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| Roadrunner Geococcyx californianus ©Boris Krylov http://www.macro-photo.org |
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New Mexico is the forgotten gem amongst the southwestern US states. Most people are unaware that New Mexico is a state in the US and not a region of Mexico. In fact only a small part of the southwest borders Mexico. New Mexico is famous as one of four states (Colorado, Utah and Arizona being the others); which have the corners of its borders meet at one point, this is known as the Four Corners region. It is probably better known as the state associated with the Roswell incident, and numerous UFO sightings. But what of the birds I hear you say, well New Mexico has recorded the fourth highest species count (after Texas, California and Arizona) in the whole of the mainland USA, with approximately 500 species seen. Whilst a considerable area of New Mexico is of desert-like habitat, it is surrounded by mountain ranges that rise to over 13,000ft. In fact the average altitude in New Mexico is 5700ft, so be prepared for a few breathless moments if you seeking out the higher altitude specialities. One of the rules of thumb for finding birds in New Mexico is search for the water. Throughout the State there are numerous reservoirs, rivers and irrigation projects, which act like magnets to the birds. The tail end of the Rockies meanders through the State leaving big mountain ranges around Sante Fe and Albuquerque. The latter area is the site of the spring (Sandia's) and autumn (Manzano's) Hawkwatch schemes, where thousands of raptors are annually counted whilst on migration. The mountains also act as funnel for passerine migrants. South of Albuquerque is the world famous Bosque del Apache wildlife reserve. It is most famous for its tens of thousands of Snow Geese and Sandhill Cranes during the winter, though has something to offer throughout the year. But birding New Mexico is more than Bosque del Apache, for example the southwest of the state has birds more often associated with Mexico and southeastern Arizona. The new guidebook to finding birds in New Mexico is a must for any visitors. New Mexico is a big state with a lot to offer the birder throughout the year. Whilst sunshine is never far away it does get cold in winter and very warm during the summer months. So when visiting New Mexico be prepared for a wide diversity of scenery, big blue skies and some awesome birding. |
David Grant
(Ayr, Scotland)
D.Grant@au.sac.ac.uk
Number of bird species: 532
State Bird - Roadrunner Geococcyx californianus
State Bird - Roadrunner Geococcyx californianus
Arizona & New Mexico Birds
Kurt Radamaker and Gregory Kennedy Lone Pine Publishing - forthcomingISBN: 9789768200280
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Birds of the Southwest
Arizona, New Mexico, Southern California, and Southern Nevada (W.L. Moody, Jr., Natural History Series, No. 30) John H. Rappole Hardcover 2000 Texas A&M University PressISBN: 0890969574
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National Geographic Field Guide to Birds: Arizona and New Mexico
Jonathan Alderfer Series: NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC STATE FIELD GUIDES TO BIRDS 272 pages, maps, photos, drawings. National Geographic Society 2006ISBN: 0792253124
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New Mexico Bird Finding Guide
Edited by DA Zimmerman, MA Zimmerman and JN Durrie 170 pages, line illus, maps. New Mexico Ornithological Society 2002ISBN: 143960
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Audubon in New Mexico
WebsiteUsual list of chapters
Central New Mexico Audubon Society
WebsiteThe Central New Mexico Audubon Society (CNMAS) is headquartered in Albuquerque, New Mexico, devoted to the protection, preservation, and enjoyment of the environment, with a particular emphasis on birds. CNMAS is a chapter of the National Audubon Society and serves members in central New Mexico.
Friends of Bitter Lake NWR
Websiteue to the increase of visitors to this marvelous site, over 44,000 people last year alone, we feel that in order to accommodate more in the future we need to make access to this facility an even more enjoyable experience. The Friends will assist with conservation projects, scientific studies, community outreach, tours, facility development, and many other activities...
Friends of Bosque de Apache NWR
WebsiteSandhill Cranes, Snow Geese and many other migrating birds make the Bosque their winter home in beautiful New Mexico, the Land of Enchantment with incomparable sunsets, delicate multicolored mountains, intense blue skies and special light...
Friends of the Rio Grande Nature Center
WebsiteThe Friends of the Rio Grande Nature Center is a non-profit 50l(c)3 organization that supports the Nature Center's mission to preserve and protect the Rio Grande bosque, to educate the public about Rio Grande ecosystems and to foster positive human interactions with those systems...
Lincoln County Bird Club
The Lincoln County Bird Club is an organization of people who enjoy birds and nature that want to learn more about birds and the environment. We have regular field trips of varying lengths and social activities. We also sponsor regular community activities that promote the health of the environment and create public environmental awareness. Our membership dues are only $10 a year. Come join the fun... Lincoln County Bird Club - 100 Mountain View Drive, Ruidoso, New Mexico 88345 info@ruidosobirding.com
Mesilla Valley Audubon Society
WebsiteThe Mesilla Valley Audubon Society is a chapter of the National Audubon Society. We are a conservation and natural history organization based in southern New Mexico. Our objectives are to promote appreciation and conservation of birds, other wildlife and their habitats through environmental education, issue advocacy and natural history experiences...
