Mexican Spotted Owls and a Globally Important Bird Area in the Chiricahua Mountains

By Jennie MacFarland and Helen Snyder

Bird walk and dedication ceremony in South Fork

The Chiricahua Mountains Global Important Bird Area (IBA) was dedicated September 10 as part of the Portal Heritage Days event. Program coordinator Jennie MacFarland gave a talk on owls of the Chiricahuas and the following morning led a bird walk that culminated in the IBA dedication event in South Fork, Cave Creek Canyon. 

This IBA was established in 2003 and then formally designated a Global IBA in 2009 due to its abundance of Mexican Spotted Owl nesting pairs. These owls are listed as Threatened under the Endangered Species Act and the Chiricahua Mountains IBA meets the threshold criteria to be recognized as a site of global significance. There was a great turnout from the Portal community and we are so grateful to all who came to celebrate this excellent habitat that supports over 300 bird species within one of the most beautiful Sky Islands in Southeast Arizona. 

Mexican Spotted Owl, Frank Retes

One of the best parts of hosting an IBA dedication is involving the local community and partners. It was so gratifying to have so many local “Portal-ites” attend the dedication ceremony and celebrate the Chiricahuas and its vital habitat for native bird species. This IBA has a long history of local support as well with the Chiricahua Regional Council providing funding and logistical support for the Spotted Owl surveys needed to qualify this area as a Global IBA. There has also been enormous support from local volunteers and the Friends of Cave Creek Canyon for the annual Elegant Trogon survey that happens in May as an IBA project. Local Ornithologist Helen Snyder was instrumental in gathering the data on Mexican Spotted Owls and other raptor species that qualified this area as a general IBA and a Global IBA. Helen has kindly provided an account of her work on this project below.

To all IBA volunteers and partners: Thank you so much for all of the past support and continuing contributions to Arizona IBA projects!

From Helen Snyder:

In the mid-2000s, I was on a mission, on foot night and day surveying nesting raptors in Cave Creek Canyon. My work and others’ hinted that we had a population of nesting raptors that was the densest in the world, and it needed urgent recognition by a US Forest Service special designation as the Cave Creek Canyon Birds of Prey Zoological Botanical Area. This expanded the existing 700 acre ZBA already in place for South Fork.

Most of the birds of prey I was finding were owls, and I then found out that the Chiricahuas could qualify for IBA-Global designation if I documented ten active Mexican Spotted Owl territories two years in a row. The work of Russell Duncan in the 1990s came to mind and I thought this designation was easily within reach. With that goal I set off to check spotted owl territories from Russell’s work and from my own Apache Goshawk and Peregrine Falcon work over the years. It was a fun project—starting in April and May, I'd check previous territories by walking quietly through their cool conifer-sheltered canyon homesteads, listening and looking for bits of whitewash, adult owls’ molted feathers, and prey remains. One of the favorite food items of Mexican Spotted Owls are Whiskered Screech-Owls, and a surprising number of the little owls find their way onto the menu. No playback was needed, just watching, waiting, and listening in the dark.

Repeated checks during the nesting season confirmed the ongoing activity; early July proved the best time to find fledged young. At dusk, the birds begin to give beg-and-response calls as adults move in from daytime roosts, bringing food to their young. I stayed long enough only to confirm the status as an active territory, carefully stealing away while it was still light enough to see without a flashlight. We now have a Global IBA in the Chiricahua Mountains.

 

Helen Snyder and Jennie MacFarland at the dedication ceremony in South Fork.