Birding

Joshua Tree National Park offers great opportunities for birding, with many resident as well as migratory species.

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Birding Details

Joshua Tree offers great opportunities for birding. The resident species, such as greater roadrunner, phainopepla, mockingbird, verdin, cactus wren, rock wren, mourning dove, Le Conte's thrasher and Gambel's quail can be seen all year. Resident birds of prey include red-tailed hawk, American kestrel, Cooper's hawk and prairie falcon. There's a variety of winter residents too, such as white-crowned sparrow, dark-eyed junco, sage sparrow, cedar waxwing, American robin and hermit thrush, which will all remain in the park into March. As the winter migratory species are departing, a new group of birds migrates into the area for spring and summer, which includes summer nesting species such as Bendire's thrasher, the ash-throated flycatcher, western kingbird, Scott's oriole, northern oriole and western bluebird. Some birds are just transient in the park, including a vibrantly colored group of warblers, such as Wilson's, black-throated gray, Nashville, Mac Gillivray's, yellow, yellow-rumped and orange-crowned. Other popular transients are black-headed grosbeaks, western tanagers, indigo buntings and lazuli buntings. Birds of prey, such as the sharp-shinned hawk, rough-legged hawk, northern harrier, osprey and Swainson's hawk also migrate through the park. The best spots to search for birds include fan-palm oases and water impoundments (known as "tanks" in local parlance). Even dry "lakes," such as Barker Dam, offer forage vegetation for birds. The Oasis of Mara, including the 29 Palms Inn at the west end, is a good viewing area as well. Cottonwood Spring has both cottonwood trees and fan palms, which provide vegetation and shelter for a number of birds. If you're up for a bit more extensive hiking, Lost Palms Oasis, 49 Palms Oasis and the riparian habitat associated with Smith Water Canyon provide good birding as well. If you're visiting the high desert areas of the park, visit Queen and Lost Horse valleys to look for birds such as ladder-backed woodpecker, red-tailed hawk, oak titmouse, bushtit, black-tailed and blue-gray gnatcatchers, black-throated sparrow and sage sparrow. Visitors with an interest in birding should stop at a visitor center and pick up a bird checklist that explains the likelihood of spotting a particular species during each season.

Difficulty

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