MUSICIANS JANEY KATZ - Zia Publishing

BIRDINGThe Variety ofBirdsDraws People HereWRITTEN BY GENE LEWISPHOTOGRAPHY BY DALE AND MARIAN ZIMMERMANSilver City is well known for its artists and the great variety of art galleries butthe variety of birds around here has been often overlooked. A few years ago achecklist for the area had a whopping 310 species and there have been a numberadded since that time. By the way, thespecies list for New Mexico is more than500, putting this state in the number fiveposition for the most species recorded.What birds can be different enough todraw people to visit or even to move here?How about the Red-faced Warbler,Painted Redstart, Scott’s Oriole, BlackchinnedSparrow, Hooded Oriole,Hutton’s Vireo and MagnificentHummingbird? Or three species oftanagers, five species of thrashers, morethan 20 species of sparrows and sevenspecies of wrens? This is but a smallsampling of the wonderful birds to be seenwithin a few miles of Silver City. Somebirds are here year round while other are tobe found only in the spring and summer,or the winter season.On a more personal note, a place I go toregularly happens to be the sewage pondarea for the village of Tyrone. Over a spanof 14 years I have listed 189 species in thatgeneral area while I have a list of 94 speciesseen in or flying over my yard right in the54 – SILVER CITY LIFE