Southwest Wings Birding and Nature Festival is Arizona’s oldest birding festival. Since 1991 we’ve been offering small group trips through monsoons and droughts … and even a global pandemic. 

The Southwest Wings Spring Fling will run from Wednesday May 7 to Saturday May 10, 2025

Spring Fling 2025 festival will be mainly Group Van Field Trips (marked GROUP VAN) with a few small-group, car-caravan style guided field trips in participants' own vehicles (marked CAR CARAVAN). Van trips go to more remote or distant locations and car-caravan trips will require less driving.

Schedule

Friday, MAY 9, 2025

6:00 AM - 4:00 PM

F1 Chickadee Chase - GROUP VAN

Join professional bird guide Jeff Babson for a trip to the Chiricahua Mountains to search for the Mexican Chickadee. The trips starts with a drive across the Sulphur Spring Valley and chance to see grassland species before ascending into the Sierra Madrean pine-oak woodlands along past Pinery Canyon where we will look for Dusky-capped Flycatcher, Painted Redstart and Bridled Titmouse, and as we get higher and enter the coniferous forest there are Virginia's, Grace's, and Olive Warblers. Up at Rustler and Barfoot Parks there is Greater Pewee, Red-faced Warbler, Pygmy Nuthatch and Steller's Jay. The most special bird up here is the Mexican Chickadee - this is the only public land on which it occurs in the entire United States. Bring hat, water, sun protection, and wear trail shoes. Lunch is included - please select your sandwich filling from menu below the Field Trip descriptions on the registration page. Hiking Difficulty: 3 moderate. Guide Jeff Babson.

Meeting place: Cochise College, Sierra Vista. Follow Campus Drive to east of Colombo Avenue and park in parking lot on the left. Map link 

6:00 AM - 3:00 PM

F2 Las Cienegas NCA - GROUP VAN

Join professional guide Sharon Goldwasser on a visit to what was formerly one of the Southwest’s largest cattle ranches. This expansive BLM National Conservation Area is home to Pronghorn Antelope, Prairie Dogs and a wide variety of birds. We will visit rolling grasslands, mesquite thickets and cottonwood-lined Cienega Creek, one of the area’s only sources of permanent water, looking for Zone-tailed and Gray Hawks, Burrowing Owl, Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet, Bell’s Vireo, Lucy’s Warbler, Summer Tanager, Blue Grosbeak, Abert’s Towhee, and Cassin’s, Botteri’s, Song, Lark, and Grasshopper Sparrows. If time permits, it may be possible to visit Patagonia for a short look at hummingbirds and some riparian species. Bring hat, sun protection, and wear trail shoes. Lunch is included – please select your sandwich filling from menu below the Field Trip descriptions on the registration page. Hiking Difficulty: 2 easy. Guide Sharon Goldwasser.

Meeting place: Cochise College, Sierra Vista. Follow Campus Drive to east of Colombo Avenue and park in parking lot on the left. Map link

6:00 AM - 4:00 PM

F3 Madera and Box Canyons - GROUP VAN

Join professional guide Jennie MacFarland on a trip which will take you to Madera Canyon via Box Canyon and the Santa Rita grasslands and explore this famous birding site. For the last couple of years Box Canyon has hosted breeding Five-striped Sparrow and we will stop to look for this rare species, also hoping to see Varied Bunting and Scott's Oriole. Moving on to Madera Canyon we will bird the many habitats it has to offer - grassland, riparian, and woodland. We will also enjoy a picnic lunch and watch feeding stations. Target species would include Rivoli's Hummingbird, Elegant Trogon, Painted Redstart, Black-capped Gnatcatcher, Hepatic Tanager, Botteri’s Sparrow, Yellow-eyed Junco and Scott’s Oriole. Bring hat, water, sun protection, and wear trail shoes. Lunch is included – please select your sandwich filling from menu below the Field Trip descriptions on the registration page. Hiking Difficulty: 3 moderate. Guide Jennie MacFarland

Meeting place: Cochise College, Sierra Vista. Follow Campus Drive to east of Colombo Avenue and park in parking lot on the left. Map link

6:00 AM - 4:00 PM

F4 Lake Cochise and Pinery Canyon - GROUP VAN

Lake Cochise, near Willcox, is a magnet for waterbirds. Shorebirds, like Black-necked Stilt and Wilson's Phalarope, wildfowl like Cinnamon Teal, and others like White-faced Ibis, are drawn to the water here. Join local bird expert Steve Tracey to spend a few hours checking the lake and the area around it before heading for the nearby Chiricahua Mountains. Explore up to Pinery Canyon, a beautiful area on the east side of the Chiricahuas, where typical canyon species can be found, including Western and Dusky-capped Flycatchers, Yellow-eyed Junco, Red-faced Warbler and Painted Redstart, and the sought-after Mexican Chickadee is often seen here. Bring hat, water, sun protection, and wear trail shoes. Lunch is included – please select your sandwich filling from menu below the Field Trip descriptions on the registration page. Hiking Difficulty: 2 easy. Guide Steve Tracey.

Meeting place: Cochise College, Sierra Vista. Follow Campus Drive to east of Colombo Avenue and park in parking lot on the left. Map link

6:30 AM - 12:00 PM

F5 Hunter Canyon - CAR CARAVAN

Join professional guide Kristy Gallo on a hike up Hunter Canyon where the 2011 Miller Peak Wilderness fire left its mark, with the result being a unique combination of habitats that are home to a nice diversity of bird species. The initial hike is dominated by successional oak-scrub with birds like Crissal Thrasher, Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jay, Black-chinned Sparrow, Spotted Towhee, and Scott’s Oriole. Higher up, the trail enters a stand of soaring conifers that were spared when the fire “jumped” the canyon; here we hope to find Band-tailed Pigeon, Buff-breasted Flycatcher, Grace’s and Virginia’s Warblers, “Mountain” Pygmy-Owl and more. The pine forest wasn’t completely spared, however, and the scrubby disturbed habitat has been home to a resident pair of Rufous-capped Warblers, which we hope to search for. Bring hat, sun protection, water and wear trail shoes. Hiking Difficulty: 4 difficult. Guide Kristy Gallo

Meeting place: Parking lot next to La Sierra Grill Steakhouse just north of the junction of Highway 92 and Hereford Road at 6.30am. Map link

7:00 PM - 10:00 PM

FN1 Owl Prowl - CAR CARAVAN

The Huachuca Mountains are home to several sought-after nocturnal birds, including Whiskered and Western Screech-Owls, Common Poorwill, and Mexican Whip-poor-will. On this trip, local bird guide Jennie MacFarland will target these birds with the possibility of seeing many other nocturnal creatures. Please wear darker or khaki clothing and a soft material fleece or jacket; avoid light and bright clothing hats and anything that makes a lot of rustling noises, such as crinkly nylon windbreakers.'

Owl trips are conducted only at the spring event and, like all birding, there are no guarantees except that we will have a good time. Hiking Difficulty: 2 easy, Darkness. Bring a flashlight or headlamp and field guide. Cameras are okay. Best suited for intermediate to advanced birders. Guide Jennie MacFarland.

Meeting place: Ramsey Canyon Preserve parking lot, at the top of Ramsey Canyon Road. Map link

Date: May 6 - 10, 2025