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Northern Arizona's Colorado Plateau is well known for its unrivaled beauty of canyons, mountains, pine forests, and Red Rock formations, as well as the Painted Desert and the spectacular Grand Canyon. On this one week tour, based in the cool pines of Flagstaff at an elevation of 7000 feet, we will visit these breathtaking habitats in search of high-desert and mountain specialties, many not normally encountered in southern Arizona. Within short drives of Flagstaff we'll seek birds from the southern Arizona deserts, the Rocky Mountains, and the Great Basin desert of the north. Such species as Common Black-Hawk, Olive Warbler, Red-faced Warbler, and Painted Redstart reach the northern limits of their ranges here, while some Rocky Mountain birds such as Dusky Flycatcher, Clark's Nutcracker, and MacGillivray's Warbler breed no farther south, and Gray Vireo and Pinyon Jays are found in the Transition zone.

During our five full days of birding we'll search for these species, along with Zone-tailed Hawk, Lewis's Woodpecker, Williamson's Sapsucker, American Three-toed Woodpecker, Gray and Western (Cordilleran) flycatchers, Mountain Bluebird, Green-tailed Towhee, and Black-chinned Sparrow as well as more widespread western birds. We'll explore the Red Rock area of Oak Creek Canyon and Sedona, the San Francisco Peaks, Arizona's highest mountains at 12,633 feet, and visit the stupendous Grand Canyon, as well as the Vermilion Cliffs north of Grand Canyon where we'll seek the majestic California Condor, which was returned to the wild here in 1996 and has successfully nested on nearly inaccessible ledges in northern Arizona.

While we will attempt to see all bird species encountered, we will make a concerted effort to see the local specialties of northern Arizona. Some of these are quite common and conspicuous while others may take more time or may be the purpose of a visit to a particular locale. We may change the order of the day-to-day itinerary depending on weather, wind, and visibility on the Grand Canyon day.

Select the KEY INFO tab or click here for our itinerary plus space requests, status, fees, limits, and guides for any departure.

Client comment
"This was an excellent experience! John Coons was a great guide, very patient, great at ID on bird sounds, knew the off the road sites for looking for birds. I've traveled with several other companies, and Field Guides is always among the best organized and has the most reliable information." M.K., NORTHERN ARIZONA'S CANYONS & CONDOR