Bird Watching

Join the Mesa Verde Flock!

Second Sunday Bird Walk

Registration is required: call 970-529-5037

all levels of birding experience are welcome
Maximum number of participants is 20
Program is 60 to 75 minutes and participants must commit to the full program
Pets are not allowed

June 9 - 7:00 am, Knife Edge Trail (Morefield Campground)
July 14 - 7:00 am, Point Lookout Trail (Morefield Campground)
August 11 - 7:00 am, Far View Sites
September 8 - 7:00 am, Yucca house National Monumant (meet at the Colorado Visitor Center in Cortez, CO)
October 13 - 7:30 am, Farming Terrace Trail (Cedar Tree Tower).

 

Mesa Verde National Park is home to several distinct habitats. The types of species which you will encounter depends on the habitat present. If you are an avid birder, make sure to purchase a copy of the brochure, "Checklist of the Birds." This will help you locate where species are found in the park. The listing of birds in this page will get you started as a bird watcher in Mesa Verde.

Most hiking trails within the park do not enter the deep canyons because federal law has closed the backcountry to protect the archaeological sites and natural resources. If you are visiting the park during late spring when migration and nesting are in progress, you can see many bird species at any point in the park.

Take the Petroglyph Point or Spruce Canyon Trail and look for warblers, flycatchers, woodpeckers, jays, hawks, chickadees, titmice, and other species. The Knife Edge Trail also has good birding. If you are lucky, you may see a peregrine falcon or a golden eagle soar from its nest out across the Montezuma Valley.

During the summer months, you can take any of the above-mentioned trails or walk the Soda Canyon Overlook Trail near Balcony House, or the short trail to the Park Point lookout. The Park Point area is a good place to see hawks, towhees, grouse and eagles, in addition to the many species listed above.

In the fall, you may want to take the Knife Edge Trail early in the morning to catch migrating warblers and hummingbirds feeding on the Indian Paint Brush.

If you are one of the few winter visitors, most trails are closed. But be on the lookout for chickadees, nuthatches, an occasional brown creeper, canyon wrens, woodpeckers, flickers, and jays during your Spruce Tree House tour. Turkey vultures usually arrive in late March and leave in early October, so the large black birds you see will likely be common ravens or the vivid black-billed magpie.

The riparian area of Mesa Verde is largely inaccessible within the park. To access a similar habitat, take one of the county roads west of Mancos and follow the road along the Mancos River. You will see ducks, Canada geese, great blue herons, possibly an American dipper, flocks of western and mountain bluebirds, lots of red-winged and Brewer's blackbirds, and bald and golden eagles. Depending on the season, you may also spot migrating waxwings, goldfinches, evening grosbeaks, a variety of flycatchers, both ruby and golden-crowned kinglets, four or five varieties of swallows, and other species as well.

Bird watching in Mesa Verde is not as impressive as some specialized areas, but it is an exciting and worthwhile experience. Fill out a wildlife sighting card if you see something rare or unusual. Such sightings are added to the park's resource management data file, providing a detailed permanent record that assists researchers.

 

 

Common Birds

New World Vultures (Catharitidae) Turkey Vulture Kites, Hawks, Eagles (Accipitridae) Golden Eagle Sharp-shinned Hawk Cooper’s Hawk Red-tailed Hawk Falcons and Caracaras (Falconidae) American Kestrel Grouse (Phasianidae) Wild Turkey Pigeons and Doves (Columbidae) Mourning Dove Typical Owls (Strigidae) Long-eared Owl Great Horned Owl Northern Pygmy-Owl Northern Saw-whet Owl Nightjars (Capimulgidae) Common Poorwill Swifts (Apodidae) White-throated Swift Hummingbirds (Trochilidae) Black-chinned Hummingbird Broad-tailed Hummingbird Rufous Hummingbird Woodpeckers (Picidae) Northern Flicker Hairy Woodpecker Tyrant Flycatchers (Tyrannidae) Western Kingbird Ash-throated Flycatcher Western Wood-Pewee Say’s Phoebe Gray Flycatcher Dusky Flycatcher Swallows (Hirundinidae) Violet-green Swallow Jay’s, Crows, Magpies (Corvidae) Western Scrub-Jay Pinyon Jay Steller’s Jay Clark’s Nutcracker Black-billed Magpie Common Raven

