2025 Grand Canyon Christmas Bird Count Results

Because of its wide variety of ecosystems, Grand Canyon National Park is home to an incredible diversity of bird life. Nearly 450 species, including the critically endangered California Condor, live in or migrate through the park.

The 2025 Grand Canyon Christmas Bird Count took place on Sunday, December 21.

It was a quiet but pleasant day in the field for most groups, and we managed to put together a good total number of species. Counts for many species were quite low, but there were some highlights and surprises. Our species total was 45 for the day and 47 including the week (long term averages since restarting the count are 48 and 54).

The biggest surprises were a Great Blue Heron at Phantom Ranch, a Red-breasted Sapsucker in the South Rim residential area, and a Western Meadowlark on the dirt roads south and east of Tusayan. The heron was the 2nd ever, and the sapsucker and meadowlark were the 3rd ever recorded on the count. While the sapsuckers have all been seen in the last few years, the meadowlark was the first since 1976, and the heron the first since 1982. Greater Roadrunners are always a fun surprise, and while we missed them on count day, there were a couple seen during the week, both on the rim and in the canyon.

Despite the warm weather and minimal snow, overall numbers for most species were pretty low, possibly because we've had such a dry year. Canyon Wren and Rock Wren numbers in the canyon have been very low for several years and remained so this year. Dark-eyed Juncos (186) and Steller's Jays (5) were also particularly low.

We did have a few species show up in high numbers. We set the high count for Common Ravens with 463 (previous high count 433), highlighted by a flock of 190 seen circling distantly. A couple other species had the second highest total ever recorded: Acorn Woodpecker (7, high count 8), Townsend's Solitaire (9, high count 34), and American Robin (80, high count 84).

 

2025 Christmas Bird Count Totals

Bird species that were observed and counted during the 2025 Grand Canyon Christmas Bird Count. Column one lists the names of the bird species observed. Column two lists the number of individuals counted for each species.

Bird species	Number counted

Common Merganser	1
Great Blue Heron	1
California Condor	1
Bald Eagle	1
Sharp-shinned Hawk	1
Red-tailed Hawk	6
Eurasian Collared-Dove	13
Greater Roadrunner	count week
Williamson's Sapsucker	2
Red-naped Sapsucker	2
Red-breasted Sapsucker	1
Acorn Woodpecker	7
Downy Woodpecker	2
Hairy Woodpecker	10
Northern Flicker	20
Say's Phoebe	1
Woodhouse's Scrub Jay	16
Steller's Jay	5
Pinyon Jay	145
American Crow	7
Common Raven	463
Mountain Chickadee	54
Juniper Titmouse	14
Bushtit	64
White-breasted Nuthatch	41
Pygmy Nuthatch	133
Red-breasted Nuthatch	1
Brown Creeper	1
Rock Wren	5
Canyon Wren	1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	12
American Dipper	2
Townsend's Solitaire	9
American Robin	80
Western Bluebird	69
Mountain Bluebird	1
European Starling	1
Rufous-crowned Sparrow	1
Dark-eyed Junco	186
Spotted Towhee	3
Western Meadowlark	1
Lesser Goldfinch	count week
Pine Siskin	1
House Finch	8
House Sparrow	16

 

Bird Checklists

The NPSpecies website documents our knowledge about the occurrence and status of species on National Park Service lands. Here you can view, print, or download a checklist —or a more detailed species list for Grand Canyon National Park.

Copies of the 3rd edition annotated checklist Birds of the Grand Canyon Region by Brian P. Gatlin, published by Grand Canyon Conservancy, is available through their online store, and stores within the park.

If you see an unusual bird please email the author, Brian Gatlin, with the following information:

• Date & Time
• Location of observation (as precise as possible)
• Species identification
• Your name and contact information as well as any others who concurred with your identification
• A photo if available.

We also highly encourage the use of e-Bird to document your birding experiences!

Birds of Grand Canyon — index page on the park's website