One of the closest premium birding locations to SaddleBrooke is Madera Canyon, which boasts lots of eBird hotspots, lots of birds and even more birders. But we’re not always in the mood for Combat Birding, and in 2023, we discovered a quiet, two-year-old getaway with plenty of great birds, not to mention easy access to nearby birding goldmines. This little-known hideout is Ramsey Canyon Cabins, located (you guessed it) in Ramsey Canyon, just south of Sierra Vista. Sierra Vista is well known for Fort Huachuca, the nearby San Pedro River and four canyons carved into the Huachuca Mountains, a sky island that separates Arizona from Mexico. From the south, these canyons are Ash, Miller, Carr and Ramsey, and their elevation, around 5,000 feet, as well as their proximity to Mexico have produced all of Arizona’s hummingbirds, Elegant Trogon, Eared Quetzal and many other sought-after birds, including Tufted Flycatcher.
Ash Canyon is known for the Ash Canyon Bird Sanctuary, a hotspot now owned and operated by Tucson Audubon, and the most likely place to find the rare Lucifer Hummingbird. Beatty’s Guest Ranch in Miller Canyon is known for White-eared Hummingbird, Mexican Spotted Owl and Aztec Thrush, but the accommodations are somewhat primitive, and the trails are steep. Carr Canyon has no facilities other than camping and the steep rocky, often one-laned road to the top two campgrounds is for white-knuckle enthusiasts only. Ramsey Canyon boasts the Ramsey Canyon Preserve, owned by the Nature Conservancy, a gorgeous, wooded streamside property with many hummingbird feeders and 239 species of birds, including Elegant Trogon, which has been seen there in all twelve calendar months. Accommodation is available here, and its popularity is noted by more than ten thousand eBird checklists that have been posted since the first one fifty-four years ago. Note, though, that Ramsey Canyon Preserve is closed two days a week, Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
Which brings us to our recent discovery, Ramsey Canyon Cabins and Bird Sanctuary. The owners, Greg and Jen, moved from Colorado to Sierra Vista in 2022, buying nine beautiful, wooded acres just down the road from the Nature Conservancy’s Preserve. They have focused totally on birds and birding, and now offer three well-appointed cabins for guests, each with fully-equipped kitchen, Wi-Fi, smart TV, outdoor seating and propane grill. The cabins are extremely private, located a quarter mile apart, and accessible from two separate roads. We stayed in the Cowboy Cabin, now known as the Creekside Cabin, well off the main road, nestled in a forest of alligator juniper, sycamore, oak, maple and madrone with tree-screened views of the owners’ house across Ramsey Creek. The creek bisects their property and is the same seasonal creek that flows through the Nature Conservancy.
Our three-day stay there in September 2023 was completely quiet and private, and we spent one entire day on our deck watching and photographing birds that came to hummingbird, seed and suet feeders at our deck. These included Rivoli’s, Black-chinned, Broad-billed, Broad-tailed, Anna’s and Violet-crowned Hummingbird, Western and Hepatic Tanager, Scott’s Oriole, Ladder-backed, Acorn, Arizona and Hairy Woodpecker, Bridled Titmouse, White-breasted Nuthatch and Black-headed Grosbeak among others. The second cabin, the Hummingbird Cabin, is a two-bedroom, two-bath unit a quarter mile from the Creekside Cabin which backs to the Bird Garden, a large, treed area filled with all types of bird feeders. In addition, there are four trails on the property, each lined with painted rocks (white, blue, etc.) to differentiate one from the other, and every trail has padded (!) benches and chairs conveniently spaced throughout as well as more bird feeders along each path. The owners keep the feeders filled and the many birds that populate the property know it. We never saw anyone else during our stay until the owner, Greg, came to say goodbye the day we left. Oh, and I should mention that Wild Turkeys and deer (the deer each have names) were frequent visitors, with one doe sleeping in our back yard as we photographed birds, and the turkeys coming onto our deck to show their indifference. Note that in less than two years, more than one hundred bird species, including Berylline Hummingbird, along with eleven other hummingbirds have been documented here, with a relatively small number of checklists. Of special note: currently, (November 2025), the owners have opened the property to the public every day of the year for the nominal sum of ten dollars per person. The web site can be reached at ramseycanyon.com. If this isn’t enough to tempt you, you can easily walk up the street to the Nature Conservancy, another eBird Hotspot.
This article is a reprint from 2023.
If you have questions or comments about SaddleBrooke’s birds, or to receive emailed information about birds from Bob and Prudy, call 520-330-0366 or email bobandpru@gmail.com. Previously published articles can be found at www.birdingthebrookeandbeyond.com. Note that the above article has been updated from a version published in 2023.
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