In foreground left, tamarisk and rock outcrops, midground, upload saguaro habitat meets riparian habitat, background, steep and rocky mountains. (Photo by Alicia Arcidiacono)

If you’ve found the Lower Colorado River project interesting and want to learn more about the region, consider joining a group to support a publication summarizing what we've learned about the birds of the LCR! Send us a direct message if you’d like to get involved.

#LCRbirds

Sun along the horizon, peeking behind hills and clouds, reflecting on dark waters of the Colorado river

The Lower Colorado River project as we knew it ended in 2023, with a planned drawdown in funding from the Bureau of Reclamation. The BOR continues bird surveys on a smaller scale.

#LCRbirds

Gila Woodpecker peering out of a nest cavity. Photo by Amy Leist

Gila Woodpeckers are well known for nesting in saguaro cactuses, but did you know they also nest in large trees within riparian forests?

#WoodpeckerWednesday #LCRbirds

Abert's Towhee perched on branch

Abert’s Towhees were consistently the most common bird on the lower Colorado River – we recorded them on nearly every plot!

#LCRbirds

White-winged Doves perched on fence.

The White-winged Dove is a constant companion on the lower Colorado River in summer; even if you don’t see them, you will probably hear multiple birds giving their distinctive songs. These two birds are fairly fresh out of the nest. Photo by David Vander Pluym.

#LCRbirds

burned riparian vegetation in wetland

The importance of long-term monitoring like the Lower Colorado River project comes into stark focus after major events like a catastrophic #wildfire such as the 2015 Willow Fire, pictured here.

#LCRbirds

Verdins in mesquite/catclaw, adult feeding fledgling

Verdin is a common species on the lower Colorado River, using a variety of habitats including riparian forest. At Yuma East Woodlands, the mind-boggling density of this species had surveyors’ heads spinning!

#LCRbirds

Nuttings perched in thicket

A highlight of our surveys on the Lower Colorado River project was finding and confirming the first breeding record of the Nutting’s Flycatcher in the United States. A small population persisted for several years, & some territories were even mapped on our survey plots.

#LCRbirds #FlycatcherFriday

Loggerhead Shrike against a tree trunk. Photo by David Vander Pluym

Sometimes it’s difficult to classify an individual bird as a breeder or non-breeder. Loggerhead Shrikes frequently show up on Lower Colorado River project plots with begging young in tow, but nests were very rarely found.

#LCRbirds

blurry photo of Gilded Flicker in Joshua tree

Gilded Flickers are the rarest of the covered species on the Lower Colorado River project. There was once a population in a now-gone saguaro forest near Laguna Dam, but they now breed regularly only on the upper Bill Williams River.

#LCRbirds #WoodpeckerWednesday

Lesser Nighthawk "nest"

Lesser Nighthawk on ground

Lesser Nighthawks don’t bother with anything resembling a nest, and we would often come across their eggs nestled into the sandy ground on the Lower Colorado River project.

#LCRbirds

Vermilion Flycatcher on nest. Photo by David Vander Pluym

Nest searching wasn’t an explicit goal of the Lower Colorado River project surveys, but we often found nests during area searches, and these helped surveyors to delineate territories. Because we kept track of any breeding behavior, we now have a rich set of phenology data for LCR birds.

#LCRbirds

For most of the duration of the Lower Colorado River project, we tracked the presence of breeding colonial waterbirds like this Great Blue Heron.

#LCRbirds

view from the kayak across wetland

Lower Colorado River project surveys by kayak are some of the most #peaceful you can experience

#LCRbirds #beautiful

Dawn in bright yellow kayak on the river, with slightly cloudy skies

Dawn sets off in a kayak for a mission to maintain equipment for the Lower Colorado River project

#LCRbirds

Surveyor leaves parking area by the Virgin River on ATV to access survey plot.

A study on the saltcedar (tamarisk) leaf beetle took the Lower Colorado River crew to the Virgin River for two years, where the only way to access our plots was by ATV!

These beetles defoliate tamarisk plants, and were introduced to the area as biological controls.

#LCRbirds

Surveyors stand in the water, with riparian vegetation and blue skies behind them

Diane, Dawn, and Geoff preparing to scout plots for the Lower Colorado River project at the Laguna Division Conservation Area just north of Yuma.

#LCRbirds

Surveyors sit in grass in shade, going through HOBO setup

Dave shows Christina how to set up a HOBO, a small unit that measured temperature and humidity at selected sites year-round for the Lower Colorado River project.

#LCRbirds

Surveyors looking across the Bill Williams River

Lauren S. and David V.P. enjoyed an evening scouting plot access on the upper Bill Williams River at Lincoln Ranch for the Lower Colorado River project.

#LCRbirds

View of rocky peak above riparian trees surrounding a small beaver pond, against a blue sky

This beaver pond on a side channel of the Bill Williams River was a favorite places for Lower Colorado River project crews to cool down after a long survey

#LCRbirds

Smiling field crew stops for a break in a tunnel through riparian vegetation

One thing that will always stay with me about the Lower Colorado River project is the people, and how the crews (almost) always managed to keep spirits high despite the difficulty of the work

#Grateful #LCRbirds

Lauren scootches along on her belly through tamarisk tangle

Lauren can be seen here demonstrating the Topock Belly-Crawl, an important technique to master when working in Topock Marsh on the Lower Colorado River project!

#LCRbirds #fieldwork

Surveyors during training, sitting on a rocky overlook above a riparian area, looking through binoculars

The biologists that came through the Lower Colorado River project were an incredible bunch of people, many of whom have gone on to high-level careers in biology.

#Grateful #LCRbirds

Field crew enjoying a boat ride to their survey sites

We typically used kayaks to navigate waterways on the Lower Colorado River project, but now and then we got to cruise the Colorado River on a real boat!

#LCRbirds

sunrise on the Colorado river, turning sky and water pink and orange

Surveying the randomly selected locations on the Lower Colorado River project took us to some incredible places, and surveyors always got to watch the sun rise.

#LCRbirds

Amy plans how to get through the crazy tamarisk thicket

Old-growth saltcedar (tamarisk) forests can get very dense when they have ample water and little disturbance, and the Lower Colorado River project crew became extremely skilled at navigating these thickets.

#LCRBirds

Yellow Warbler singing (though this individual wasn't on the lower Colorado River)

Yellow Warblers were the most abundant of the covered species on the lower Colorado River project, but their distribution was patchy. The largest numbers were found on the Bill Williams River, but eye-popping densities were found some years at Topock Marsh.

#LCRbirds #WarblerWednesday

White-faced ibis in flight against a blue sky

White-faced Ibis are primarily migrants and winter residents on the lower Colorado River, but breeding colonies do exist in a few places and the species is present year-round in the region.

#LCRBirds

Lauren stands in the middle of tall wildflowers in riparian area, collecting bird data on a tablet.

Later in the Lower Colorado River project, we recorded all data on tablets. It took a bit longer than on paper, but saved us hours of data entry every day!

#LCRBirds

Sometimes the Lower Colorado River project veg crew had to get creative to keep things fun!

#LCRbirds