The focus of this trip with professional bird guide David Simpson will be the Benedictine’s Holy Trinity Monastery, a 132-acre site on the east side of the San Pedro River in St. David, Arizona.

A popular retreat center, the grounds include a 1.3-mile birding trail, several small ponds, a pecan orchard, mesquite woodland, a working farm, and magnificent cottonwoods. Nesting birds are numerous and include: Gray and Zone-tailed Hawks, Mississippi Kite (at one of its only nesting sites in Arizona), Bell’s Vireo, Vermilion Flycatcher, Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet, Curve-billed Thrasher, Lucy’s Warbler, Summer Tanager, and Blue Grosbeak. Tropical Kingbird, another local breeder, can usually be found here. Time and weather permitting, we will make a trip to Twin Lakes in Willcox, where we could add a number of shorebirds such as Wilson’s and Red-necked Phalaropes, Least and Baird’s Sandpipers, Long-billed Curlew, and Horned Lark. Lunch is included – please select your sandwich filling from menu below the Field Trip descriptions on the registration page.

Hiking Difficulty: 2 easy. Guide: David Simpson.

Meeting place: The south-east entrance of The Mall at Sierra Vista, 2200 El Mercado Loop, Sierra Vista. Turn west onto Calle Mercancia from Highway 92, by the Wells Fargo bank, and the entrance is straight ahead. Map link

Southwest Wings Birding and Nature Festival is Arizona’s oldest birding festival. Since 1991 we’ve been offering small group trips through monsoons and droughts … and even a global pandemic. 

​The Southwest Wings Spring Fling will run from Wednesday May 6 to Saturday May 9, 2026.