Taken at Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum 03/13/10. Today I hit the trifecta of birds with headcrests. All three of our little crested birds, together, flying and landing right around me over the otter pool.

Bird three was the one I was most excited about. These guys are migratory and only here a few months of the winter in Arizona. He's probably getting ready to leave in a few days. What is he? A Phainopepla. Even less known than the Pyrrhuloxia because they're here so rarely, and are nowhere in the US other than Arizona. Sometimes called a black cardinal, they're not closely related. They're the only tropical silky flycatcher in the US at all though. (Notice how the beak is nothing like the seed-opener of the cardinal family.) They're incredibly quick and maneuverable, almost bat-like in their agility as they zip from their perch, zig-zagging after each insect they spot. Nevertheless, despite being flycatchers, and catching flies when convenient, their primary diet is berries of the mistletoe that grows on mesquite bushes. The ripening of those berries is what they're migrating after.

I think I saw Mrs. Phainopepla too, but didn't get a picture that came out. There definitely was a second one though.