Here is your chance to learn the basics of birding firsthand. If you’ve never been birding before or you consider yourself a beginner birder, there’s nothing that can help you more than being with a group of fellow beginners and a good leader. Rich’s enthusiasm and knowledge make this a fun and rewarding experience. You will get binocular basics and learn how to look for and identify a number of different types of birds. In about 90 minutes covering just a 1/2 mile you can see ducks, shorebirds, marsh birds, and maybe migrants. After the Wetlands, you will travel 7 miles to Rich and Nanette Armstrong’s house where you will see how to set up a yard (they have over 20 feeders) to attract birds and learn to identify different riparian birds. There will be binoculars to borrow if you do not have any, and you will get to look through Rich’s scope.

Part of the Verde Valley Birding and Nature Festival

Join us 100 miles North of Phoenix in North Central Arizona’s Verde Valley for the Verde Valley Birding and Nature Festival. Experience birding during the peak Spring migration season at Dead Horse Ranch State Park on the banks of the Verde River. Close proximity to the Verde, Oak Creek, Sycamore Creek, and other perennial waters offers a wide selection of guided tours, hikes, and workshops in one of Arizona’s richest birding habitats.

Our experienced guides have extensive knowledge of birds and the unique habitat that makes this region special. The festival, presented each April by Friends of the Verde River, is a purpose-driven community benefit organization and 501(c) 3 non-profit working to preserve one of the last perennial flowing rivers in the American Southwest.

Festival site is at Dead Horse Ranch State Park.