Nature Conservancy in New Mexico
WebsiteWelcome to The Nature Conservancy's New Mexico Chapter home page. Here you'll find information on the many ways we`re working to help preserve the diversity of living things by protecting the habitats they call home...
New Mexico Wildlife Association
WebsiteWildlife West Nature Park is a 122 acre, hands-on environmental education center. It features plants and animals indigenous to the Southwest as well as their habitats. Wildlife West is also a renewable energy project incorporating recycled building materials in its buildings and habitat constructions. Wildlife West employs alternative energy production designs. As Wildlife West develops and grows, these alternative production designs will allow for the park to become self-sustaining in its energy consumption.
New Mexico Bird Records Committee
WebsiteThe New Mexico Bird Records Committee does not require a specific form for reporting, but strongly encourages the use of the included form, which specifies the conditions of the sighting that influence its deliberations...
New Mexico Ornithological Society
WebsiteThe New Mexico Ornithological Society was founded in 1962 to increase knowledge of New Mexico bird life and to provide an accurate compilation of species occurring in the state. Members include amateur ornithologists of varying skills as well as professionals. The Society acts as the main clearinghouse for information on bird distribution in the state and sponsors or cooperates in a number of programs designed to gather data on bird distribution...
Sangre de Cristo Audubon Society
WebsiteWe have approximately 1000 members in northern New Mexico, representing Santa Fe, Los Alamos, Española, Taos, Las Vegas, and other communities. Santa Fe is also the home of the Randall Davey Audubon Center, a scenic property at the end of Canyon Road owned by the National Audubon Society. David Henderson is the director of the center, which can be reached at (505) 983-4609. The center has a bookstore and hiking trails.
Southwestern New Mexico Audubon Society
WebsiteThe Southwestern New Mexico Audubon Society serves communities in four counties; the Town of Silver City, Deming, Lordsburg, Glenwood, Cliff, Reserve, the Mimbres Valley, and the Gila National Forest. There are numerous wonderful ecosystems in Southwestern New Mexico. Our chapter offers regular field trips and natural history public education for residents and visitors to the region. This site offers information about monthly meetings and programs, field trips, Community Education, Conservation updates, descriptions of Regional Habitat with links to Maps and Checklists, and the monthly Newsletter "The Ravens." ...
Gila Birds & Nature Festival
http://www.desertusa.com/gila/gila.htmlSouthwestern New Mexico is an area of rugged mountains, deep canyons, and rivers. It is well-known for an unusual diversity of natural features and abundant wildlife. The Gila National Forest encompasses approximately 3.3 million acres of this land, and nearly a quarter of it is designated wilderness area...
Museum of Southwestern Biology
http://www.msb.unm.edu/The Museum of Southwestern Biology (MSB) is a research and teaching facility in the Department of Biology, housing collections of vertebrates, arthropods, and plants from the American Southwest, Central and South America, and from throughout the world. The MSB maintains seven divisions in addition to the USGS-Biological Survey Collection...
Bitter Lake National Wildfowl Refuge
WebsiteSatellite View
Native grasses, sand dunes, brushy bottomlands, seven lakes, and a red-rimmed plateau make up Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge, winter home for thousands of migratory birds. The lakes on the refuge were formed within the ancient river beds of the Pecos River. These lakes store about 1,000 acres of water at their highest levels, while nearby marshland, mudflats, and the Pecos River provide an additional 24,500 acres of habitat. The refuge's namesake is a shallow playa lake, fed by small springs, that often goes dry during the summer, leaving only a white alkaline lake bed. The water from the springs is brackish and too bitter to drink, but is a favored roosting site for cranes and waterfowl...
Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge
WebsiteSatellite View
Bosque del Apache means woods of the Apaches, and is rooted in the time when the Spanish observed Apaches routinely camped in the riverside forest. Since then the name has come to mean one of the most spectacular national wildlife refuges in North America. Here, tens of thousands of birds--including sandhill cranes, Arctic geese, and many kinds of ducks--gather each autumn and stay through the winter. Feeding snow geese erupt in explosions of wings when frightened by a stalking coyote, and at dusk, flight after flight of geese and cranes return to roost in the marshes. In the summer Bosque del Apache lives its quiet, green life as an oasis in the arid lands that surround it...
Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife Refuge
WebsiteSatellite View
The 57,191 acre Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1939 as a refuge and breeding grounds for migratory birds and other wildlife. The refuge also provided winter habitat for greater sandhill cranes. In 1941, only 17 cranes used the refuge. Sandhills now number as high as 17,000 on the refuge.
Carlsbad Caverns National Park
WebsiteSatellite View
In the higher elevations of the park you may be lucky enough to see golden eagles, red-tailed hawks, western diamondback rattlesnakes, elk, or the tracks of cougar...
