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Bird Notes from Arizona and California

H. H. Kimbali

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On July 19, 1922, three Wood Ibis (Mycteria americana) appeared on the Rillito, ten miles from Tucson, Arizona. Is it not likely that the three supposed Whooping Cranes seen by L. E. Wyman near Calipatria (Condor, XXIV, 1922, p. 182) were really of this species?

On May 7, 1922, while walking along the Santa Cruz River, twelve miles south of Tucson, Arizona, I was surprised by the helterskelter appearance from the bottom of an old ditch of a number of vultures, at least a dozen. of which were Black Vultures (Catharista urubu). Near the same locality on May 13, 1922, a single Western Willet (Catotrophorus semipalmatus inornatus) was observed.

Those who have lately made the acquaintance of that most attractive bird, the California Pine Grosbeak (Pinicola enucleator californica), seem to have overlooked what is evidently one of its most important items of food during the nesting season and until late July, at least in the high Sierras. I refer to the winged seeds of the fir, which are gleaned from snow banks and elsewhere during the period mentioned, and which must constitute a large part, probably the major portion, of the nestlings’ food. Later in the year I found them eating the buds of the tamarack pine.

Tucson, Arizona, February 18, 1923

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