The birds in the list below are the ones that appear most often in the official reports released by the the state and this information is a mix of the most common birds seen in Arizona during the summer and winter months as well as all through the entire year.
This mix of data will ensure that no matter what time and season of the year you go bird watching in Arizona, these are the birds that you’ll likely find at feeders, or in your backyard.
The following lists show the backyard birds that are most frequently observed at various dates of the year in Arizona.
Facts About Birds in Arizona
It is believed that the Cactus Wren is the state bird of Arizona. The bird was named in 1931, following a petition led by The General Federation of Women’s Clubs. The Cactus Wren can only be found in desert regions and constructs an intriguing football-shaped nest that has the entrance of a tunnel.
There are 561 bird species found in Arizona according to the state official reports. Some of the most prominent birds found in Arizona comprise Elegant Trogon Magnificent Hummingbirds Acorn Woodpeckers, Red Crossbill, Great Blue Heron, Greater Roadrunner Great Egret, Pyrrhuloxia, Neotropic Cormorant, Green-winged Teal Northern Harrier, Snowy Egret, Belted Kingfisher, Osprey, Great Horned Owl, Wild Turkey, Montezuma Quail, White-faced Ibis, Whiskered Screech-Owl, Hepatic Tanager Flamingo-colored Tanager, Golden Eagle, Bald Eagle, Califonia Condor and Western Tanagers.
The largest bird that lives in Arizona includes that of the California Condor, with a wingspan of as long as 8 feet (3 meters). The massive black birds have white wings with white stripes and a head that is naked.
The tiniest bird in Arizona includes that of the Calliope Hummingbird which is only around 3 inches long however they are able to travel far distances, from Canada to the southern region of Mexico.
The most frequently seen bird found in Arizona includes that of the House Finch, which is found within 46% of all recorded lists of the state’s Ebirds throughout the year.
Arizona has three national parks, six national forests as well as National wildlife refuges as well as 31 parks in the state which provide great bird watching opportunities if you’re looking to go out and enjoy watching birds in their natural habitat.
Top 10 Most Common Birds In Arizona Throughout The Year
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Top 10 Most Common Summer Birds In Arizona
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Top 10 Most Common Winter birds In Arizona
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You can also download free images for Arizona that will help you recognize and track the birds that are in your backyard.
The Top 20 Most Beautiful Backyard Birds In Arizona
- House Finch
- White-winged Dove
- Mourning Dove
- Lesser Goldfinch
- Gila Woodpecker
- White-crowned Sparrow
- Verdin
- Yellow-rumped Warbler
- Ruby-crowned Kinglet
- Brown-headed Cowbird
- Black-chinned Hummingbird
- Northern Mockingbird
- Anna’s Hummingbird
- Abert’s Towhee
- Say’s Phoebe
- Great-tailed Grackle
- Black Phoebe
- Dark-eyed Junco
- White-breasted Nuthatch
- Western Tanager.
1. House Finch
House Finch
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House Finches are red in the head and breast for males, and brown-streaked coloring for females. It was originally only found in the west but it was later adopted into the states of eastern and has performed exceptionally well, even making way for to the Purple Finch.
There are many red-colored birds in Arizona However, house Finches is the one that’s the most well-known.
House Finches can be seen in farms, parks forests, along forest edges, or backyard feeds. They are often found in large, noisy groups that are difficult to miss. They consume buds, seeds and fruits, which include thistle as well as cactus, cherries the apricots and plums, strawberry and blackberries. They also eat figs.
It is possible to attract additional House Finches your backyard feeders by using black oil sunflower seeds or Nyjer seedlings in tubes and platforms feeders.
2. White-winged Dove
White-winged Dove
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White-winged Doves are pale brown , with A black line across the cheek as well as an white stripe at the outside of the wing that is closed, that is striking in the middle of the dark wing during flight.
It is located near borders with Mexico and further into Mexico, Central America, and the West Indies. People who are located who are located to the north of this range can move south towards Mexico, Central America and the Gulf Coast or into Mexico to winterize.
White-winged Doves are found in deserts, thick woods, thorny forests, woodlands and urban areas. The diet they eat is mostly grain along with fruits and large seeds . They can be often seen foraging in the soil.
