Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory’s International Team is monitoring and banding birds in the Chihuahuan Desert grasslands in northern Mexico with the help of 26 local field techs the team trained in early January.

As shown in the photo, field crews remove birds that are harmlessly captured in mist nets to gather data to guide conservation efforts. After receiving a USGS-issued leg band, the birds are weighed, measured and inspected before being released.

Birds including Baird’s Sparrow (pictured below), Grasshopper Sparrow, Chestnut-collared Longspur and many others winter in Mexican grasslands before returning to the Great Plains in spring. RMBO is working to conserve their disappearing winter habitat and boost their winter survival.

  Photos by Arvind Panjabi, International Program Director, Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory

by Chuck Hundertmark

Birders heading for Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge will find Birding Hot Spots of Central New Mexico a handy guide, covering birding areas from just north of Albuquerque south to the refuge, one of the best-known in the country. Authors Judy Liddell and Barbara Hussey offer considerable and well-organized detail, making it easy to plan birding forays in the region. Published by Texas A & M University Press, the guide begins by introducing the area’s geography, life zones and habitats ranging from Chihuahuan desert scrubland to the rocky, spruce-fir-capped crest of the Sandia Mountains.