An unexpected visitor came by today

                        Cactus Wren  (Campylorhynchus brunneicapillus)

While our back door was open a Cactus Wren came hopping in.

 

Here's a site where you can hear Arizona's state bird as well as learn more about our visitor.  This is a great website for all sorts of wildlife in Arizona as well.

Cactus Wren
By Byrd Baylor

On the hottest
summer afternoons
when desert creatures
look for shade
and stay close to the earth
and keep their voices
low

I sit high on a cactus
and fling
my loud ringing trill
out to the sun . . .

over and over
again.

My home is
in a cholla cactus.
I won't live
where cactus doesn't grow
because I know
the only safe place
for a nest
is a stickery branch
in a cactus thicket.

I like thorns
in all directions.

At the entrance
of my nest
I pile more cactus.
I peck off the spines
where I go
in and out.

It is so good a nest
that when we leave it
other creatures
will move in - -
a family of crickets
or a cactus-climbing mouse.

But now
it holds
six small brown birds

and me.