Birds of Colorado

The Colorado Birding Trail divides the state into three: the Eastern Plains, the Rocky Mountains and Western Colorado. The plains are grassland, prairie dog towns and reservoirs, where Western Meadowlarks, Horned Larks and Burrowing Owls belong and where the state bird sings. The mountains stack habitats by elevation, ponderosa pine, then aspen and spruce-fir, then tundra, each with its own birds. The western third is canyon country, pinyon-juniper and sagebrush, with Greater Sage-Grouse on their leks at dawn in spring.

Most people live in the strip where plains meet mountains, and a yard in Denver, Fort Collins or Colorado Springs sounds the same: robin, House Finch, flicker, magpie, Black-capped Chickadee, crow, collared-dove and, on any pond, a mallard and a Canada Goose.

The Colorado album

These are the 100 birds people report most often in Colorado, 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 American Robin leads the Colorado album and the dawn chorus, a run of clear, rising and falling phrases that starts before the sky is light from March on. The House Finch sings a long, jumbled warble from the wires, and the Northern Flicker, the red-shafted kind out here, gives a long laughing wick-wick-wick and drums on the chimney cap in spring.

The Black-billed Magpie is the noise in the cottonwoods: harsh chatter and a rising mag, mag, mag. The Black-capped Chickadee whistles its two-note fee-bee, the Eurasian Collared-Dove coos a three-note koo-KOO-kook from the roof, and Red-winged Blackbirds sing konk-la-ree from every cattail.

The regions, by ear

The Eastern Plains

Shortgrass prairie and big sky. The Western Meadowlark whistles from the fence posts, Horned Larks tinkle overhead, and from May the Lark Bunting does its flight song, rising a few yards and drifting down on stiff wings. The Pawnee National Grassland, nearly 200,000 acres in Weld County, is the classic place for it, with Mountain Plovers on the bare ground and Burrowing Owls in the prairie dog towns. Barr Lake, northeast of Denver, has recorded more than 350 species and keeps a pair of nesting Bald Eagles.

The Front Range and the foothills

Ponderosa pine and scrub oak. Steller's Jay scolds from the pines, Western Bluebirds warble from the meadows, and Rocky Mountain Arsenal, ten miles from downtown Denver, has bison, eagles and prairie songbirds along an 11-mile wildlife drive.

The high country

Rocky Mountain National Park has reported more than 270 species across aspen, spruce-fir and alpine tundra. The Mountain Chickadee whistles a hoarse fee-bee-bee, Western Tanagers sing from the firs, Clark's Nutcrackers rasp over the tree line, American Dippers sing over the creeks, and above the trees the White-tailed Ptarmigan clucks from the rocks, invisible until it moves.

The Western Slope and the San Luis Valley

Pinyon-juniper, sage and desert canyon: Pinyon Jays, sage-grouse, ravens. In the San Luis Valley, the Monte Vista refuge fills with Sandhill Cranes twice a year, around the first week of March and again in the second week of October, some 20,000 greater and several thousand lesser cranes bugling over the wetlands.

Best months to listen

Spring comes to Colorado by elevation. The plains and the cities are singing in March and April, the foothills in May, and the high country not until June, when the snow leaves the meadows and the tundra birds get a short, loud season through July. Early mornings are best everywhere; afternoon thunderstorms shut the mountains down in summer.

Fall is the crane flight through Monte Vista in October and the Lark Buntings leaving the plains. Winter is quieter but not empty: chickadees, magpies, juncos and eagles on the reservoirs.

Places worth the drive

• Pawnee National Grassland, northeast of Greeley: Lark Buntings, Mountain Plovers and Burrowing Owls in May and June.
• Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge, northeast of Denver: prairie birds, bison and eagles minutes from downtown.
• Barr Lake State Park, Brighton: more than 350 species, with the Bird Conservancy of the Rockies headquartered on its shore.
• Rocky Mountain National Park, Estes Park: ptarmigan on the tundra in summer, dippers and jays year-round.
• Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge, San Luis Valley: Sandhill Cranes in early March and mid October.

None of them is required. A Front Range yard with a feeder hands you a quarter of the album by May.

Listen before you go

Three of the common Colorado 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

0:09

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

Rock Pigeon song

0:12

Recording by Richard Littauer, CC BY 4.0, via iNaturalist.

Questions people ask

Nearby albums

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