The Zone-tail Ranch is a 320 acre (half of a section; one mile long and half a mile wide) piece of beautiful desert near the crest of the Aquarius Mountains, Arizona, at an elevation of about 5000 feet. It is located east of Kingman (east of US-93) and south of I-40.

The land is rocky canyon country with cliffs, seasonal streams, and perennial springs. The Zone-tail Ranch is just above the level of the cliffs where the land starts to flatten out, and includes one major mountain top and one major canyon. Vegetation is dominated by juniper with some pinyon, oak, cactus, yucca, and a diverse collection of shrubs and annual plants. It is transitional between the pinyon-juniper highland and the Sonoran Desert lowlands. Perennial vegetation probably covers no more than 20% of the ground.

On our first visit to the property, we saw Zone-tailed Hawks. Zone-tails look and fly like Turkey Vultures, and ground squirrels don't hide when they fly over because vultures are no threat - but by then it is too late. Over the years we have looked at a lot of Turkey Vultures hoping to see Zone-tails, so it was exciting to finally see them.

We have birded for years, and every time we visit the ranch, we record the birds we see. The following is the list of species that should occur in the area, and those that have a date are species we have seen there since August 1995.

Season of occurrence is defined merely as Summer (S), Winter (W), and Resident (R), those who should breed on the ranch are marked with an asterisk (*).