You’re going
to find the best bird diversity in native vegetation, no doubt about it. Native plants have insects (read: bird
food!), due to relationships that have been evolving in this place for a very
long time. Non-native plants are often free of such insects, and therefore free
of birds. But in an urban area like Tucson, we’re stuck with lots of non-native
vegetation, and to increase our species count on the Christmas Bird Count, it
pays to learn how to selectively check it for birds. Some, like the non-native
ash trees (Fraxinus sp.) in so many
apartment complexes, are utterly birdless. Others might actually be worth
checking carefully.
Kurrajong, Brachychiton populneus, in the mallow
family, is an Australian native that Red-naped Sapsuckers (very common in the
native oak woodlands at higher elevation around us, but scarce in the Tucson
Valley) seem to find a reliable source of tree sap. The sapsuckers are very
quiet, but you can look carefully up into each tree and perhaps find one.
The SEINet
data portal lists as many as 17 species of Eucalyptus
in Pima County. Red River Gum (E. camaldulensis)
and Coolibah (E. microtheca) are the
two most planted and can have birds if they are blooming, including hummingbirds,
tanagers, orioles, and warblers. Here’s a Coolibah which can also have
Red-naped Sapsucker.
Here are two
blooming Eucalyptus species that I
haven’t identified yet, which I recently saw at the Vista del Norte mobile home
park in north-central Tucson. Rare warblers to look for in these trees could be
Cape May, Northern Parula, and Tennessee. In fact, one blooming Eucalyptus
(probably a Red River Gum) in this residential area had Arizona’s second winter
record of Calliope Hummingbird.
These trees
seem to bloom erratically and unpredictably, and information on where trees are
blooming is valuable. Go birding in your area and let us know if you are
finding blooming eucalyptus.
