One of the great experiences of birding in Colorado is visiting both the Pawnee National Grasslands and Rocky Mountain National Park. The title of this post is a bit tongue-in-cheek for while the Pawnee National Grasslands (PNG) is a true grassland, the alpine tundra found at the highest parts of Rocky Mountain National Park...

One of the species that many birders hope to see when they visit Colorado is the Lark Bunting.  Neither a lark or a bunting, this species is most closely related to the sparrows. Lark Buntings are common summer residents especially in the eastern Colorado Plains. One of the interesting aspects of Lark Buntings in...

We spend a lot of time preparing and researching birding trips for clients.  Typically, our focus is on exactly where to find the western and mountain birds that bring birders to Colorado.   But to make for a successful birding adventure, we also need to plan for all the logistics and details that make the...

On December 10 (Day Three of our Colorado birding tour), we were met early by Marcel Such who is a student at Western State Colorado University in Gunnison and the four of us (Marcel, Jeff Kietzmann, Christian Hagenlocher, and I) headed to the west end of Blue Mesa Reservoir (created in 1966 along 20...

On Day Two of our Colorado birding tour, Jeff and I were met at our hotel early (5 a.m.!) by Christian Hagenlocher who currently lives and works in Buena Vista.  Christian is a terrific birder and knows this part of Colorado like the back of his hand.  In the darkness, we drove west from...

Many of our Colorado birding tours are focused on north-central Colorado to well-known hotspots including Rocky Mountain National Park and the Pawnee National Grasslands.  In early December, we organized a custom three-day trip that ventured south and west for some of Colorado’s other regional specialities. Jeff from Florida had a very specific list of...

Visiting birders to Colorado tend to fall into two main categories: Many come in April for a Colorado “Chicken Tour” to enjoy the grouse, prairie-chickens, and ptarmigan.  Another major wave of birders visit in the breeding season (May-July) for the great variety of Colorado specialities.  But the fall season also offers tremendous birding opportunities....

Cassin’s Vireo is an interesting bird here in Colorado.  In 1997, the American Ornithologists Union determined that the former Solitary Vireo was actually three separate species and now we have Blue-headed Vireo, Plumbeous Vireo, and Cassin’s Vireo.  The default breeding species among this trio in Colorado is the Plumbeous but Cassin’s does migrate through...

Nice video of Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay in Colorado by Colette MicallefOne of the birds we typically encounter on our Colorado birding tours is Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay. But who in the heck is Woodhouse?Samuel Washington Woodhouse was a surgeon-naturalist from Philadelphia who accompanied a U.S. Army survey expedition in the U.S. Southwest in 1849-1851. During the expedition,...