It was here that I saw the phainopepla fly overhead and land in a tree
I was so excited to spot this bird while at Saguaro National Park in Arizona. I was traveling there with Matt and Nick. One of my main aspirations for the trip was to take as many bird photos as I could. I had recently learned that Saguaro National Park has the second-largest number of bird species of any location in the world, falling second only to the Amazon Rainforest.
With this in mind, I had my heart set on seeing as many unique bird species as I possibly could. This photo was taken during our first hike within the park. We had done some driving along the loop trail on the east side of the park and decided to stop to do a short half-mile nature walk. It was here that I saw the phainopepla fly overhead and land in a tree. It was a male phainopepla, and it was carrying an insect in its beak. The male brought it to a female, which came and landed on the same branch.
The male passed the insect off to the female, and then the female brought the insect to a nest. I saw both the male and female sitting on the nest throughout our visit with them over the course of about 15 minutes. Although I never saw any baby birds, I presumed that some were in the nest.
The phainopepla, also known as the northern phainopepla, belongs to a mainly tropical family of birds that live in Central America. This is the northernmost representative of that family. The family is the Ptiliogonatidae, or the silky flycatchers. The scientific name for this bird is the hainopepla nitens.
Phainopepla grow to be between six and eight inches long. They have a noticeable crest and a long tail. The male is black with a white wing patch that is only visible while it is flying. The female is dark gray mixed with lighter gray wing patches. Both sexes of this bird have red eyes. The differences between the males and females are a great example of sexual dimorphism.
I saw both the male and female sitting on the nest
Did you know?
- They will eat berries, small insects, fruits, and vegetables.
- They have a specialized mechanism in their gizzard that removes the skins from berries and passes that separately into their intestines for more efficient digestion.
- Phainopepla eggs are gray or pink and speckled. The incubation time is 15 days.
- They are known to imitate the calls of 12 other species of birds, including the northern flicker and the red-tailed hawk.
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