I usually have a difficult passing a Phainopepla without taking a photo, they are after all, elegant birds that are tough to take a bad photo of. This female was the first one we encountered on our recent trip to Arizona. We were all quite excited to get some photos and we spent a good deal of time clicking away at this one. By the time the day was over we had seen dozens of them along the road and we were driving past them in search of other, scarcer birds. We did photograph more of them as the trip progressed but it was pretty nice that there were so many of these beauties that we could drive right past them without feeling guilty.

www.texastargetbirds.com

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Phainopepla nitens