The exciting world of birds can even include several duck species after the summer monsoonal rains. Cactus wrens make themselves known constantly with their unmusical chatter. Other common birds are curve-billed thrasher, Gambel's quail, cactus wren, verdin, Costa's hummingbird, black-tailed gnatcatcher, and the alluring phainopepla with its crest and silky black plumage. Migrating warblers, swallows, flycatchers, and phoebes can be seen along vegetation-lined washes from February to May and in August.

In the very first Christmas Bird Count in 1999 at the eastern end of the refuge, 75 bird species and over 4,000 individual birds were tallied including a red-naped sapsucker and several vermillion flycatchers. The refuge bird list contains 212 species with 41 of them known to nest there.

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