Paton Center for Hummingbirds Hummingbird Guide

Rising from the Sonoran Desert floor to cool pine-oak forest in less than an hour's drive south of Tucson, Madera Canyon in the Santa Rita Mountains offers one of the most accessible hummingbird spectacles in Arizona. The feeder stations at Santa Rita Lodge draw an extraordinary parade of species against a backdrop of sycamore and oak draped in epiphytes, while the canyon trail system opens into mountain meadows painted with penstemon and salvia. Broad-billed Hummingbirds — electric green with fire-orange bills — are summer fixtures here, while the great Rivoli's Hummingbird and Blue-throated Mountain-gem patrol the mid-elevation forest like flying gemstones. Spring migration adds Calliope and early Rufous to the mix; by late summer the canyon hosts an overlap of breeders and southbound travelers that keeps every hour interesting.

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