The saguaro cactus has gone from flower to fruit. We truly have a bird sanctuary in our back yard. Our birds are a combination of locals and migratory. This time of year, many of those birds that pass through on to other locations, maybe cooler then AZ leave with full bellies. The fruit of the cactus are rich in color and apparently favor.
The birds are there morning, evening, and throughout the day to get some of these lovely fruits. They jockey for positions. The white winged dove is a big bird and it uses it's size to move other birds along. This year especially, there is lots of fruit to be had for everyone, yet there still is that power struggle. Plus, if you are under the cactus looking up to take a photo you need to watch out as the birds finish eating the inside of the fruit then knock it off, one almost got me this morning.
I am hopeful that the hooded oriole will come back. Two of them were on the cactus at evening light. Ran inside to get my camera, by the time I got back out they were gone. The bright yellow-orange with the contrasting red green of the cactus and strong sunlight was pretty amazing. I can not complain too much about that lost shot as I have gotten many photos this year of the birds that hang around our backyard. We have the curved-billed thrasher, gila woodpecker, common flicker, cactus wren, white winged dove, mourning dove, phainopepla, verdin, mockingbird, peach faced lovebirds...and more.
Here are a few pictures, you may want to make note of the names. More to come on that next week.
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| Common Flicker |
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| House Finch |
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| curved-billed thrasher |
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| white winged dove |
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| saguaro fruit |
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| peach faced lovebird, non-native but now lives in AZ |
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