PHOENIX — The Desert Botanical Garden is looking for home detectives! The garden along with the Central Arizona Conservation Alliance have created something called the EcoQuest Challenge.
Basically, they need people to go out and investigate what's happening outside and report back. It's a fun way to learn more about our desert home and helps them keep track of what's really going on in our backyards.
It's really easy for anyone to join the project around Phoenix. Just download the iNaturalist app on your phone, join the Metro Phoenix EcoFlora group and start hunting. Who knows you might just learn something new like we did with this month's challenge.
August's challenge features the Lovebird and wraps up on the 31st. The Lovebird is not native to Arizona, and its arrival story involves two separate escapes back in the 80s, Jeny Davis, Ecoflora Project coordinator said.
"One was in Apache Junction, where a monsoon damaged an aviary and they escaped and another is supposedly in the North Valley where the owner didn't want them and just left the doors open," Davis said.
Years later, if you keep your eyes open around the Valley, you'll find the cute peach faced little birds hanging around.
"They're maybe 5-6" tall, usually green, and then they have very bright blue underwing feathers on their tail as well," Davis said. "And then a bright, rosey, peach face where they get the Lovebird name from."
The birds are mostly found near water sources like parks with ponds or lakes. They also like palm trees and even saguaro cacti to roost in.
When you find a Lovebird, add your observations to the iNaturalist app. It's a fun way to experience urban nature and become a real-time data collector for researchers.
"We want to know what they're eating, what kind of trees they might be nesting in or roosting in," Davis said. "We have population data, but there's lots of things we can still learn about the population here in the Valley."
If you don't have time to join the Lovebird challenge by the end of the day on August 31, don't worry, there's a new challenge every month. September's challenge kicks off on the first and features the hunt for weeds after all of the Monsoon rains hit our state.
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