diff --git a/pandas/__init__.py b/pandas/__init__.py
index 5dc6a8c3bc50c..7d6dd7b7c1a88 100644
--- a/pandas/__init__.py
+++ b/pandas/__init__.py
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 __docformat__ = "restructuredtext"
 
 # Let users know if they're missing any of our hard dependencies
-_hard_dependencies = ("numpy", "dateutil")
+_hard_dependencies = ("numpy", "dateutil", "tzdata")
 
 for _dependency in _hard_dependencies:
     try:
diff --git a/pandas/tests/test_downstream.py b/pandas/tests/test_downstream.py
index 6282aecdfe977..a7b1c56ff4df2 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/test_downstream.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/test_downstream.py
@@ -187,9 +187,9 @@ def test_yaml_dump(df):
     tm.assert_frame_equal(df, loaded2)
 
 
-@pytest.mark.parametrize("dependency", ["numpy", "dateutil"])
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("dependency", ["numpy", "dateutil", "tzdata"])
 def test_missing_required_dependency(monkeypatch, dependency):
-    # GH#61030
+    # GH#61030, GH61273
     original_import = __import__
     mock_error = ImportError(f"Mock error for {dependency}")