28 October 2021
After a week in Arizona I’m on my way home and musing about the common birds I will never see in Pittsburgh. Here are just a few.
Gambel’s quail are very common backyard birds in Arizona. Quails of any kind are uncommon in Pennsylvania.
Gila woodpeckers are the desert version of our red-bellied woodpeckers.
The verdin is a tiny active desert bird. (Don’t be fooled by the shadow in this photo; his head is all yellow.)
Cactus wrens are as common in Arizona as the Carolina wren is at home.
Common here, rare there. Common depends on where you are.
p.s. This disparity is why we ask for a photo’s location before trying to identify the bird in the picture.
(photos from Wikimedia Commons; click on the captions to see the originals)