To draw more White-winged Doves in your yard, you can try sunflower as well as corn, safflower and milo on feeders for platforms. Also, try planting native berry-producing shrubs.
3. Mourning Dove
Morning Dove
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Mourning Doves are beautiful tiny-headed birds with big bodies with long tails. They’re a light brown, with black spots on the wings.
They are often seen perched on telephone wires or searching to find seeds in fields, grasslands and backyards. The mourning Doves are often located in open areas or along the edges of woodlands.
Mourning Doves can be found in the lower 48 throughout the year round, however they may migrate after breeding from the northern part of the state.
You can draw additional Mourning Doves in your yard by scattering millet across the ground or in the form of platform feeders. They also consume the seeds of black sunflower, Nyjer crack corn, peanut hearts.
4. Lesser Goldfinch
Lesser Goldfinch
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Lesser Goldfinches are tiny bright black and yellow songbirds that have large pointed wings as well as short butched tails. Females sport olive backs and appear more dull yellow beneath.
Residents living in the extreme southwest, with those in further north, breeding later migrating further south. Lesser Goldfinches can be found in large groups in open habitats such as thickets, fields with weeds, clearings for forests, parks, and even in gardens. They hunt to find seeds, including sunflower seeds, as well as fruits from coffeeberry, elderberry, and cottonwood buds willows, sycamores and alders.
It is possible to attract additional Lesser Goldfinches to your yard by planting sunflower seeds and Nyjer in tube feeders or platforms feeders.
5. Gila Woodpecker
Gila Woodpecker
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Gila Woodpeckers are barred, black and white woodpeckers from the desert. They have heads of tan, and males sport the red crown patch. They live in the deserts that are arid of the southwest U.S, Northwest Mexico, and the southern part of Baja California. They are frequently observed and heard on the cool mornings in their desert habitat typically sitting on top of a saguaro plant.
Gila Woodpeckers feed on insects as well as small invertebrates and fruits. They usually hunt in cacti and dead vegetation, and occasionally foraging in the soil for earthworms. They construct their nests in hollowed-out cavities of saguaro Cactus.
To attracr Gila Woodpeckers, try suet feeders as well as tube or platform feeders made of corn, fruit and nuts.
6. White-crowned Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
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White-crowned Sparrows are big grayish sparrows that have large tails, tiny bills, as well as striking white and black stripes on their head.
The breeders are located in Alaska and the arctic Canada before moving south to large portions in the Lower 48 as well as Mexico to winter. They may also remain for the entire the year long in a small region in to the Pacific Coast and west.
White-crowned Sparrows are often located in fields with weeds and along roadside, the edges of forests and in yards where they are foraging to find seeds of weeds and fruits like blackberries and elderberries.
It is possible to attract more White-crowned Sparrows into your backyard by scattering sunflower seeds, as well as many varieties of seeds scattered by the other bird at your feeders.
7. Verdin
Verdin
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Verdins are tiny birds of the desert with a tiny yellow head with a grayish back and a lighter underside. They have tiny chestnut patches on their shoulders as well as long tails. Verdins can be seen in desert scrubs and along steep gullies called arroyos with shrubs and trees such as acaciasand hackberry, juniper and oaks. They reside near the southern border and even into Mexico.
Their diet is comprised of insects and spiders, including wasps, caterpillars, bees and some fruits like palm fruits mesquite, hackberry and palm fruit. They can drink nectar from flowers.
To draw even more Verdins to your garden try hummingbird feeders, flowering plants and that bear native trees or other shrubs they like, such as Acacia or Juniper.
8. Yellow-rumped Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
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Yellow-rumped Warblers have gray rump with flashes of yellow on their sides, face and rump, as well as white on the wings. Females can be slightly brown and winter birds appear paler brown, with bright yellow rumps, and their sides changing to bright yellow , then gray in spring.
After breeding primarily in Canada, Yellow-rumped Warblers are seen moving in large numbers to the south of most central and southern states, including the Pacific Coast, and throughout Mexico and Central America.
