Grand Canyon Bird Checklists

Results of the 2025 Christmas Bird Count at Grand Canyon

 

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Species Attribute Definitions

Definitions

Occurrence

Occurrence values are defined below. One or more Occurrence Tags may be associated with each Occurrence value.

Present: Species occurs in park; current, reliable evidence available.

Probably Present: High confidence species occurs in park but current, verified evidence needed.

Unconfirmed: Species is attributed to park but evidence is weak or absent.

Not In Park: Species is not known to occur in park.

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Occurrence Tags

Adjacent: Species is known to occur in areas near to or contiguous with park boundaries.

False Report: Species was reported to occur within the park, but current evidence indicates the report was based on misidentification, a taxonomic concept no longer accepted, or other similar problem of error or interpretation.

Historical: Species' historical occurrence in park is documented. Assigned based on judgment as opposed to determination based on age of the most recent evidence.

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Abundance

Abundant:

• Animals: May be seen daily, in suitable habitat and season, and counted in relatively large numbers.
• Plants: Large number of individuals; wide ecological amplitude or occurring in habitats covering a large portion of the park.

Common:

• Animals: May be seen daily, in suitable habitat and season, but not in large numbers.
• Plants: Large numbers of individuals predictably occurring in commonly encountered habitats but not those covering a large portion of the park.

Uncommon:

• Animals: Likely to be seen monthly in appropriate habitat and season. May be locally common.
• Plants: Few to moderate numbers of individuals; occurring either sporadically in commonly encountered habitats or in uncommon habitats.

Rare:

• Animals: Present, but usually seen only a few times each year.
• Plants: Few individuals, usually restricted to small areas of rare habitat.

Occasional:

• Animals: Occurs in the park at least once every few years, varying in numbers, but not necessarily every year.
• Plants: Abundance variable from year to year (e.g., desert plants).

Unknown: Abundance unknown

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Nativeness

Native: Species naturally occurs in park or region.

Non-native: Species occurs on park lands as a result of deliberate or accidental human activities.

Unknown: Nativeness status is unknown or ambiguous.

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List Differences

The Checklist contains only those species that are designated as "present" or "probably present" in the park.

The Full List includes all the checklist species in addition to species that are unconfirmed, historically detected, or incorrectly reported as being found in the park. The full list also contains species that are "in review" because their status in the park hasn't been fully determined. Additional details about the status of each species is included in the full list.

The checklist will almost always contain fewer species than the full list.

Select a Park:

Grand Canyon National Park

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Species attribute definitions

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Visit NPSpecies for more comprehensive information and advanced search capability. Have a suggestion or comment on this list? Let us know.

 

You can print out an electronic checklist above or you can obtain a published copy of the 3rd edition annotated checklist Birds of the Grand Canyon Region by Brian P. Gatlin, which is published by the Grand Canyon Conservancy and 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!

 

Results of the 2025 Christmas Bird Count

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, Dec 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

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