Discover the Joy of Birdwatching
The Southwestern Idaho Birders Association (SIBA) was founded in 1997 by a group of individuals who shared a common interest in birdwatching. Since then, we have grown into a thriving community that offers a variety of events and resources to our members.
The Mission of SIBA is "To promote birdwatching and environmental conservation among the members and general public."
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Cedar Waxwing by Wyatt Tustin
Chukar-Kathryn Keith
Yellow-breasted Chat
Western Meadowlark by Wyatt Tustin
Bird of the Month
Bird of the Month: Great-tailed Grackle A bird that may be expanding into our area is the Great-tailed Grackle (Quiscalus mexicanus). Numbers are very low, but persistent. Great-tails have been reported off and on in the Parma and Grandview areas and just across the border in Ontario, Oregon and have bred as close as Bliss. The species has been expanding its range since the 1900s and rapidly since the 1960s. It now occurs at least sporadically as far north as southern Canada. It may only be a matter of time before Great-tailed Grackles become a common bird in Southwest Idaho. This is a distinctive bird with its very long, keel-shaped tail. Males are much larger, glossy black with purple iridescence, very large bill, and yellow eyes. Females are smaller and generally dark brown but also has yellow eyes. Both birds make a variety of calls and courting males have elaborate displays, pointing their heads up, similar to Brown-headed Cowbirds, and spreading their winds and tails and fluffing out their feathers as they vocalize (one can’t really call it “singing”). The male will defend a small territory, and any nestlings and fledglings hatched within the territory. More than one female will nest in the territory if it’s a good one. Neither mate is particularly faithful to the other. Females can switch nesting trees and social mates within or between breeding seasons. Fewer male than female nestlings survive, leading to a skewed sex ratio. The female selects the nest site, although they may abandon it for a variety of reasons such as too much competition with other females or dissatisfaction with the social mate. Nest sites are typically near standing water and near open areas used for foraging in either marsh vegetation or trees but may use human-made structures if trees are not available. The nest is an open cup usually partially or fully shaded.
Female Great-tailed Grackle
Meetings
2026 Meeting Schedule
Meetings are held on the second Thursday of the following months
at 7:00 PM Mountain Time
July 9th – Hybrid meeting – in person and Zoom
October 8th – Hybrid meeting – in person and Zoom
November 12th – Annual Member meeting – Hybrid – in person and Zoom.
In-person meetings are held at the Deer Flat National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center
13751 Upper Embankment Rd, Nampa, ID
July 9th – Hybrid meeting – in person and Zoom
Title: Birds of South Florida and the Keys
Presenter: Louisa Evers
Louisa will cover the birds she saw on a recent trip to South Florida and the Keys.
The trip starts and ends in Fort Myers and goes through part of Miami and Dade County
and various keys down to Key West.
Louisa Evers moved to Idaho in 2019 after retiring and dove headfirst into birding in Idaho.
She is the program coordinator for SIBA and Vice President of Golden Eagle Audubon.
Florida Scrub-jay
Join Zoom Meeting at the scheduled time:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81011857044?pwd=vgLpycJkjrrZZnbQWNdQZ6RRljas3y.1
Meeting ID: 810 1185 7044
Passcode: 031179
Field Trips
Upcoming Field Trips
Second Fork Squaw Creek and Sagehen Reservoir
Date: Saturday, July 11, 2026
Time: 7:00 a.m.
Location: Meet at Triangle Café, Sweet, Idaho
Trip Leader: James Jarrett
Registration required: email James Jarrett at SIBAFieldTrip@gmail.com
We will bird as we drive through Sweet and Ola and as we gain elevation we will stop at several locations in the forest. We will then continue farther up in elevation to Sagehen Reservoir where we will bird around the lake. At these locations we may be able to see several species of warblers, thrushes, and woodpeckers. This is an all-day trip so bring water, lunch, and binoculars.
Field Trip Leader: James Jarrett
Registration Required for all field trips:
email James Jarrett at SIBAFieldTrip@gmail.com
SIBA Field Trip to Silver City Report - June 17, 2026
8 Birders gathered at Walter’s Ferry Bridge for the field trip to Silver City on a beautiful
sunny morning. We decided to go on a Wednesday this year since the traffic up there
is crowded on the weekends. Two full carloads took off with a first stop at Murphy to
check for Common Nighthawks, and we saw 2.
