Seasonal Reports Archive

From 2007 to 2016, AZFO compiled and published 33 seasonal reports of new, unusual, or otherwise noteworthy bird observations from all regions of Arizona. This project, launched at AZFO's first state meeting in 2007, was a gigantic undertaking, involving over 22 volunteers and many hundreds of hours of work. In 2016, we ended the reports because few people were reading or using them, making the labor to prepare them seem unwarranted. The year before, we had ended the sightings database that complemented the seasonal reports.

For many years, seasonal reports were a major project of state ornithological societies, and birders followed the reports closely to learn about rare birds in their areas. However, with the advent of the Internet, listserves, Facebook, and especially eBird, birders are getting more rapid information about unusual sightings. Our four-times-a-year reports seemed like yesterday's news, even though they offered more context about late departures and early arrivals, unusually large or small numbers, first and second state records, county records, etc. The seasonal reports and the sightings database remain on the website as archival resources, and we have enhanced the ability to search them. Most sightings from our seasonal reports that were not on eBird have been added to that database by volunteers.

Each seasonal report has an introduction and reports from nine regions that were prepared by regional coordinators who sifted through all reported observations. A link to the Regions Map is listed in the right-hand column of each seasonal report along with abbreviations used in the reports. The reporting seasons correspond to the reporting seasons of North American Birds:

Winter: 1 December-28 (29) February
Spring: 1 March-31 May
Summer: 1 June-31 July
Fall: 1 August-30 November

Search Tool for searching AZFO Seasonal Reports Search