TUBAC HAWKWATCH
Enjoying the Hawks
Ron Morriss Park is located at 31 Calle Iglesia, Tubac, AZ, along the Santa Cruz River. Just park your car, pull out a chair, and enjoy! Plan to be there in the morning for best viewing, when the hawks tend to fly low. Bring a chair, hat, sunscreen, water and binoculars. There are always people at the Hawkwatch to help you spot the hawks. The Santa Cruz River, with its cottonwood-willow riparian forest, is a major migration pathway for hawks and many other birds too. A walk along the River on the adjacent Anza Trail offers excellent birding opportunities.
Swainson’s Hawk
by Seth Ausubel
Hawk Watching Through The season
Click below to see the highest seasonal counts of all 25 raptor species recorded at the Tubac HawkWatch, 2013-2025, and the 2026 count so far.
In 2024, HawkWatch International added the Tubac HawkWatch to its network of hawk watch sites. Official hawk counters provided by HawkWatch International count the hawks from February 15 to April 30. In February, Red-tailed Hawks and Turkey Vultures begin moving through Tubac. These species are common throughout most of the season, along with smaller numbers of Black Vultures. Cooper’s Hawks are local breeders, and you can watch pairs in courtship flight with their white undertail feathers spread and slow exaggerated wing beats.
Red-tailed Hawk (top) and Turkey Vulture (middle) Seth Ausubel. Black Vulture (botttom) Ned Harris.
March, especially mid-March, is the peak of the migration. Expect cold mornings and warm, sunny days. Common Black Hawks begin to arrive early in the month. Mornings in mid-March, as the sun warms the ground, you have a good chance of seeing a “lift-off” of numbers of Common Black Hawks. The birds leave their overnight roosts in the nearby cottonwood trees and fly low over the hawk watch seeking columns of rising air called “thermals”. They soar in the thermals to gain altitude and ease their migration.
Common Black Hawk (bottom) harassed by Common Raven, by Seth Ausubel.
Zone-tailed Hawks and Gray Hawks arrive in mid-March. They breed locally, and once they arrive can be seen daily. A few Golden Eagles are seen through the month. Swainson’s Hawks arrive late in March and continue in April. As the weather gets hot in April, hawk migration activity declines. However, there is a small migration of Broad-winged Hawks, rare in Arizona.
Zone-tailed Hawk by Seth Ausubel.
Other species that can be seen in small numbers through much of the season include Peregrine Falcon, Northern Harrier, Sharp-shinned Hawk, American Kestrel, Merlin, and Osprey. Arizona rarities such as Crested Caracara, White-tailed Kite, and Short-tailed Hawk occur most years. In fact, over the past several years, a dark-morph Short-tailed Hawk has stayed in the area for a few weeks in March, seen overhead numerous times. Several other rarities are possible too!
Merlin by Seth Ausubel.
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