Birds of Arkansas

Arkansas splits along a diagonal. Northwest of it are the highlands: the Ozarks in the north, oak and hickory on limestone, and the Ouachitas in the west, long pine-covered ridges running east to west. Southeast of it is the lowland: the Delta along the Mississippi, with the biggest surviving stretch of bottomland hardwood forest on the continent, and the piney Gulf Coastal Plain. The highlands sound like Appalachia. The Delta sounds like Louisiana.

In a yard in Little Rock or Fayetteville the difference disappears. Cardinal, Carolina Wren, chickadee, titmouse, Blue Jay, Mourning Dove, robin, Red-bellied Woodpecker and a mockingbird on the mailbox: learn those and you have the first fifteen of the album by spring.

The Arkansas album

These are the 100 birds people report most often in Arkansas, ranked by how frequently they turn up. The common and uncommon ones are shown; the rare and legendary cards stay face down until you catch them in the game.

Backyard birds you will hear first

The Northern Cardinal is the first singer of the year, whistling cheer, cheer and birdy, birdy, birdy from the tallest shrub by February. The Carolina Wren is louder than anything its size should be, teakettle, teakettle from the woodpile in every month, and the Carolina Chickadee and Tufted Titmouse travel together, the chickadee with its quick four-note whistle, the titmouse with a ringing peter, peter, peter.

The Blue Jay screams and whistles, and the American Crow caws from the pecan trees. The Northern Mockingbird does everyone: it runs through borrowed phrases from the highest point around, each one repeated a few times before the next, and in April an unpaired male keeps going long after dark.

From the oaks, the Red-bellied Woodpecker gives a rolling kwirr and the Downy a soft whinny, and in winter White-throated Sparrows whistle Old Sam Peabody from the brush.

The regions, by ear

The Ozarks

Oak-hickory forest on ridges and bluffs, with clear rivers cut into the limestone. About 200 species use the Buffalo National River through the year, nearly half of them year-round, and around 100 arrive to nest in the forest in summer, when the Wood Thrush sings at dusk, the Ovenbird shouts from the leaf litter and the Eastern Whip-poor-will starts at dark. On the river itself, Great Blue Herons, Belted Kingfishers and Wood Ducks stay all year, and Bald Eagles sit in the ridge-top trees in winter.

The Ouachitas

Pine ridges west of Little Rock. Pine Warblers trill in the canopy, Brown-headed Nuthatches squeak in the crowns, the Pileated Woodpecker laughs across the hollows.

The Delta

Bottomland hardwood, cypress sloughs and rice. Cache River National Wildlife Refuge protects the largest remaining stretch of this forest anywhere, and it is the single most important wintering ground for Mallards in North America. In spring the swamps ring with Prothonotary Warblers, Barred Owls ask who cooks for you in daylight, and Red-headed Woodpeckers rattle from the dead snags.

The Gulf Coastal Plain

Pine flats and slow rivers in the south. The Chuck-will's-widow repeats its name from the forest edge on spring nights, and the swamps of Felsenthal, along the Ouachita and Saline rivers, hold herons, ducks and wood-warblers.

Best months to listen

April and May are the peak: residents singing on territory, thrushes and warblers arriving in the Ozarks, and migrants moving up the Mississippi. Summer mornings are busy until the heat. Fall migration, from late August into October, is more chip notes than songs.

Winter is the Delta's season. Mallards in the largest numbers anywhere in the flyway, pintails by the hundred thousand and Snow Geese settle into the flooded fields and timber, and Bald Eagles follow them. Back in the yard, the cardinal and the Carolina Wren never really stop.

Places worth the drive

• Buffalo National River, in the Ozarks: forest birds by ear in May and June, eagles in winter.
• Cache River National Wildlife Refuge, east of Little Rock: 70 miles of bottomland forest and sloughs, nearly 240 species, and the ducks of the Mississippi Flyway.
• Dale Bumpers White River National Wildlife Refuge, in the southeast: the biggest concentration of wintering Mallards in the flyway.
• Bald Knob National Wildlife Refuge, in White County: winter pintails in enormous numbers and Bald Eagles on the levees.
• Holla Bend National Wildlife Refuge, on the Arkansas River below Dardanelle: eagles in winter, nesting songbirds in spring.

None of it is required. A yard with oaks and a feeder fills a quarter of the album by May.

Listen before you go

Three of the common Arkansas birds, so the first songs you hear outside already ring a bell.

Canada Goose song

0:12

Recording by Chase Harris, CC0, via iNaturalist.

Mallard song

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Recording by Fionn Ó Marcaigh, CC BY 4.0, via iNaturalist.

Mourning Dove song

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Recording by Chase Harris, CC0, via iNaturalist.

Questions people ask

Nearby albums

Album data: public bird observations aggregated through GBIF, ranked by report frequency in Arkansas. Updated September 30, 2026.