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Birds of The Cibola National Wildlife Refuge

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CIBOLA NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE

Cibola, Arizona 

 

Click here for more info 

American Kestrel watches from up above.
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Western Kingbird welcomes visitors
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The Cibola Nature Center was very interesting........
 
There is a nice collection of bird eggs, bones and other exhibits that you will want to check out in the nature center. I always start in the nature center first, pick up some info and ask the ranger or volunteer working what they would recommend to see. The lady there that day suggested the "corn field" and gave us a map. I must point out that we are visiting Cibola in August on our way to Tucson Arizona. I asked the lady about the pictures I had seen on line of water and water birds and she said that Cibola doesn't keep the 40 acre pond flooded year round. Best time to visit is mid-November through mid-February.  Anyway, we headed off to the "corn field" to check it out. We found it after struggling to figure out the small map that was given to us. As we entered the corn field we were greeted by several swooping cliff swallows. I got my camera out and all was good with the world! We walked about 30 mins. and I knew we were in trouble. BUGS! I have never seen anything like it. Even on my trips to Costa Rica and Belize. We were busy smacking ourselves, scratching our heads, jumping around, and swatting each other. It was hard to focus, but I got a few pictures. We had a lot of laughs out in the corn field. After several hundred bug bites later, we left and continued on our way to Tucson AZ. We did pass a lake and campground as we were heading out, but didn't see many birds. Only one lone Egret. (See the picture at the bottom of the page.) We will have to try to visit Cibola again during a different time of year. 
 
Lesson learned: Benadryl "itch stopping gel" helps, but I will carry Deet with me at all times. 

Check out the egg collection in the Nature Center
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Bones and other nice exhibits in the Nature Center
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Black Phoebe
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Western Kingbird
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Yellow-headed blackbird
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Tropical Kingbird
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Male bicolored red-winged blackbird
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Juvenile white-winged dove
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Female Gambel's Quail
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Female Cassin's finch
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Common ground dove
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Cliff swallow
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Cassin's kingbird
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Blue Grosbeak
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Black Pheobe ( I love these little guys)
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Cabert's towhee
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Brown-headed cowbirds
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Beautiful views of mountains and fields alive with yellow butterflies.

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Local birds put the farm irrigation ditches to good use.

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A lone Egret at the Cibola National Wildlife Refuge