carduelis (thistle) psaltria (one who plays the lute)
Saturday, March 31, 1984 — 10:40 am
Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Arizona
We were walking through the park near the bird cages when I saw this Lesser Goldfinch fly to the top branch of a palo-verde. It soon flew off out of sight.
dendroica (from dendron, tree, and oikein, to dwell) coronata (crowned)
Saturday, March 31, 1984 — 10:30 am
Tucson, Arizona — Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum
This bird looked like the “Myrtle” Yellow-rumped Warblers I was familiar with, but with a yellow throat and a large white wing patch. It was foraging in the cottonwood trees above the otter exhibit.
icterus (jaundice) parisorum (given in 1838 by Charles Lucien Bonaparte, French ornithologist, for the Paris brothers, who did considerable pioneer collecting of birds in Mexico)
Saturday, March 31, 1984 — 10:25 am
Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Arizona
This beautiful Scott’s Oriole was flying bush to bush in the saguaro forest near a feeder. It flew to an ocotillo, then off out of sight.
callipepla (from lophotos, crested, and ortyx, quail) gambelil (given by Thomas Nuttallin in 1843 in honor of his protege, William Gambel, an early field collector of birds in Southwest California)
Saturday, March 31, 1984 — 10:20 am
Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Arizona
The museum had a feeder for wild birds. A bunch of Gambel’s Quails were clustered about the base of the feeder and running about in the surrounding scrub in company with more familiar birds like Cardinals. Occasionally, one of the Gambel’s Quails would get up on the feeder, and pairs were wandering all about the ground nearby. They often gave a loud, startling cry.
Later in the day at Saguaro National Monument, I could hear more Gambel’s Quails calling from the surrounding hills.
melanerpes (from melanos, black, and herpes, a creeper) uropygialis (from oura, tail, and pyge, rump)
Saturday, March 31, 1984 — 10:00 am
Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Arizona
I found this Gila Woodpecker perched on the side of a large saguaro cactus, calling loudly. It sounded like a Red-bellied Woodpecker.
