Accipiter cooperii

Length: 14-19"
Wing-span: 27-36"
Diet: Lizards, Rodents or other small animals

The Cooper's Hawk  is a medium-sized raptor closely related to sharp-shinned hawks and northern goshawks.  Adult birds have short, broad wings and long tails for navigating through woodlands and thickets.  The back is bluish-gray on adult males and more brownish-gray on adult females.  The large, square-shaped head has a dark cap and lighter nape (back of the head).  

Buteo jamaicensis

Length: 22"
Wing-span: 56"
Diet: Small Rodents, Snakes

The red-tail is one of the the largest hawks, usually weighing between two and four pounds. As with most raptors, the female is nearly a third larger than the male and may have a wing span of 56 inches. This species shows a great deal of individual variation in plumage.

Callipepla gambelii

Length: 10"
Wing-span: 14"
Diet: Seeds, leaves, insects
 

This quail is plump, short-tailed, and has grayish plumage. Both adult males and females have the prominenet tear-drop shaped head plume or double plume. Males give a repeated nasal pup waay pop with a short clipped final note call.

Amphizspiza bilineata

Length: 19"
Wing-span: 49"
Diet:  Insects, Fish, Earthworms, Grain, Rodents, and Refuse
 

The head, neck and underparts are white; the relatively short bill is yellow with a dark ring; the back and wings are silver gray; and the legs are yellow. The eyes are yellow with red rims. This gull takes three years to reach its breeding plumage; its appearance changes with each fall moult.

Streptopelia decaocto

Length: 12"
Wing-span: 14"
Diet: Seeds and Cereal Grains

Their color ranges from a light brown to a gray-buff. There are white patches on the tail, and there is a thin band of black crescent on the back of the neck, which looks like a collar, giving it its name.

Zenaida asiatica

Length: 12"
Wing-span: 19"
Diet: Seeds, Fruit, Insects

White-winged doves are grayish-brown with a white wing-patch visible as a narrow stripe along the lower edge of a folded wing. In flight, the white appears as a stripe on the upper side of the wing. The underside of the tail is white-tipped below a black stripe.

Zenaida macroura

Length: 10-13"
Wing-span: 14"
Diet: Insects and spiders

Mourning doves are light grey and brown and generally muted in color. Males and females are similar in appearance. The species is generally monogamous, with two squabs (young) per brood. Both parents incubate and care for the young. Mourning doves eat almost exclusively seeds, but the young are fed crop milk by their parents.

Calypte anna

Length: 3.9"
Wing-span: 4.7"
Diet: Seeds, Nectar from various flowers

Anna's hummingbirds are now the most commonly seen hummingbird in gardens and at backyard feeders in Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona. Prior to the 1960's they were mostly a temporary resident during the winter months - the remainder of the year their permanent home was coastal Southern California. The popularity of feeders no doubt has played a role in this population shift.  Tiny among birds, Anna’s are medium-sized and stocky for a hummingbird. They have a straight, shortish bill and a fairly broad tail. When perched, the tail extends beyond the wingtips.

Selasphorus platycercus

Length: 4"
Wing-span: 5.2"
Diet: Mostly Nectar and Insects

Broad-tailed Hummingbirds, though tiny, are medium-sized for a North American hummingbird. They have a slender body, a big head, and a long straight bill. Its tail is relatively long for a hummingbird, extending beyond the wingtips when perched.

Melanerpes formicivorusz
 

Length: 7.5"
Wing-span: 13.8"
Diet: Acorns and other Nuts and Seeds

Acorn Woodpeckers are medium-sized woodpeckers with straight, spike-like bills and stiff, wedge-shaped tails used for support as the birds cling to tree trunks.  These striking birds are mostly black above with a red cap, creamy white face, and black patch around the bill. In flight, they show three patches of white: one in each wing and one on the rump. Females have less red on the crown than males.

Dryobates villosus

Length: 7.1"
Wing-span: 14.2"
Diet: Beetles, Spiders, Moth Larvae, and Ants, as well as Fruits, Seeds, and Nut

The hairy woodpecker is named for the long, hair-like white feathers on its back. The hairy looks like a super-sized version of a downy woodpecker, but the best way to tell these two similar species apart is to compare the length of the bill to the length (front-to-back) of the head. The hairy’s bill is always longer than the width of its head, and the downy’s bill is always shorter than the length of its head. 