They feed on insects during the summer, which includes caterpillars beetles and gnats, but also spiders. The winter months, they feast on the fruits such as the wax myrtle and bayberry.
You can lure Yellow-rumped Warblers to your garden with sunflower seeds and suet peanut butter, raisins and
9. Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Ruby Crowned Kinglet
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Ruby-crowned Kinglets are small songbirds which are olive green, and the males have a bright red crown, which is typically flat , making it difficult to spot however they’re amazing if you can.
They breed throughout Canada and in the western mountains before moving to south and southwest states as well as Mexico to winter. They are also visible on migrations in the summer when they are abundant.
Ruby-crowned Kinglets are difficult to recognize. They are swift and silent birds that move through the leaves of lower branches, shrubs and trees, looking for insects and spiders.
They visit suet feeders or platforms for sunflower seeds hulled mealworms, and peanut hearts.
10. Brown-headed Cowbird
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Brown-headed Cowbird males are brown-headed and black-bodied Blackbirds with small tails and big heads. Females are brown throughout with some streaking.
They are usually viewed as an annoyance because they destroy egg of songbirds smaller in size in order that they can lay eggs inside the nest and then let the bird nurture their chicks.
They reproduce in the west and north regions in North America before heading further south, but they remain within regions such as the Eastern and Southern states as well as the Pacific Coast.
11. Black-chinned Hummingbird
Black Chinned Hummingbird
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The Black-chinned Hummingbirds have a in a dull, metallic color on their back, and are grayish-white beneath. Males have a black throat , with thin iridescent bases, and females have a paler throat.
A black-chinned Hummingbirds breed in the eastern states before moving to the western part of Mexico in the Gulf Coast in the winter. They feed on nectar, tiny insects, and spiders and their tongues are able to consume 13-17 times a second while they are eating nectar.
They are often observed sitting on high points of fallen trees, on small branches. They often return to their preferred perch. They are found along rivers and canyons within the Southwest or among shaded oaks along the Gulf Coast.
To draw larger numbers of black-chinned Hummingbirds to your garden create nectar with sugar and water to put in Hummingbird feeders as well as native trumpet flowers that are both orange and red.
12. Northern Mockingbird
Northern Mockingbird
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Northern Mockingbirds are medium-sized songbirds with tiny head and tails that are long. They have a gray-brown colour and slightly pale on the underside as compared to the back. They also have two white wingbars which are visible in flight.
They usually appear alone or in groups and will fiercely defend their territories. A male mockingbird is able to learn up to 200 songs during its lifetime, reciting the songs of other birds and they are able to sing all throughout the day, and even through the night.
They aren’t usually seen at feeders, but do visit grassy areas. To draw more Northern Mockingbirds plant fruiting trees, or bushes like hawthorns and mulberries, and brambles for blackberries.
13. Anna’s Hummingbird
Anna Hummingbird
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“Anna’s” Hummingbirds are small birds which tend to be gray and green. The male’s throat and head are iridescent pink with a reddish hue. The female’s throat is grayish , with some red spots.
The Anna’s Hummingbirds don’t migrate as they are among the more frequent bird to be seen throughout the Pacific Coast. They display a stunning diving display during courtship, as males leap up to 130 feet in space before plunging back down to the ground, accompanied by a roar of sound coming emanating from the tail feathers.
They are often found in the vicinity of large , colorful blooms in spring, and are often seen at the feeders of hummingbirds, which can be filled with homemade hummingbird feeders, and they are likely to visit feeders throughout the year.
14. Abert’s Towhee
Abert Towhee
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Abert’s Towhees are large , grayish-brown-colored sparrows that are similar to an egret, with an rusty color under the tail. They can be found on the ground in dry habitats within dense undergrowth near rivers and desert streams in the smallest of areas in the southwest of Arizona.
Abert’s Towhees eat insects, such as beetles caterpillars, ants and grasshoppers. They also consume seeds, especially grasses during winter.
In order to attract the Abert’s Towhees your backyard, you can add the appearance of a water feature like the birdbath, and then plant native plants. They also frequent the ground feeders to collect seeds.
15. Say’s Phoebe
Says Phoebe
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Say’s Phoebes are long-tailed, slender flycatchers with brownish-gray uppers and sporting an orange stomach, gray front and a blackish tail.
