This was our first major overseas birding trip after the COVID pandemic and for this we chose to re-visit Arizona, which we’d enjoyed 12 years earlier on our first birding visit to the USA. Although the lockdowns of the previous couple of years were over, we still had to be tested for the virus a day before flying and it was a great relief when the results came back negative and we were allowed to fly.
We decided to make this a fairly relaxing trip with no long drives and not too much moving between hotels. We therefore decided on a loop around the southern part of the state, visiting a number of the most popular birding site, some of which we’d been to in 2010 and some of which were new to us. The places we stayed (numbers) and the main sites we visited (letters) are indicated on the maps below. Clicking on the maps brings up higher resolution versions.
To keep each page a reasonable length, we’ve split this report into several parts, each of which can be accessed via the links below.
This was a really enjoyable trip taken at a relaxing pace where we visited some excellent birding sites and met some very friendly people who helped us see some great birds. We would highly recommend Arizona as a birding destination at this time of year, either as a member of a birding group or through a self-organised tour, with the latter being a good option as there is so much help available at many of the birding sites.