Migrating Birds

For birdwatchers in southern New Mexico, September can be highly entertaining. Good numbers of many diverse species are on the move during this time, traveling southward from northern breeding grounds to places they will spend the winter, and there's always a chance that some rare or unusual bird will turn up. Key to the flow of migrating birds through the area is our geography. Birds crossing over the southwest deserts tend to follow north-south watercourses like the Rio Grande and/or corridors of relatively green vegetation , whether that be cottonwoods and willows lining the valleys or the coniferous forests of the higher mountains.