The group stopped along the Silver City road at a couple of stream crossings, mainly Sinker Creek, to check for bird species and saw the usual Yellow-breasted Chats, Bushtits, Lewis’s Woodpecker, Bullock’s Oriole, Western Tanager, and Lazuli Bunting plus others. The Lewis’s woodpeckers seemed especially abundant on the drive up. The drive also gave us Cassin’s finches feeding on the clay mud alongside the road at a cut bank. Another stop on the way added Red-naped Sapsucker, and
Green-tailed Towhee. A beautiful male Mountain Bluebird was at the vault potty stop along with
singing Fox Sparrows and a McGillivray’s Warbler.
We parked at a private parking spot at Silver City getting permission ahead of time from the owners. We also were privileged to spend time on this owner’s porch watching their hummingbird and seed feeders. Two very busy parent Northern House Wrens were carrying food to their nestlings inside a box on the porch and the young really ramped up the calls when the food was presented. We ended up seeing 4 species of hummers at the feeders including the beautiful Broad-tailed hummingbird and a gorgeous male Rufous hummingbird. Several other species were at the seed feeders and all this gave us great lunch time pleasure.
A pleasant walk around the “ghost town” gave us more species like the Western Flycatcher,
Violet-green swallow, and more Lewis’s Woodpeckers – 27 species in all.
It was perfect weather – not too hot and not too cold – and all birders enjoyed this
day in Owyhee County. 65 species of birds were recorded on eBird for the day.
A special thanks to Louisa Evers for recording all the birds we saw.
Canyon County Big Day - 6/1/2026
The Verdin Birders aren't exactly the Valkyries, but their annual ride does call for a fair measure of speed, stamina, and skills. Four women, one vehicle, one purpose: to find all the bird species in Canyon County between daylight and dark.
Well, minimum 100 species, since the lowest total in 6 years was 98.
The bar was set high in 2021 with 113 species and even higher in 2022 with 118.
This year, the optimistic foursome, Linda Wentz, Cheryl Huizinga, Louisa Evers and JC Clancy, started at Evers' house at 5:45 a.m. on a Monday morning. The strategy is always to maximize the early hours with some difficult species. The elusive Bobolink at Landruff Lane was at the top of this year's list. Heading East, precious minutes passed and the bird wasn't seen or heard. On to Lansing Lane to pick up several birds, a stroke of good fortune when a distant dark spot in the sky morphed into a Black-crowned Night Heron, always on the uncertain list. Back to Landruff where the Bobolink finally appeared. Another hoped-for bird, Wilson's Snipe, didn't show or winnow. Around the corner at Duff Pond, the recently seen Western Screech Owl didn't utter a screech. The sun was hardly up, and hopes for a banner year were already down.
So it went as we crisscrossed the county, Middleton to Nampa (3 Peregrine Falcons at the Sugar Factory, a joy to see but it still counts one), on to Canyon Hill and then Old Ft. Boise. The expected Sora did not sing. But the Gray Catbird did, and an eagle-eyed birder spotted a surprise Black Tern, which turned out to be the only tern for the day! Meanwhile, the likely species were being checked off, 5 wrens, 5 swallows, 5 blackbirds, 4 grebes, 4 gulls, 3 owls, 3 geese – Canada and Snow were expected and the 2 Ross's Goose in summer were a nice addition.
The checklists added up, to a total 33. They are kept to meet ebird specs, which means that we spend time counting or estimating flocks of the basics: 295 Mallards, 294 American Coots, 189 Red-winged Blackbirds. But the one-of-a-kind birds are worth extra effort. When a Say's Phoebe didn't show up in its likely spot near Gott's Point, the birders picked up its trail and followed it into a subdivision to get certain ID.
The route varies year to year but generally works north of Lake Lowell in the morning and later crosses the dam and picks up some species in farm country – Horned Larks, Burrowing Owls, Long-billed Curlew – and down to the Snake River Canyon and Celebration Park for Rock and Canyon wrens, Prairie Falcons and usually Golden Eagle, but not this year. Nor did the Chukar or the Common Poorwill call. A more routine bird became the last sighting, barely visible at almost 10 p.m.,“Pelican overhead!”
It was #107, just an average result for more than 16 hours of birding on a beautiful day.
– JC Clancy
Member Photo Gallery
Contact Us
If you have any questions about the Southwestern Idaho Birders Association,
please don't hesitate to contact us. You can reach us by email by entering your name, email and a message then click submit. Alternately, message us through our Facebook page. To join or renew membership, click on Join Now button to download the form.