Basin wiki · Animals
Icterus parisorum
A yellow-and-black songbird that nests in Joshua tree and yucca crowns in the warm months.
The Joshua tree page already names Scott’s orioles in the crowns. Males are lemon-yellow with a black head; they are not hooded orioles of the coast. Look in spring and early summer in yucca woodland, then they move on. Wikipedia and the park’s bird notes have the ID.
Yucca brevifolia
yucca · iconic
The basin’s namesake yucca: slow, legally protected, and tied to cold winters.
Morongo Basin +4
Yucca schidigera
yucca · fiber
Bayonet leaves, a flower stalk like a pole, and the plant people mistake for a young Joshua tree.
Morongo Basin +4
Aphelocoma californica
bird · resident
The bright blue jay of oaks, yards, and the west side of the basin. Not the same bird as the grayer Woodhouse’s jay of pinyon flats.
Morongo Basin +3