This is just a list of birds I saw in the USA between 3 May and 15 June.
If you are an American birder and think there is anything odd about this list – things I should have seen but haven’t listed or things I claim to have seen but seem very unlikely – then do get in touch either way. The list is in Sibley order and the species in bold were lifers for me.
I was told that I might see a little over 300 species on my trip but fell short of that – the amount of rain didn’t help and I may well have had an extra day’s birding if only I hadn’t spent a fair amount of time lost on the road but I am very happy with the birds I saw.
- Red-throated loon
- Common loon
- Eared Grebe
- Pied-billed grebe
- Western grebe
- Black-vented shearwater??
- American white pelican
- Brown pelican
- Great cormorant
- Double-crested cormorant
- Brandt’s cormorant
- Great blue heron
- Great egret
- Snowy egret
- Tricolored heron
- Cattle egret
- Green heron
- Black-crowned night-heron
- Yellow-crowned night-heron
- White ibis
- White-faced ibis
- Glossy ibis
- Wood stork
- Mute swan
- Trumpeter swan
- Tundra swan
- Canada goose
- Brant
- Snow Goose
- Wood duck
- Mallard
- American black duck
- Gadwall
- Northern pintail
- American wigeon
- Northern shoveler
- Cinnamon teal
- Blue-winged teal
- Green-winged teal
- Redhead
- Ring-necked duck
- Lesser scaup
- Surf scoter
- Barrow’s goldeneye
- Bufflehead
- Hooded merganser
- Common merganser
- Red-breasted merganser
- Ruddy duck
- California condor
- Turkey vulture
- Black vulture
- Northern harrier
- White-tailed kite
- Sharp-shinned hawk
- Cooper’s hawk
- Swainson’s hawk
- Red-tailed hawk
- Golden eagle
- Bald eagle
- Osprey
- Merlin
- American kestrel
- California quail
- Gambel’s quail
- Ring-necked pheasant
- Wild turkey
- American coot
- Sandhill crane
- Black-bellied plover
- Semipalmated plover
- Killdeer
- Black oystercatcher
- American oystercatcher
- American avocet
- Black-necked stilt
- Greater yellowlegs
- Lesser yellowlegs
- Solitary sandpiper
- Willet
- Spotted sandpiper
- Upland sandpiper
- Whimbrel
- Long-billed curlew
- Marbled godwit
- Ruddy turnstone
- Dunlin
- Curlew sandpiper
- Semipalmated sandpiper
- Least sandpiper
- Ruff
- Short-billed dowitcher
- American woodcock
- Common snipe
- Wilson’s phalarope
- Franklin’s gull
- Laughing gull
- Ring-billed gull
- California gull
- Herring gull
- Iceland gull
- Western gull
- Lesser black-backed gull
- Great black-backed gull
- Heermann’s gull
- Caspian tern
- Royal tern
- Elegant tern
- Common tern
- Forster’s tern
- Least tern
- Gull-billed tern
- Black tern
- Black skimmer
- Mourning dove
- White-winged dove
- Eurasian collared-dove
- Ringed turtle-dove
- Inca dove
- Rock dove
- Black-hooded parakeet
- Burrowing owl
- Eastern screech-owl
- Whip-poor-will
- Common nighthawk
- Chimney swift
- White-throated swift
- Costa’s hummingbird
- Black-chinned hummingbird
- Ruby-throated hummingbird
- Allen’s hummingbird
- Belted kingfisher
- Acorn woodpecker
- Red-headed woodpecker
- Red-bellied woodpecker
- Red-naped sapsucker
- Downy woodpecker
- Hairy woodpecker
- Ladder-backed woodpecker
- White-headed woodpecker
- Northern flicker
- Pileated woodpecker
- Olive-sided flycatcher
- Western wood-peewee
- Eastern wood-peewee
- Pacific-slope flycatcher
- Acadian flycatcher
- Black phoebe
- Eastern phoebe
- Say’s phoebe
- Ash-throated flycatcher
- Great crested flycatcher
- Eastern kingbird
- Cassin’s kingbird
- Western kingbird
- Loggerhead shrike
- Red-eyed vireo
- Warbling vireo
- White-eyed vireo
- Steller’s jay
- Blue jay
- Western scrub-jay
- Gray jay
- Pinyon jay
- Clark’s nutcracker
- Black-billed magpie
- Common raven
- American crow
- Fish crow
- Horned lark
- Purple martin
- Northern rough-winged swallow
- Bank swallow
- Violet-green swallow
- Tree swallow
- Cliff swallow
- Barn swallow
- Oak titmouse
- Tufted titmouse
- Black-capped chickadee
- Bushtit
- Red-breasted nuthatch
- White-breasted nuthatch
- Pygmy nuthatch
- Brown-headed nuthatch
- Carolina wren
- House wren
- Cactus wren
- Rock wren
- American dipper
- Ruby-crowned kinglet
- Black-tailed gnatcatcher
- Blue-gray gnatcatcher
- Townsend’s solitaire
- Mountain bluebird
- Western bluebird
- Eastern bluebird
- American robin
- Wood thrush
- Veery
- Swainson’s thrush
- Gray-cheeked thrush
- Gray catbird
- Northern mockingbird
- Brown thrasher
- European starling
- Phainopepla
- Cedar waxwing
- Northern parula
- Tennessee warbler
- Blue-winged warbler
- Nashville warbler
- Yellow warbler
- Chestnut-sided warbler
- Magnolia warbler
- Cape May warbler
- Black-throated blue warbler
- Blackburnian warbler
- Yellow-rumped warbler
- Black-throated green warbler
- Pine warbler
- Bay-breasted warbler
- Blackpoll warbler
- Prothonotary warbler
- Black-and-white warbler
- American redstart
- Ovenbird
- Northern waterthrush
- Kentucky warbler
- Connecticut warbler
- Mourning warbler
- Common yellowthroat
- Wilson’s warbler
- Canada warbler
- Hooded warbler
- Hepatic tanager
- Western tanager
- Scarlet tanager
- Northern cardinal
- Black-headed grosbeak
- Rose-breasted grosbeak
- Blue grosbeak
- Lazuli bunting
- Indigo bunting
- Spotted towhee
- Eastern towhee
- California towhee
- Black-throated sparrow
- Chipping sparrow
- Grasshopper sparrow
- Savannah sparrow
- Lark bunting
- Lark sparrow
- White-throated sparrow
- White-crowned sparrow
- Fox sparrow
- Song sparrow
- Swamp sparrow
- Dark-eyed junco
- Western meadowlark
- Eastern meadowlark
- Bobolink
- Brown-headed cowbird
- Yellow-headed blackbird
- Tricolored blackbird
- Red-winged blackbird
- Brewer’s blackbird
- Common grackle
- Boat-tailed grackle
- Great-tailed grackle
- Bullock’s oriole
- Baltimore oriole
- Hooded oriole
- Orchard oriole
- Scott’s oriole
- Black rosy-finch
- Purple finch
- Cassin’s finch
- House finch
- Pine siskin
- Lesser goldfinch
- American goldfinch
- House sparrow
A great bird list Mark, especially Californian Condor, so recently saved from exctinction. A good number of wood peckers, what about Ivory billed wood pecker do they think this might still survive? Looking forward to your nature writings now you are back?or almost back? in the UK.
Redkite.