Arizona is renowned as a premier birding state, a place where many species rarely seen anywhere else in the country reach the northern end of their migratory range. Jim Burns’ Arizona Birds is a lively portrayal of the habits and habitats of seventy-five of these unique southwestern species. Burns has written much more than a field guide, site guide, or scientific survey. He has compiled and expanded upon his feature column Arizona Special Species to create an original kind of birding book that is more at home on your bedside table than in your backpack. Bird-watchers new to the game will find a wealth of knowledge on and insight into some familiar favorites, as well as an idea of what it takes to accomplish more uncommon sightings.

Veteran birders will appreciate Burns’ unique incorporation of natural history and other details beyond the usual taxonomic data, and will enjoy reminders of their own triumphs and heartbreaks in his colorful personal accounts of vehicular breakdowns, photographic faux pas, and egregious identification errors in the field. Illustrated in full color by seventy-five of the author’s own outstanding photographs, this book also features a five-level rating system, beginning with birds you can see in your own backyard and ending with those requiring either pure dumb luck or years of study and perseverance to spot. But whether you have spent years in search of the Flammulated Owl or are just curious about the wildlife in your desert backyard, this book will have you laughing, learning, and reaching for the binoculars in hopes of creating your own encounters with Arizona’s incredible bird species.

George Corning Fraser, who lived in the days before automobile travel became a way of life, was an easterner who loved to vacation on horseback in the American Southwest. No mere tourist, he sought out the most remote and forbidding landscapes he could find: the seldom-visited country north of the Grand Canyon, the vast slickrock expanses of the Navajo Reservation, and sites such as Zion Canyon and Capitol Reef before they became national parks. An amateur geologist, Fraser penned his own memorable observations of the region’s landforms and jotted down engaging accounts of local ranchers, sheepherders, and villagers.
 
Frederick H. Swanson has edited Fraser’s voluminous journals into a single volume covering three trips taken from 1914 to 1916. As Fraser wades the bone-chilling waters of the Zion Narrows, crosses the Grand Canyon in midsummer heat, and rides through the trackless forest of the Aquarius Plateau, he conveys impressions of the land that will fascinate any reader who wonders what the canyon country was like before it became a popular tourist destination—and one that will inform historians interested in early accounts of the region. Accompanied by a selection of photographs taken by Fraser and his fellow travelers, Journeys in the Canyon Lands brings to life the Southwest’s breathtaking backcountry on the brink of discovery.