Wildlife | Private Nature Suite

Wildlife of Northern Arizona

https://www.azgfd.com/wildlife/viewing/wheretogo/north/

https://www.coconino.az.gov/1978/Watchable-Wildlife

Mule Deer: One of the most common to Northern Arizona, you can see them along road and a heard sometimes stays around Buffalo Park (4 minutes away)

Elk
Before European settlers migrated to North America, there were an estimated 10 million elk spread through every part of the continent. They are the second largest animal in the deer family with the moose being the largest. They live to about 14 to 16 years. Elk prefer forested areas around 7,000 to about 10,000 elevations in the summer. When you drive through forested country, always be on the lookout for elk. Every year there are incidents of elk leaping onto roads and freeways. At 800 to 1,200 pounds, those type of accidents can cause serious damage.

Black Bear

The American Black Bear is the most common bear in North America and is also the smallest. It is the only species of bear still found in Arizona. Black bears are solitary animals except in family groups of mother and cubs, breeding pairs or when they congregate at feeding sites. They are shy, curious, and very intelligent. The black bear's diet is mostly berries, cactus fruit, roots, insects, and sometimes livestock. They also seem to like whatever campers eat because they often raid food items at campsites.

Coyotes are a successful species that figure into the history, folklore, and present-day culture of the American West. They are smaller than wolves, but larger than dogs running about 50 lbs. Most of Arizona's coyotes sport the telltale yellow desert coats.They are known for their considerable agility and speed-which may reach up to forty miles per hour.

Gunnison Prairie Dog
Gunnison’s prairie dogs have declined by over 90% across their range, due to historic and current poisoning and shooting, sylvatic plague, and habitat destruction. Prairie dogs are keystone species, which play an especially important role in their ecosystems by creating habitat and providing a prey base for a wide variety of predatorsGunnison’s prairie dogs also have a highly complex communication system – the most sophisticated yet documented among non-human animals.

Bald Eagle

Stellar Jay

Part of the Corvid class, the Stellar Jays are a great part of living in Northern Ariziona as we have a good population of them. We have one that comes to the front yard for peanuts and while they don't have the prettiest call they are a beautiful bird.

Flammulated Owls are the smallest owls in Arizona, only ranging from 5.9 to 6.7 inches long. They have dark vertical lines on gray, brown, red, and white bodies, effectively blending into the bark of a tree. They have small ear tufts and large, dark eyes. Flammulated Owls can make hoots that sound like larger owls.

Flammulated Owls hunt insects at night at the top of pine trees. Flammulated Owls migrate to Mexico for the winter and come back to Arizona during the spring and stay within the various forested regions.

Ravens and CrowsPart of the Corvid family, these birds get a bad rap on TV and movies and some people consider them a pest. Researchers say these birds are as inteligent as a human 7 yr old child. They can learn faces and will even teach their young who has been nice or mean to them. The Raven is much larger than crows, they can also glide while flying and often are seen walking where as the crows will hop and must alway flap when flying. The Raven can also speak and has a wide range of clicks and throughty noises whereas the crow makes the more familiar caw. We leave peanuts out for birds and you may see various Corvids visiting the main house wall out front.https://bit.ly/3CRajQW

House Sparrow

We have a pair that have begun visiting our rocket bird feeder. You can hear these birds song in the trees around the house, especially around spring time.

Racoon

While they have cute faces, they are unfortunately deadly to chickens. For whatever reason they will kill chickens if they find them. We haven't seen them in our neighborhood but we have had friends lose chickens to raccoons, who don't live too far away. This is why we keep the motion lights out.

Great Blue Heron

You can almost miss seeing these birds if you aren't looking because they are so tall and skinny and they stand really still. We have seen them around Lake Mary and other lakes, as well as Oak Creek and Blue Ridge Reservoir.

Javelina also called a collared peccary, are medium-sized animals that look similar to a wild boar. They have mainly short coarse salt and pepper colored hair, short legs, and a pig-like nose. They have long, sharp canines which stick out from their jaws about an inch. Javelina live in large family groups. The average group size is 10 or less. They can be found in Flagstaff but larger populations are in Oak Creek and the Sedona region.

Just about everywhere on the planet has them! Flagstaff is lucky in that the colder climate means it's rare to have problems with some of the bigger city pests. The bugs you may see are butterflies, spiders, Pinacate beetles, and flies, and there are mosquitos seasonally after the rains/monsoon season. *Note: If you plan on playing disc golf by the Jay Lively Ice Rink, be sure to use bug repellent (provided) as the mosquitos can be bad after monsoons. At the house/suite, we have seen a few, but not as bad as other areas. We use natural deterrents as the harder poisons are dangerous to pets and plants. We provide the suite with a fly swatter and hand-held vacuum if needed to clear a pest away.

Cotton Tail Rabbit
Though you won't find as many near Flagstaff, you can find them around Walnut Canyon and toward the Grand Canyon and the painted desert.

Horned Toad
You can see them on Mount Elden trails and throughout the Forests and regions of northern Arizona. There used to be larger numbers of them, but they eat ants, and when people use pesticides to eliminate ants...it has hurt their numbers.

Rare to only some northern regions, the Albert Squirrel is commonly seen around Flagstaff. You can spot them by their long tufted ears.