The dry open desert of canyons, badlands and desert borders is the typical habitat for Say’s Phoebes. They breed in Alaska and northwestern Canada as well as northern U.S before moving southwards to the southwestern states and Mexico.
In southern states, they remain throughout the throughout the year.
They are flycatchers and their diet is mostly insects, including beetles crickets, bees and insects like flies.
They typically build their nests on buildings and are often found sitting on posts of fences as well as within buildings, or in the nest beneath an eave.
To draw more Say’s Phoebes to your garden build an enclosure for nesting or a shelf that’s attached to a structure to encourage nesting. Also, plant native plants and trees.
16. Great-tailed Grackle
Great Tailed Grackle
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Great-tailed Grackles are blackbirds that are long and slender with long, tapered tails on males. Males are iridescent black , with striking yellow eyes. Females are also long-legged , and slim but are dark brown on their rear and lighter brown under with slenderer tails that are one-third the weight of males.
They are common in the mid-west and west in urban and agricultural regions, mostly where human beings are. Great-tailed Grackles are omnivores, eating seeds, grains and fruit and insects as well as other animals like spiders, worms, beetles and slugs.
They also eat bees, slugs and snails. They also eat smaller mammals, lizards and even a few frogs, as well as nestlings and eggs.
Great-tailed Grackles are often seen striding over your lawn. They may be attracted by seeds falling from feeders over. They can also feast on sunflower seeds with black oil as well as cracked corn and millet that is fed by platform feeders or large feeders with hoppers.
17. Black Phoebe
Black Phoebe
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Black Phoebes are tiny and plump flycatchers. They have black head, back and chest with white under. They mostly live in the southwestern states of Mexico as well as Central America, but some within their northern range could relocate south following the breeding.
Black Phoebes are typically in water areas like the coast or near lakes, rivers or ponds. They are spotted perched above the ground, and wait for arthropods or insects to appear, such as grasshoppers, beetles, wasps insects, flies, bees and spiders.
In order to attract black phoebes to your garden, you can add aquatic features and native plants that attract insects. They can also make their nests under the eaves in the event that there is an area of mud for them to build their nest of.
18. Dark-eyed Junco
Dark Eye Junco
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The junco has a dark eyed look to help you identify it.
The dark-eyed Juncos are sparrows with different colors based upon the location. They tend to be slate-colored in the east, and white, black, and brown in the west.
They are found in open and partly wooded areas, typically in the ground. They are widespread throughout the continent. Many remain in residence all year in the west, and in within the Appalachian Mountains.
The breeders from Canada and Alaska move south in winter, and then to northwestern United States.
You can draw more dark-eyed Juncos to backyard feeders by offering many seeds like sunflower seeds with black oil Nyjer millet, cracked corn, millet and peanuts. Platform feeders, or scattered on the ground are ideal.
19. White-breasted Nuthatch
Red-breasted Nuthatch
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White-breasted Nuthatches are lively birds that have gray-blue markings on the back, while being white on the belly and face and have the black cap. They usually have chestnut-colored feathers on the belly area and underneath the tail.
They are often located in deciduous forests as well as parks, woodland edges and yards that have trees at feeders. They mostly eat insects, such as beetles and caterpillars, their larvae, as well as spiders.
White-breasted Nuthatches also consume the seeds as well as nuts such as hawthorns and acorns as well as sunflower seeds and, occasionally, corn crops.
They put large acorns and nuts into the tree bark, and then smash them with their bills to break them open or “hash” them to let the seeds out.
You can draw more white-breasted nuthatches to your yard by putting sunflower seeds as well as peanuts on suet feeders or tube feeders.
20. Western Tanager
Western Tanager
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Western Tanagers sport a fiery orange-red head, a yellow body and wings that are black. They are found across western states, breeding in the north before migrating to the south in winter.
They reside in open conifer forest, but remain in the canopy despite their vivid color. The red hue is likely to result from eating insects which create an ingredient that the Western Tanagers can’t produce.
You can lure Western Tanagers using dried fruit including cut oranges, other fruits that are available at bird feeders.