Resources and Opportunities : Birdwatching

What is Arizona's most lucrative tourist activity? According to Joe Yarkin, Watchable Wildlife Manager for Arizona Department of Game and Fish, it's birdwatching. Every year more than 350,000 people spend over $1 billion to travel to Arizona to see birds. While most of this tourism dollar goes to southern Arizona, the state's most famous bird, the California condor, can only be seen in northern Arizona, most reliably at Grand Canyon National Park.

Birdwatchers visiting Grand Canyon seeking to learn more about regional hot spots are disappointed to discover that there is no local birdfinding guide for northern Arizona for sale at the park, nor are there local services that cater to their hobby. Yet this is rich country for birds, where hundreds of miles of pine-clad rim country roll away to dusty tablelands and pinyon-juniper mesas. All six of North America's vegetation zones are within an hour's drive of Grand Canyon Village, from the boreal zones of Flagstaff's San Francisco Peaks to the painted deserts and stark landscapes bordering the Colorado River at Lees Ferry.

Birding the Flagstaff Area by Frank and Linda Brandt describes the best birding spots from Flagstaff to the south rim of Grand Canyon including the millions of acres of geographically connected lands comprising the Navajo and Hopi nations. The book is available in Flagstaff bookstores. To order the book online, please visit the Northern Arizona Audubon Society Web site.

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