Arizona Nature Guide: December 2026
December in the low desert is mild and bright — the height of the winter birding and citrus season, with the cranes at full strength and the desert pleasant under the year's clearest skies. In the high country, deep snow and aspen-bare slopes mark the depth of winter.
What to look for this week
- Thousands of sandhill cranes roost and fly out at Whitewater Draw in the Sulphur Springs Valley, the height of Arizona's winter crane spectacle.
- Yuma winter lettuce and Salt River Valley grapefruit and Arizona Sweet oranges are at their national peak.
- The Quadrantid meteor shower peaks around January 3 in a brief, sharp burst, best after midnight from a dark desert site.
- The low-desert cool-season garden thrives — harvest lettuce, broccoli, and greens while the rest of the country freezes.
Birds This Month
December is prime winter birding in Arizona, with the great sandhill crane gathering at Whitewater Draw at or near its peak — many thousands of cranes roosting in the shallow water and flying out to the surrounding fields, one of the West's finest wildlife spectacles. The reservoirs, the Salt and Colorado rivers, and desert ponds hold crowds of wintering waterfowl, and the open valleys are patrolled by Ferruginous and Red-tailed Hawks, Northern Harriers, Prairie Falcons, and Bald and Golden Eagles.
The desert washes and grasslands are full of wintering sparrows — White-crowned, Brewer's, Vesper, Sagebrush, and longspurs — and December is Christmas Bird Count season, when birders comb the desert, grasslands, and riparian corridors. The resident desert birds are conspicuous in the mild weather: Cactus Wrens, Curve-billed Thrashers, Gambel's Quail, Gila Woodpeckers, Phainopepla, and Verdin. Anna's Hummingbirds are already nesting in the depth of winter.
In the southeast, wintering hummingbirds linger at sheltered feeders, and the grasslands hold wintering raptors and sparrows. A Vermilion Flycatcher glowing on a bare riparian branch is a classic Arizona December gift.
This month's tip: time a visit to Whitewater Draw for the dawn or dusk crane flight, and join a local Christmas Bird Count to experience the full richness of the Arizona desert in winter.
What's Blooming
December is the desert's quietest bloom month, but the mild Sonoran winter never goes entirely flowerless. Chuparosa hangs its tubular red blossoms along the washes, feeding the wintering and resident hummingbirds, and brittlebush and desert marigold may carry scattered yellow on warm slopes after autumn rain. The winter-flowering aloes in low-desert gardens send up their brilliant orange and red spikes, swarming with Anna's and Costa's Hummingbirds — one of the desert garden's great winter sights.
Beneath the surface, the next bloom is already stirring. After a wet autumn, the seeds of the spring wildflowers — Mexican gold poppy, lupine, owl's clover — are germinating, and a green haze of tiny seedlings begins to spread across the desert floor, the first promise of the March bloom. The high country lies under snow with no flowers, only the dried seedheads of summer standing in the frozen meadows.
Where to look: low-desert gardens and botanical gardens are alive with blooming aloes and the hummingbirds they feed. Out on the bajadas, look down — the density of green wildflower seedlings now foretells the spring superbloom to come.
Garden This Month
December in the low desert is the inverse of a northern winter — the cool-season vegetable garden is in full, comfortable production while the rest of the country is frozen. Harvest the thriving lettuce, spinach, chard, kale, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, carrots, beets, and peas, and keep sowing cold-hardy lettuce, spinach, radishes, and greens for a continuous winter supply. The desert's reliable winter sunshine keeps everything growing steadily.
The chief task is frost protection: the desert's clear, calm winter nights can bring radiation frost to the cold valley bottoms, nipping tender vegetables and young citrus. Keep frost cloth ready, water before a predicted freeze (moist soil radiates heat), and cover young citrus on the coldest nights. Harvest the ripening citrus — grapefruit, oranges, and tangerines are at their sweet winter peak now. This is also a fine month to prune dormant deciduous fruit and to plan the bare-root planting that begins in January. In the high country, the garden sleeps under snow; the work there is planning for spring.
Zone 10a (warmest Yuma, lower Colorado River): the frost-free corner grows straight through — keep sowing greens and brassicas and harvesting the thriving winter garden. Yuma's commercial lettuce season is at its national peak, and the home garden produces freely all month.
Zone 6b (Flagstaff and the high country): the garden is dormant under snow with nothing to plant. Keep perennials and garlic mulched, prune dormant fruit on a dry day if accessible, and use the quiet midwinter to plan and order seed for the short high-country season ahead.
