Arizona Sonora Desert Museum - Raptor Free Flight

12/01/16 - 2/28/17

The Arizona Sonora Desert Museum is one of my favorite places. It is a combination of zoo, botanical garden, museum, aquarium, and gallery. It highlights the various animals, plants, minerals, etc. that you can find in the Sonoran Desert. It has over 230 animal species and 1200 plant species.

My favorite thing at the museum is the Raptor Free Flight Shows that are presented twice a day during the winter. The shows contain various ravens, hawks, falcons, and owls. The birds fly around the audience and often fly within inches of the people. During my visits this winter, I had my head brushed multiple times by the wings of various birds. I was brushed once by the Great Horned Owl, twice by the Barn Owl, and twice by Harris' Hawks. I highly recommend going to these shows if you have the chance. It's quite an experience.

I visited the museum about once a week this winter. I've built three galleries from my visits. This gallery contains photos that I took during the raptor shows. The next gallery contains photos from the hummingbird aviary and the third gallery contains all the other photos I took at the museum.

Harris' Hawk

Steve Winker