Birds found in the Gates Pass Area, Tucson, Arizona

Birds of the Tucson Mountains, AZ

Birds seen within about 1 mile of Camino De Oeste and Gates Pass Road, compiled by Roger Wolf, Tucson Audubon Society and Roger Carpenter. Asterisks in the lists indicate species we believe likely, but for which confirmation is needed.

Vultures, Hawks, and Falcons

Northern harrier
Cooper's hawk
Red-tailed hawk
Golden eagle
Turkey vulture
American kestrel

Gallinaceous Birds

Gambell's quail

Herons and Allies

Great blue heron
White-faced ibis

Pigeons and Doves

Mourning dove
White winged dove
Rock dove (dom. pigeon)

Cuckoos; Anis, and Roadrunners

Roadrunner

Owls

Barn owl
Western screech owl
Great horned owl
Elf owl
Ferruginous pygmy owl (Sighted on Las Lomas property in 1989, 1991 and 1992.)

Goatsuckers

Common poor-will
Lesser nighthawk

Swifts and Hummingbirds

White throated swift
Rufous hummingbird
Allen's hummingbird
Costa's hummingbird

Woodpeckers

Gilded flicker
Ladder-backed woodpecker
Gila woodpecker

Perching Birds

Ash-throated flycatcher
Gray flycatcher
Western flycatcher*
Black phoebe
Say's phoebe
Purple martin
Barn swallow
Raven (common?)
Bushtit
Verdin
House wren
Rock wren
Cactus wren
Canyon wren
Ruby crowned kinglet
Gnatcatchers, black tailed
Northern mockingbird
Curve-billed thrasher
Hermit thrush
Swainson's thrush
European starling
Phainopepla
Solitary vireo
Gray vireo
Townsend's warbler
Hermit warbler
Black-throated (green?) warbler
Lucy's warbler
MacGillivray's warbler
Yellow warbler
Wilson's warbler
Gray warbler?
Western meadowlark
Brown headed cowbird
Bronzed cowbird
Hooded oriole
Scott's oriole
Summer tanager
White-crowned sparrow
Black-throated sparrow
black-chinned sparrow
Chipping sparrow
Song sparrow
Abert's towhee
Canyon towhee
Green-tailed towhee
Black-headed grossbeak
Pyrrhuloxia
Cardinal
House finch
Lesser goldfinch
House sparrow

Passing through Gates Pass:
Some years ago, I found a mallard duck taking a migration break in a very small puddle where the road crosses Camino de Oeste Wash. When the Wildlife Museum added fish to their entry pond, it didn't take long for egrets from Pima County's Sweetwater Wetlands to notice and eat them all.

Crested caracaras were in residence in Sells by 2018, with sightings at the Wetlands. I saw a single caracara high flying over the Camino de Oeste Wash one morning on my walk. Bird populations fluctuate with the availability of food, nesting sites, plus temperature and rainfall changes. Carolyn Leigh

Current birding information for Pima County at: Tucson Audubon Society - Sweetwater Wetlands and Pima County: Birdwatching Opportunities and Protocols.

Birds of the Tucson Mountains, Arizona (GPANA.info) at https://www.GPANA.info/birds. The text is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. The photographs are copyright by the photographers with all rights reserved.

Click on the photos to view entire image.