Zone 9b (Phoenix, Tucson, lower valleys): the cool-season garden produces through the mild winter — harvest lettuce, spinach, broccoli, carrots, and greens, and keep sowing cold-hardy lettuce, spinach, and radishes. Watch for frost: cover tender vegetables and young citrus on radiation-frost nights, water before a freeze, and harvest ripening citrus at its sweet winter peak.
What's at the Farmers Market
December markets brim with the desert's winter harvest. The cool-season vegetables are at their cold-sweetened best — lettuces, spinach, chard, kale, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, carrots, beets, and radishes — and the great desert citrus season is ramping up. Salt River Valley grapefruit, Arizona Sweet oranges, tangerines, and fragrant lemons sweeten through the month, and Yuma's winter lettuce begins its national peak.
Arizona pecans from the fall harvest and plentiful Medjool dates round out the stalls — both are traditional holiday staples here. Choose greens with crisp, unwilted leaves, citrus heavy for its size with firm skin, and plump, glossy dates and fresh pecans. Store greens dry and cold, keep citrus loose and cool, and refrigerate or freeze shelled pecans.
For selection and storage: December is one of the best months to shop an Arizona farmers market — the cool-season vegetables are sweetest and the citrus is coming into its prime. Trim root-vegetable tops before refrigerating, and stock up on dates and pecans, which keep for months in the freezer.
Night Sky This Month
December delivers Arizona's longest nights and some of its clearest, darkest skies, capped by the Geminid meteor shower — the year's best. The desert's dry winter air gives superb transparency, and the early darkness makes for easy, if cold, observing. Flagstaff and Lowell Observatory, the Grand Canyon, and southern dark-sky sites like Kitt Peak, Oracle State Park, and the Sonoran Desert parks all offer pristine winter skies; dress warmly, as desert and high-country nights turn bitterly cold.
The grand winter sky is on full display. Orion climbs the southeast with red Betelgeuse and blue Rigel, his belt pointing down to brilliant Sirius, the brightest star in the night. The great Winter Hexagon — Aldebaran, Capella, Pollux, Procyon, Sirius, and Rigel — wheels overhead, with the Pleiades cluster riding high in Taurus.
The Geminid meteor shower peaks around December 14, throwing up to a hundred or more bright, slow meteors an hour from a dark site — Arizona's clear December skies make it a spectacular show. For this year's exact peak timing, moon phase, and planet positions, see the printable Arizona night-sky guide.
Butterflies & Pollinators
Even in December, Arizona's mild low desert keeps a few butterflies on the wing on warm, sunny afternoons. The hardiest is the Gulf Fritillary, which persists in sheltered Phoenix and Tucson gardens wherever passionvine survives the cold, and late Queens may still nectar at the winter-blooming aloes and desert lavender in the warmest, most protected washes and gardens. Small sulphurs — Sleepy Orange and Dainty Sulphur — and the tiny Marine Blue and Western Pygmy-Blue fly in the sunniest spots.
Several species overwinter as adults in sheltered microhabitats and emerge to bask whenever the sun is strong: the Mourning Cloak shelters in riparian canyon bottoms and under bark, and the Question Mark and an occasional brushfoot tuck into woodpiles, rock crevices, and dense desert vegetation. These overwintering adults are the butterflies that will be first on the wing as the desert warms in late winter.
To help them: the winter-blooming aloes, desert lavender, and chuparosa feed the few butterflies and the wintering hummingbirds now — leave them standing. Keep leaf litter, brush, and rock piles undisturbed as overwintering shelter, and plant native milkweed and passionvine for the queens and fritillaries that will fly through the mild desert winter and into spring.
Trees This Month
December finds Arizona's trees in their two winter worlds. In the low desert, the riparian show is ending — the last Fremont cottonwoods and Goodding's willows along the desert rivers drop their gold, standing bare over the winter streams, while Arizona ash and the planted city trees finish their fall color. The desert's defining plants carry on unchanged: the giant saguaro stands pleated and waiting, the palo verde (the state tree) and ocotillo hold leafless but alive, and backyard citrus hangs bright with ripe fruit through the holidays.
The high country lies deep in winter. The aspens on the San Francisco Peaks and the Mogollon Rim are bare white columns, and the ponderosa pines, Douglas-firs, white firs, and Engelmann spruce stand snow-laden, the snowpack building that will feed the Salt and Verde rivers next spring. The evergreen pinyon pines and junipers of the high desert and the Grand Canyon rims hold their green against the cold. From bare desert cottonwood to snow-covered spruce, the state closes the year across its full sweep of life zones.
Go deeper with the Arizona guides
The complete Arizona birding, native-plant, wildflower, and night-sky guides — or the whole year in one bundle.
Same month elsewhere: December in Arkansas · December in California · December in Colorado