About Rancho Colibrí

Rancho Colibrí is located in the rural South Valley area of Albuquerque, New Mexico, about a half-mile from the Rio Grande. Most of our bird watching is done here on our property and around the metro area. Because we find that we are much more aware of birds now, we are constantly looking and listening for them as we drive around. Being on a major migration route, The Rio Grande Flyway, we see a number of birds passing through and on their way to and from the various wildlife refuges around the area. There is the Rio Grande Nature Center, about three miles north of us, and the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, located about 90 miles south near Socorro. There is a steady variety of birds year-round to keep us busy, and we are always looking for those rare visitors to put on our ever expanding Life List of birds. Obviously, our favorite birds are the Hummingbirds, or colibrí in Spanish, so much of the information here is devoted to them. We hope you find our site interesting and the information useful.

ABOUT US

When Frank and I were married in 1991, he knew very little about birds. I first put up some seed feeders and we were delighted by the variety of birds we saw. Then I put out hummingbird feeders in the Spring. When he saw these tiny birds he became totally fascinated by them. Soon we were throwing cracked corn out in the field for the flock of pigeons who live on the church roof next door. (That was a mistake and we don't do that anymore.) Thus we were hooked on bird watching!

We began buying books and trying to learn as much as we could about these beautiful creatures. A couple years later, my husband got a fancy Hi-8 video recorder and he began recording all the various bird activities. His first big project was recording the progress of a pair of Black-chinned Hummingbird chicks in a nest in our front yard from hatch to flight. We hope to some day edit those dozen or so small tapes and create a digital version to sell.

CHICKEN FARMING

About three years ago, we "acquired" a couple of hen chickens. Apparently a neighbor down the road got a flock of chickens. A few of them would walk along the tops of fences and come into our field. At first they would all return home at night but later two of them decided to stay. We don't have a coop for them. We only feed them cracked corn. They scratch around the yard for bugs and crawlies - they eat snails! They also get bird seed that falls from the feeders. We named them "Mazey" and "Chicken Little". We don't know much about raising chickens but they seem to be doing alright. They give us beautiful little brown free-range eggs!

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