Chihuahuan Desert Wildlife Rescue
WebsiteWildlife rehabilitation is the care of injured or orphaned wildlife for return, where possible, to the wild. Successful rehabilitation takes a lot of time, a lot of effort and no small amount of money. It is challenging work, done by special people. Chihuahuan Desert Wildlife Rescue is a non-profit organization, which exists to help the rehabilitators in far west Texas and Southern New Mexico.
New Mexico National Forests
WebsiteMap and details...
New Mexico State Parks
WebsiteWelcome to the Internet site for New Mexico State Parks. We`ve created this site to provide you with information necessary to plan a visit to any of New Mexico`s state parks...
Randall Davey Audubon Center
WebsiteSatellite View;
At the Randall Davey Audubon Center you can take a guided bird walk, tour the historic Randall Davey Home & Studio, ramble the nature trails, explore the hiking trails, visit the Nature Store, and learn about the natural history of the area...
White Sands National Monument
WebsiteSatellite View
At the northern end of the Chihuahuan Desert lies a mountain ringed valley called the Tularosa Basin. Rising from the heart of this basin is one of the world's great natural wonders - the glistening white sands of New Mexico...
This section sponsored by: 
1998 [April] - Mary Beth Stowe
ReportLeft Deming at the crack of dawn to head up to the Rio Grande, seeing lots of Chihuahuan Ravens enjoying their breakfast of Road Kill, and narrowly missing making one out of a Roadrunner...
2002 [May] - Phil and Charlotte Benstead - Texas & New Mexico
ReportHighlights of a trip to Texas include the great migration hotspots of High Island, the incomparable Big Bend National Park and the Mexican feel to birding along the Rio Grande. We elected to time our trip to allow us to be in Big Bend at the end of April and so left the UK a couple of weeks after most British birders would...
This section sponsored by:
Birding Pal
Tour OperatorLocal birders willing to show visiting birders around their area...
WingsWest Birdwatching Tours
Tour OperatorMajestic, beautiful, diverse: these are the birds of New Mexico. Cranes, elegant and sedate, flickers with sacred feathers and Red-winged Blackbirds with shoulders of flame. Some birds frequent New Mexico as a bed and breakfast and we can watch them passing through. Other birds are residents, older than the Anasazi. Still others know New Mexico as an abundant winter resort. If you know where to look, they reveal themselves. WingsWest is excited to offer custom full, half and quarter-day trips year-round within 150 miles of Santa Fe and multi-day trips throughout New Mexico. Our emphasis ranges from beginning birders to expert. For those newly curious about the world of birds, we offer easy-to-learn instructions about the most familiar birds in each habitat. For experienced birders, we will gladly focus on certain species or families of birds to fit your areas of interest...
Double E Guest Ranch
AccommodationIndulge your Cowboy Spirit with cattle roundups, exciting horseback riding, and the undiluted, raw sensations of southwestern New Mexico...
Grey Feathers Lodge
AccommodationWelcome to Grey Feathers Lodge where you can hear the unique voices of over 400 species of wild bird year round including thousands of hummingbirds in the spring and summer. We also have hundreds of raptors in the fall and winter...
Hilltop Hacienda B&B
AccommodationWildlife include quail, dove, hummingbirds, roadrunners, soaring birds. Also foxes, cottontails, jackrabbits, and other desert creatures...
Morning Dove Inn B&B
AccommodationA warm welcome awaits you at the Morning Dove Inn, located one block from the Atlantic Ocean and overlooking Silver Lake. The inn provides a tranquil setting year-round. This lovely Victorian home features eight rooms, each with private bath. Originally built as a private home more than a century ago, the inn has a front porch ideal for watching the swans on Silver Lake, while enjoying ocean breezes and taking a respite from the summer sun... or end the day listening to the birds in the quiet of a secluded garden...
It's a Bird Thing
BlogPostings on birding adventures and natural history, with an emphasis on New Mexico…
Birding Southeastern New Mexico
WebsiteGo slowly and as you descend into the ravine look to the right (south); there may be ducks, and during the summer, swallows. While ascending out of the ravine look left (north); this can be quite a good size pond depending upon the quantity of water in it. There are times when the area is completely dry, due to the weather and irrigation. A variety of ducks (Shovelers, Buffleheads, Pintails, Wigeons among others); and black birds, along with Coots, and wading birds. Chukars have been seen in this area from Pine Lodge to Lone Cedar. Continue east approximately .9 mile on Lone Cedar to Railroad Lane and head left (north) back to Pine Lodge Road, there continue east (right) following the Refuge signs.)...
Checklist
WebsiteNew Mexico Birding
WebsiteNewMexicoBirding.com has been established to provide those interested in birding in New Mexico with information to assist them in making their birding time more fun and productive...
Photographer - Boris Krylov
GallerySome really excellent bird photographs - amongst many other nature shots...
Photographer - Marcus G. Martin
GalleryThe goals of photobirder are to provide the birding community with free access to photographs of the birds of the world, and to sell images, slides, greeting cards and prints for the personal or commercial use of the general public...
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This site was last updated on Sunday, 29th January 2012.
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