knowing that Corn Springs was an area where I've seen many phainopepla in the past, I started looking for mistletoe and as soon as I did I saw a phainopepla. 

This is the photo I took from my car. 

I stopped the car to take a photo and as soon as I did, Judy, Andrew and Michaela got out to start walking. I joined them in their walk, but was distracted by more phainopeplas. I saw several of them on trees with mistletoe and several actually immersed in the mistletoe, eating it.

A phainopepla in mistletoe eating the small red berries. 

So now I've discovered the secret to finding and photographing phainopeplas: mistletoe. Find it and they will be there and they will stay there while you take photos. 

We heard this phainopepla a number of times from within mistletoe in a tree before we saw it. Several of us even started to mimic it's sound and it responded several times. 

A map from All About Birds.