Most Commonly Seen Birds In California

Birds are ranked by the percent of sites visited from Jan. 3 to Jan. 16. Ties are broken by the average group size when seen, any further ties were not broken. Data was collected at 367 count sites in California. States with less than 10 count sites were not included in rankings for each bird. 

Project FeederWatch, a citizen science project where participants collect data on birds at their feeders, was founded in Ontario by Erica Dunn and the Long Point Bird Observatory in 1976. The project partnered with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology after 10 years to scale the project across the U.S. and Canada and now has over 20,000 participants.

The data Project FeederWatch collects is used by scientists to understand trends in bird populations. If you would like to participate as a FeederWatcher you can learn more about the project here.

Read on to see which birds are most commonly seen in your state.

#1. House Finch
– Sites visited Jan. 3 to Jan. 16: 83%
– Average group size: 4.69
– States with the highest percent of sites visited
— #1. New Mexico: 96%
— #2. Utah: 95%
— #3. Alabama: 94%
— #4. Arizona: 89%
— #4. Kentucky: 89%

#2. Dark-eyed Junco
– Sites visited Jan. 3 to Jan. 16: 68%
– Average group size: 3.46
– States with the highest percent of sites visited
— #1. Rhode Island: 96%
— #2. Delaware: 95%
— #3. Washington: 94%
— #3. Oregon: 94%
— #5. Connecticut: 93%

#3. White-crowned Sparrow
– Sites visited Jan. 3 to Jan. 16: 61%
– Average group size: 3.86
– States with the highest percent of sites visited
— #1. California: 61%
— #2. Nevada: 60%
— #3. Arizona: 52%
— #4. New Mexico: 37%
— #5. Colorado: 16%

#4. Mourning Dove
– Sites visited Jan. 3 to Jan. 16: 61%
– Average group size: 3.58
– States with the highest percent of sites visited
— #1. West Virginia: 91%
— #2. New Jersey: 82%
— #3. Rhode Island: 81%
— #4. Kentucky: 80%
— #5. Tennessee: 79%

#5. Anna’s Hummingbird
– Sites visited Jan. 3 to Jan. 16: 60%
– Average group size: 1.73
– States with the highest percent of sites visited
— #1. Oregon: 71%
— #2. Washington: 67%
— #3. California: 60%
— #4. Arizona: 58%
— #5. Nevada: 20%

#6. California Towhee
– Sites visited Jan. 3 to Jan. 16: 57%
– Average group size: 1.46
– States with the highest percent of sites visited
— #1. California: 57%
— #2. Oregon: 1%

#7. Lesser Goldfinch
– Sites visited Jan. 3 to Jan. 16: 54%
– Average group size: 4.13
– States with the highest percent of sites visited
— #1. Nevada: 68%
— #2. Arizona: 57%
— #3. Utah: 55%
— #4. California: 54%
— #5. Oregon: 42%

#8. California Scrub-Jay
– Sites visited Jan. 3 to Jan. 16: 53%
– Average group size: 1.54
– States with the highest percent of sites visited
— #1. California: 53%
— #2. Oregon: 49%
— #3. Nevada: 48%
— #4. Washington: 11%

#9. Oak Titmouse
– Sites visited Jan. 3 to Jan. 16: 47%
– Average group size: 1.36
– States with the highest percent of sites visited
— #1. California: 47%
— #2. Oregon: 3%

#10. Yellow-rumped Warbler
– Sites visited Jan. 3 to Jan. 16: 41%
– Average group size: 1.51
– States with the highest percent of sites visited
— #1. Louisiana: 54%
— #2. South Carolina: 52%
— #3. Nevada: 48%
— #4. Georgia: 45%
— #5. California: 41%

#11. Chestnut-backed Chickadee
– Sites visited Jan. 3 to Jan. 16: 37%
– Average group size: 1.93
– States with the highest percent of sites visited
— #1. Washington: 64%
— #2. Oregon: 42%
— #3. California: 37%
— #4. Alaska: 3%
— #5. Montana: 2%

#12. Golden-crowned Sparrow
– Sites visited Jan. 3 to Jan. 16: 33%
– Average group size: 2.5
– States with the highest percent of sites visited
— #1. Oregon: 33%
— #1. California: 33%
— #3. Washington: 31%
— #4. Alaska: 8%
— #4. Nevada: 8%

#13. Spotted Towhee
– Sites visited Jan. 3 to Jan. 16: 30%
– Average group size: 1.39
– States with the highest percent of sites visited
— #1. Washington: 65%
— #2. New Mexico: 63%
— #3. Oregon: 56%
— #4. Utah: 42%
— #5. California: 30%

#14. White-breasted Nuthatch
– Sites visited Jan. 3 to Jan. 16: 28%
– Average group size: 1.39
– States with the highest percent of sites visited
— #1. New Hampshire: 82%
— #2. Maine: 79%
— #3. Vermont: 76%
— #4. Massachusetts: 74%
— #5. Connecticut: 73%

#15. Bewick’s Wren
– Sites visited Jan. 3 to Jan. 16: 28%
– Average group size: 1.08
– States with the highest percent of sites visited
— #1. Texas: 28%
— #1. California: 28%
— #3. Washington: 26%
— #4. Nevada: 12%
— #5. Oregon: 11%

#16. American Crow
– Sites visited Jan. 3 to Jan. 16: 26%
– Average group size: 2.26
– States with the highest percent of sites visited
— #1. Maine: 37%
— #2. Virginia: 36%
— #3. Maryland: 34%
— #4. North Carolina: 29%
— #4. West Virginia: 29%

#17. House Sparrow
– Sites visited Jan. 3 to Jan. 16: 22%
– Average group size: 3.15
– States with the highest percent of sites visited
— #1. Iowa: 89%
— #1. Illinois: 89%
— #3. South Dakota: 81%
— #3. Nebraska: 81%
— #5. Rhode Island: 78%

#18. American Robin
– Sites visited Jan. 3 to Jan. 16: 20%
– Average group size: 2.6
– States with the highest percent of sites visited
— #1. Tennessee: 47%
— #2. Delaware: 46%
— #2. Kentucky: 46%
— #4. Colorado: 39%
— #5. New Mexico: 37%

#19. Nuttall’s Woodpecker
– Sites visited Jan. 3 to Jan. 16: 20%
– Average group size: 1.16
– States with the highest percent of sites visited
— #1. California: 20%

#20. Black Phoebe
– Sites visited Jan. 3 to Jan. 16: 20%
– Average group size: 1.08
– States with the highest percent of sites visited
— #1. California: 20%
— #2. Nevada: 4%
— #3. Arizona: 1%