Colaptes auratus

Length: 11-14"
Wing-span: 17-21"
Diet: Insects, Seeds, Nuts 

Flickers are substantial woodpeckers with strong chisel-beaks which they use to excavate nest cavities and to extract insect prey. Among their most important prey are ants, especially carpenter ants. Carpenter Ants (Camponotas sp.) are large and frequently form large colonies in rotting tree trunks/logs.

Colaptes chrysoides

Length: 11"
Wing-span: 18.9"
Diet: Insects, fruits, seeds

The gilded flicker most frequently builds its nest hole in a majestic saguaro cactus, excavating a nest hole nearer the top than the ground. The cactus defends itself against water loss into the cavity of the nesting hole by secreting sap that hardens into a waterproof structure that is known as a saguaro boot.

Contopus sordidulus

Length: 5.5"
Wing-span: 10.2"
Diet: Mostly Flying Insects

Some characteristics to notice: There is no eye ring. Wing bars are present, but faint. The lower mandible of the bill is light/orange color. The head, chest and belly are almost uniform pale gray. The bird is small, about the size of a house finch. But notice the slender bill adapted for eating soft-bodied insects.

Contopus pertinax

Length: 8"
Wing-span: 13"
Diet: Flying Insects

In mountain forests of Arizona (and locally in western New Mexico), this chunky flycatcher is fairly common in summer. It is often seen perched on a dead twig high in a pine, watching for flying insects. In color and markings, the Greater Pewee is as plain as a bird can be; but it has a beautifully clear, whistled song, ho-say, ma-re-ah, giving rise to its Mexican nickname of "Jose Maria."1

Empidonax occidentalis

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Length: 5.75"
Wing-span: 11" 
Diet: Insects, Seeds and Berries

Small flycatcher with olive-brown upper-parts, yellow throat and belly separated by olive-gray breast, elongated white eye-ring, and pale wing-bars. Black bill is long and wide, and lower mandible is bright yellow. Weak fluttering flight with shallow wing beats.

Sayornis saya

Length: 7.5"
Wing-span: 13"
Diet: Insects

This slender, long-tailed flycatcher appears to have a large head for a bird of its size. They are a pale brownish color on their back with a cinnamon belly, a blackish tail and a gray breast. Their call is a low, plaintive, whistled pdeer or tueee. Their song is a series of relatively low, whistled phrases pidiweew and pidireep.

Pyrocephalus rubinus

Length: 6"
Wing-span: 9.5"

Diet: Insects

One of the most striking birds inhabiting riparian zones in the Sonoran Desert is the Vermillion Flycatcher. They perch usually on a branch that is a few meters off the ground that gives a good view of the area. From this vantage point the bird sallies out to capture flying insects on the wing then abruptly returns to the perch.

Myiarchus tuberculifer

Length: 5.75"
Wing-span: 9.5"
Diet: Insects

The dusky-capped flycatcher is best separated from other confusingly similar Myiarchus species by its smaller size, blackish head, and its call, a sorrowful, descending, whistled peeur or wheeeeeu.  This bird reaches its northern limits in Arizona and New Mexico, where it is common in summer in canyons and pine-oak forest. There are places in the lower canyons of Arizona where it can be found side by side with two close relatives in the crested flycatcher group, the Ash-throated and Brown-crested flycatchers.

Myiarchus cinerascens

Length: 8.5"
Wing-span: 11.8"
Diet: Insects

Males and females are similar in plumage.  Overall a dull grayish/brown color, with a slight yellow wash on the lower belly.  Wings and tail have a hint of Rufous, particularly noticeable in flight.  At times appears to have a slight crest, but not always visible.  Usually seen in Scrub-oak, pinyon-juniper, into transition zone where Ponderosa Pines and oaks come together.

Tyrannus verticalis

Length: 8"
Wing-span: 15.5"
Diet:  Insects and Berries

Adults are grey-olive on the upper-parts with a grey head and a dark line through the eyes; the underparts are light becoming light orange-yellow on the lower breast and belly. They have a long black tail with white outer feathers. Western kingbirds also have a reddish crown that they only display during courtship and confrontations with other species.

Aeronautes saxatalis

Length: 4.75"
Wing-span: 7.5"
Diet: Insects

The Bell's Vireo has short, rounded wings, which makes the tail look long. The bill is short, straight, and slightly compressed at the base. Male and female Bell’s vireos are the same in plumage color throughout the year. This plumage color varies from generally drab gray to green above, white to yellow below, with an unstreaked breast.  The Bell’s vireo has a faint white eye ring. There are two pale wing bars, with the lower bar more prominent. The plumage of juveniles resembles that of adults in worn summer plumage—essentially white and gray, but whiter below with more distinct wing bars.