5 Days/4 Nights

Arizona Hummingbird Fall Migration Tour

Visit some of southern Arizona’s best birding locations at the height of the fall migrations! You’ll travel with professional birding guides through the Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Preserve, one of the country’s most popular birding spots, visit the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum walk-in hummingbird aviary and participate in hummingbird banding. The scenery is gorgeous, the food is scrumptious and the birds are plentiful on this fascinating getaway.

Tour Highlights

• Explore some of the best birding territory in North America at the height of the Fall hummingbird migrations.
• Travel with professional birding guides and participate in private hummingbird banding.
• Visit the world famous Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum and its bustling hummingbird aviary.
• Enjoy the Tucson Botanical Gardens, a beautiful oasis in the heart of Tucson.

Itinerary

Day 1—Tucson: Join us in Tucson! Blessed with 360 sunny days a year, Arizona offers you birding at its best. Get to know your fellow travelers as we kick-off our memorable hummingbird adventure at this evening’s reception. Welcome Reception included.

Day 2—Tucson/Green Valley: We’re off to the internationally-acclaimed Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum for an introduction to the beauty of southeastern Arizona. This outdoor museum has a walk-in hummingbird aviary which features the tiny, iridescent birds in constant motion!

Later, we’ll head to one of the treasures of southern Arizona, the Mission San Xavier del Bac, a magnet to those who appreciate art and architecture dating back more than two centuries. As we approach the mission, nestled among brown hills and distant mountains, you’ll understand why it’s called the “White Dove of the Desert.”

After you have dinner on your own we’ll take a ride to the private home of one of our birding guides, Jack Murray, who will spend more time with us during our visit to Madera Canyon tomorrow. We’ll spend the night in Green Valley. Meals included: B, L.

Day 3—Madera Canyon/Tubac/Rio Rico: Travel to Madera Canyon, the wooded valley at the base of the Santa Rita Mountains, for a morning of birding with Jack Murray and other expert birding guides. Madera Canyon is a world-renowned birding destination. Keep your eyes open for Cooper’s Hawks, American Kestrels, Acorn Woodpeckers, numerous hummingbird species and lots of other local wildlife.

Enjoy time for lunch and shopping in the village of Tubac. Then it’s off to the Santa Cruz Chile & Spice Company where your taste buds can test several salsas and seasonings. There is a gift shop just in case you want to take some of your favorite flavors home. The rest of the afternoon will be spent at Tumacácori National Historical Park. The park preserves and tells the story of the Tumacácori Spanish colonial mission ruins and several others in southern Arizona. It also provides refuge for many species of birds and animals.

This evening we’ll visit the private home of Linda Pfister, where we’ll observe and learn about the nighttime hummingbird feeder visitors: bats! These nocturnal mammals don’t perch well and can’t hover like hummingbirds. Instead, they swoop into the feeder for a quick taste, then fly off and circle back for another sip. After we'll head back to the hotel for a good nights rest. Meals included: B, D.

Day 4—Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Preserve/Sierra Vista: Begin your day birding with our guides in the Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Preserve. The Preserve is one of the most popular places for birding in the United States. Easy walking trails take you along Sonoita Creek and through a rare cottonwood willow forest to spot the hummingbirds that have migrated here. Then before we end our birding morning, we’ll make a stop at the home of Wally and Marion Paton, a private residence that is well known for its abundance of hummingbird feeders.

We’ll stop for a fun lunch in Patagonia at the Velvet Elvis, then travel to Fort Huachuca in Sierra Vista for a historic look at the “Old Post Area” and museum. Meals included: L.

Next, we’ll look for hummingbirds along the trails near the San Pedro House bookstore and visitor center of the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area. As many as 10 different hummingbird species use the San Pedro River as a “freeway” between their winter homes in the tropics and their northern nesting grounds. Here we’ll help staff and volunteers capture, weigh, measure, band and release hummingbirds as part of a long-term migration study. Meals included: B, D.

Day 5—Sierra Vista/Hereford/Tucson: This morning we’ll hear from Sheri Williamson, author of Peterson’s Field Guide to Hummingbirds of North America. We’ll observe hummingbirds at the yard feeders at Tom and Edith Beatty’s Miller Canyon Guest Ranch, "America's Premier Hummingbird Viewing Spot," and at Ash Canyon Bed & Breakfast nearby. Fifteen different species of hummingbirds frequent the Beatty’s feeding station and garden.

To say farewell, we’ll lunch in Sierra Vista, then head back to Tucson with plenty of memories of gorgeous southern Arizona and its colorful birds and wildlife. Meals included: B, L.

Accommodations

• Day 1: Radisson Suites Hotel Tucson Airport
• Day 2: Quality Inn Green Valley
• Day 3: Holiday Inn Express, Nogales AZ
• Day 4: Windermere Hotel, Sierra Vista, AZ