Birds of Las Vegas

Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve and Water Reclamation Facility is a great location for bird watching and bird photography. There are plenty of birds there year round and you can get fairly close to them. The staff goes out of their way to help you out. In particular Je Anne has given me the scoop on where the birds are at the preserve and around Southern Nevada.

A quick stop at Henderson hoping to nail down a Costa's Hummingbird resulted in another new species: a couple of Virginia Rails* that came out in the open. Eared Grebe, Ruddy Duck, Redhead and Cinnamon Teal were stunning in their breeding plumage and I also got to witness an epic battle between 2 American Coots.

I had a chance to do a little bird photography during a recent business trip in Las Vegas. I arrived at the Henderson Bird Viewing Reserve at 6:30am in hopes to get in as much birding as I could before it got too hot. There is hardly any shade at the reserve (part of waste treatment facility) so walking around with heavy photo equipment after 10:00am is not a good idea. It was a cool 92 F at 6:30 and it was a hot 98 F when I left at 9:45am. In between I managed to photograph new species ( Long-billed Dowitcher*, Clark’s Grebe*, White-faced Ibis*, Verdin*, Black-chinned Hummingbird*) as well as some good photos of Eared Grebe, Ruddy Ducks and American Kestrel. All in all a very good harvest of new species .

I first read about Henderson Bird Viewing Reserve on Nevada Birds. The staff would post a weekly list of birds seen at the Reserve and after speaking with Je Anne I was convinced that I had to pay a visit next time I was in Vegas. Je Ann was nice enough to take me on a stroll using a golf cart which allowed us to cover the whole reserve in a reasonable time. I spent more time talking and less time taking photos but I enjoyed it a great deal and ended up with 6 new species which was not bad either.