Undoubtably todays star bird – the rare and rather striking Slate-throated Redstart

We spent the whole day birding the Chiricahua Mountains, visiting most of the significant sites around the Portal loop. We saw a great range of birds typical to this area of south east Arizona – a number of which have only a toe-hold in the USA, including Mexican Chickadee, Yellow-eyed Junco and Hepatic Tanager. But the best birds today all seemed to have the colour red in common. First we saw Painted Redstart, at the start of the Cave Creek South arm trail. Further up the trail we came across Red-faced Warbler and this afternoon – much against the book, since it is considered to be a ‘morning bird’, the well-twitched US rarity Slate-throated Redstart.

Grab shot of another of the red brigade – Red-faced Warbler

Finally, the last of the ‘gang of three’ – Painted Redstart