5 Days/4 Nights

Arizona Hummingbird Tour

Watch the sun set over Arizona’s “sky island” mountains while visiting birding guide Jack Murray at his beautiful Santa Fe-style home in the Sonoran Desert.

Tour Highlights

• Explore some of the best birding territory in North America at the height of the hummingbird migration season.
• Travel with professional birding guides.
• Visit the world famous Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum and its bustling hummingbird aviary.
• Participate in private hummingbird banding and spot hummingbirds with internationally-known author Sheri Williamson.
• See nighttime hummingbird feeder visitors—bats!

Itinerary

Day 1—Tucson: Join us in Tucson! Blessed with the natural beauty of the Sonoran Desert and 360 sunny days a year, Tucson’s residents embrace a rare lifestyle and are committed to preserving that quality of life. This evening at our welcome reception you’ll get to know your fellow travelers on this memorable hummingbird adventure.  Welcome Reception.

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. We’ll watch several different hummingbird species hover at the feeders and defend their territory around them. Look around for hummingbird nests, too!

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/Nogales: 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. We’ll spend the night in Nogales, Arizona’s largest international border town.  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 best-known and most popular places for birding in the United States. Easy walking trails take you along Sonoita Creek and through a rare cottonwood willow forest as you look to spot the hummingbirds that have migrated to this beautiful area. Before we have lunch in Patagonia, we will make a stop at the home of Wally and Marion Paton, a private residence that is well known for its abundance of hummingbird feeders.

As we make our way to Sierra Vista we’ll stop pay a visit to Fort Huachuca, an active Army post. We’ll tour the “Old Post Area” and the Fort Huachuca Historical Museum. The day would not be complete without one more opportunity to spot hummingbirds along the trails near the San Pedro House bookstore and visitor center of the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area. Here we’ll be treated to a private hummingbird banding demonstration. 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. At the banding station, staff and volunteers capture, weigh, measure, band and release them as part of a long-term migration study. We’ll get a rare, up-close look at this important work. Meals included: B, L, 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, as well as a wide variety of naturally-occurring hybrid species.

We will have our farewell lunch in Sierra Vista and 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: Best Western Green Valley
• Day 3: Holiday Inn Express, Nogales AZ
• Day 4: Windermere Hotel, Sierra Vista, AZ