Chickadees and Titmice (Paridae) Mountain Chickadee Juniper Titmouse Bushtits (Aegithalidae) Bushtit Nuthatches (Sittidae) White-breasted Nuthatch Wrens (Troglodytidae) House Wren Bewick’s Wren Canyon Wren Rock Wren Thrushes (Turdidae) Ruby-crowned Kinglet Blue-gray Gnatcatcher Western Bluebird Townsend’s Solitaire American Robin Vireos (Verionidae) Plumbeous Vireo Wood-Warblers (Parulidae) Virginia’s Warbler Yellow-rumped Warbler Black-throated Gray Warbler Tanagers (Thraupidae) Western Tanager New World Sparrows (Emberizidae) Green-tailed Towhee Spotted Towhee Vesper Sparrow Chipping Sparrow Dark-eyed Junco Cardinals (Cardinalidae) Black-headed Grosbeak Lazuli Bunting Finches (Fringillidae) Pine Siskin Lesser Goldfinch House Finch

 

 

For a more complete list of birds at Mesa Verde National Park, check out the NPS Species List below.

 

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Species Attribute Definitions

Definitions

Occurrence

Occurrence values are defined below. One or more Occurrence Tags may be associated with each Occurrence value.

Present: Species occurs in park; current, reliable evidence available.

Probably Present: High confidence species occurs in park but current, verified evidence needed.

Unconfirmed: Species is attributed to park but evidence is weak or absent.

Not In Park: Species is not known to occur in park.

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Occurrence Tags

Adjacent: Species is known to occur in areas near to or contiguous with park boundaries.

False Report: Species was reported to occur within the park, but current evidence indicates the report was based on misidentification, a taxonomic concept no longer accepted, or other similar problem of error or interpretation.

Historical: Species' historical occurrence in park is documented. Assigned based on judgment as opposed to determination based on age of the most recent evidence.

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Abundance

Abundant:

• Animals: May be seen daily, in suitable habitat and season, and counted in relatively large numbers.
• Plants: Large number of individuals; wide ecological amplitude or occurring in habitats covering a large portion of the park.

Common:

• Animals: May be seen daily, in suitable habitat and season, but not in large numbers.
• Plants: Large numbers of individuals predictably occurring in commonly encountered habitats but not those covering a large portion of the park.

Uncommon:

• Animals: Likely to be seen monthly in appropriate habitat and season. May be locally common.
• Plants: Few to moderate numbers of individuals; occurring either sporadically in commonly encountered habitats or in uncommon habitats.

Rare:

• Animals: Present, but usually seen only a few times each year.
• Plants: Few individuals, usually restricted to small areas of rare habitat.

Occasional:

• Animals: Occurs in the park at least once every few years, varying in numbers, but not necessarily every year.
• Plants: Abundance variable from year to year (e.g., desert plants).

Unknown: Abundance unknown

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Nativeness

Native: Species naturally occurs in park or region.

Non-native: Species occurs on park lands as a result of deliberate or accidental human activities.

Unknown: Nativeness status is unknown or ambiguous.

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List Differences

The Checklist contains only those species that are designated as "present" or "probably present" in the park.

The Full List includes all the checklist species in addition to species that are unconfirmed, historically detected, or incorrectly reported as being found in the park. The full list also contains species that are "in review" because their status in the park hasn't been fully determined. Additional details about the status of each species is included in the full list.

The checklist will almost always contain fewer species than the full list.

Select a Park:

Mesa Verde National Park Yucca House National Monument

Select a Species Category (optional):

All Amphibians Birds Fish Mammals Reptiles Vascular Plants

Get Checklist Get Full List List Differences

Species attribute definitions

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Visit NPSpecies for more comprehensive information and advanced search capability. Have a suggestion or comment on this list? Let us know.