Canyon Towhee

On February 20, 2025, with my son Sam, up Arch Canyon in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in southern Arizona, I saw my first canyon towhee. 

Warm reddish brown crown and undertail. 

It often has a dark spot in the center of the breast. 

Illustration from Birds of the World. 

Range from Birds of the World. There are ten subspecies. Ssp. mesoleucus is the most widely distributed U.S. ssp. - found throughout central and southern Arizona lowlands, except the lower Colorado River valley, the Grand Canyon, the lowlands of New Mexico and extreme western Texas, south into Mexico to northern Sonora and northern Chihuahua. 

Bachman's Sparrow

On May 12, 2024 I was with my sons, Sam and Andrew, on the Patsy Pond Nature Trail in Carteret County, North Carolina, near the Atlantic Ocean. Sam is very interested in woodpeckers and was looking for the red-cockaded woodpecker in the pine forests that are found there. I photographed a sparrow and identified it as a song sparrow on iNaturalist. I had two different identifiers disagree and labeled it as a Bachman's sparrow. 

It is most common in mature, open pine forests, and was called the pine-woods sparrow for years. It is now rare in many areas it used to be common. It now is found in restored pine lands managed for the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker. 

It is endemic to the southeastern U.S. Range from Birds of the World. 

Abert's Towhee

Abert's towhee is almost entirely located in Arizona, but for a small bump into California, a sliver of Nevada, a small bump into Utah, New Mexico and a small sliver and bump into portions of Mexico. It is concentrated in the lower Colorado River and Gila River watersheds. It looks quite a bit like the California towhee, which we have lots of where I live, but it has a darker face and their ranges only slightly overlap. I've only seen it on three occasions, all three at the Sonny Bono Salton Sea NWR in southeastern California. 

Illustration from Birds of the World. 

Range from Birds of the World. 

Stilt Sandpiper

Judy and I spent some time in Corpus Christi, Texas over Thanksgiving Weekend in 2021. We spent quite a bit of time in the Aransas NWR and I walked the 1.4 mile roundtrip Heron Flats Trail. On that walk I saw my first, and so far only, stilt sandpiper. Birds of the World notes that "it avoids tidal mudflats in favor of pools or lagoons, where it forages in belly-deep water," which is what my photo illustrates. 

Illustration of breeding plumage from Birds of the World. 

Illustration flying from Birds of the World. 

Illustration of non-breeding plumage from Birds of the World. 

Range from Birds of the World. Note that they breed in the far north and have only a small area of wintering ground in the U.S., which likely includes where we were. 

Spotted Sandpiper

On November 23, 2023 Judy and I were in northern California on our way to San Francisco to spend Thanksgiving with my brother, David. We'd spent the night in Redwood City near the Bair Island Wildlife Refuge & Trail and that morning I got up early to take a walk in the refuge. I saw my first spotted sandpiper.

On March 17, 2026, Judy and I were in Caye Caulker, Belize on a birding trip with a guide and I saw another couple of spotted sandpipers from a boat on the shore. 

None of the ones I have seen have been in breeding plumage, but the range map below, shows that I have always seen them in their wintering grounds during times of non-breeding. 

Illustration in breeding plumage from Birds of the World.

Illustration flying

Illustration of non-breeding plumage from Birds of the World. 

Range from Birds of the World. 

Brown-Bellied Swallow

In March 2023 Judy and I visited the Montezuma Rainforest Ecolodge and Tatama National Park near Pueblo Rico Colombia with our granddaughter, Savannah. The year we visited it had more bird sightings per e-Bird than any other area in Colombia and was only surpassed by three other areas in the world, one in Peru, one in Brazil and one in Ecuador. It was an incredible area and I had a great guide - Fernando Largo. I saw brown-bellied swallows and was unable to get photos. It is usually found above 8,200 feet. The top of Montezuma Hill is about 8,530 feet. There are three subspecies and ssp. murina, the nominate ssp., is found in the Andes of Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. 

Illustration of a male, ssp. murina, flying, from Birds of the World. 

Also an illustration of a male from Birds of the World. 

Range from Birds of the World. 

Spanish Sparrow

We spent several days in Malta, March 19 and 20, 2024, with Judy's sister and brother-in-law, Chris and Stan Jones. One of the few forms of wildlife we saw, but very common, was the Spanish sparrow. There are two subspecies and we saw the nominate ssp. hispaniolensis, found on the Iberian Peninsula, Sardinia, Greece and Balkans, western Asia Minor, eastern Atlantic islalnds (Madeira, Canary and Cape Verde) and northwestern Africa (Morocco east to northeastern Libya); it is non-breeding visitor to northeastern Africa and southwestern Asia. 

Illustration of a female from Birds of the World. 

Illustration of a male from Birds of the World. The male is particularly handsome.

Range from Birds of the World.