Local Birds Hang Around At Phoenix Desert Botanical Garden

I miss the beautiful Phoenix Desert Botanical Garden now.  That is an amazing place for walking around in the nature.  I was there early December last year, Although I did not get to  see beautiful desert flowers in bloom as I was expecting before going,  but I really enjoy staying so close to the nature, smell the fresh air, watching many local birds (and yeah, manage to add some new species to my list), the butterflies and the squirrels...

This is the awesome Male Greater Roadrunner! I like the spot of blue and red behind the eye! (Identify as a male by the blue and orange in his eyestripe. )

The Greater Roadrunners were seen everywhere free running in the park, do their hunting in the bush looking for lizards and snakes ...

The adult bird has a bushy crest and long, thick, dark bill with a long, dark tail, a dark head and back, and is blue on the front of the neck and on the belly. They are large ground bird which very seldom flies, they can  grow to almost two feet in length.

I was told there are also the Lesser Roadrunners which are a bit smaller than the Greater, but I can really tell which one is the great and which one is the lesser...

Gambel’s Quails! Yeah, one of my unexpected surprises was meeting a few of the local wildlife in the garden. Seeing roadrunners, hummingbirds, Gambel's quails in very close distance was a real novelty, of course the ground squirrels jumping around my feet was a definite highlight, which I should have an individual post.

Unlike those roadrunners,  the Gambel’s Quails did not show up a nice posture in front of my camera, but I could not resist trying to capture some image of this dude...

...the male Gambel’s Quail above and the female below

I manage to capture a few of clear pictures of other local birds to add to my collections... 

verdin

They are entirely gray (of various shades) with a striking yellow head and a small red patch on its medium coverts.

See some Hummingbirds feeding from flowers, and finally take a photo of one lonely hummingbird perched on a branch

House Sparrow ?