The Binocular Site
Gila National Forest, New Mexico
Gila National Forest includes high mountains and lowlands, with diverse ecosystems of plant and animal life. This forest covers 3.3 million acres, and is the sixth largest throughout the continental United States.
This beauty, located in southwestern New Mexico, is a paragon of solitude and peace. While mountains stretch toward azure skies, canyons, meadows, and semi-desert areas round out the forest area, making ecology abundant and wildly unique from habitat to habitat. It is the range of elevations that allow this park to have such a wide range of habitats, with elevations as low as 4200 feet and as high as 10900 feet.
Plant life includes everything from cactus and juniper in semi-arid lowlands to the rich forests of aspen and Douglas fir found in the mountains. Here over 337 species of birds have been noted, with 166 breeding within the forest.
The Gila River Bird Habitat Area is a particularly amazing part of the forest, and stretches across riparian woods and scrub along the Gila River.
Here an abundance of birds can be seen, including loons, grebes, cormorants, herons, ibises, geese, swans, and ducks. Look out for raptors as well, including hawks, eagles, falcons, and owls. See the Gila National Forest website for more information.
The state bird of New Mexico is the Greater Roadrunner and you can find a birding checklist for New Mexico here.
Photo credit to yosty, used with permission under the creative commons license.
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