Birds of Minnesota

Minnesota sounds different depending on which corner you stand in. The Minnesota Ornithologists' Union Records Committee had 446 species on the state list as of October 2020. The northeast is spruce, pine and more than a thousand lakes, with loons, eagles and ravens. The center is oak, maple and farm, where the Twin Cities sit on the Mississippi at the core of one of the continent's great flyways. The west and south were tallgrass prairie and are mostly corn now, with meadowlarks and Bobolinks left along the fence lines.

For most Minnesotans, though, the state is a yard in the suburbs and a lake cabin, and that means chickadee, crow, robin, jay, Downy Woodpecker and goldfinch at home, and a loon calling from the water after dark.

The Minnesota album

These are the 100 birds people report most often in Minnesota, 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 Black-capped Chickadee leads the album, whistling fee-bee from the feeder in February when nothing else is singing, and adding extra dee notes to its call when a hawk goes over. The American Crow is second, which tells you something about Minnesota winters: it is loud, present in every month and hard to miss. The American Robin takes over the dawn chorus from March, and the Blue Jay yells from the oaks.

The Downy Woodpecker whinnies and taps at the suet, the White-breasted Nuthatch honks down the trunk, and the American Goldfinch bounces overhead. The Northern Cardinal whistles from the spruce in every month and sits in the top ten. Canada Geese and Mallards hold every pond, and the Red-winged Blackbird sings conk-la-ree from the cattails as soon as the ice goes out.

The regions, by ear

The Arrowhead and the Boundary Waters

Spruce, fir and granite. The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness is 1,090,000 acres along the Canadian border with more than 1,100 lakes, and the American Bird Conservancy lists it as a globally important bird habitat. Loons on every lake, Bald Eagles, Peregrine Falcons on the cliffs, Ruffed Grouse drumming in the aspen, and ravens croaking over the portages.

Duluth and the North Shore

Lake Superior is a wall for southbound hawks, and they follow its shore to Hawk Ridge above Duluth every fall. The reserve was set up in 1972 on 135 acres with 200 more added later, and it draws 20,000 birdwatchers a year.

The Twin Cities and the river

The Mississippi runs through Minneapolis and Saint Paul, and the river corridor carries migrants through the metro twice a year. Wood Ducks, Bald Eagles, orioles and warblers in the floodplain woods, with all the backyard birds in the neighborhoods above.

Northwest and the aspen parkland

The transition between the boreal forest and the prairie. Agassiz refuge, 61,500 acres set aside in 1937, has 300 bird species with about half of them nesting, a colony of Franklin's Gulls, moose and two packs of wolves. Tamarac refuge to the south, established in 1938, has 250 species and more than 50 nesting pairs of Trumpeter Swans, part of a state population of about 17,000.

Prairie and farm country

The west and south. Western Meadowlarks flute from the posts, Bobolinks tumble over hayfields in June, and Red-winged Blackbirds fill the ditches.

Best months to listen

May is the peak, when the ice is gone, the warblers are moving up the river and the residents are singing for territory. June is the loon month: yodels and wails on the northern lakes, best from a dock at dusk. September is hawk season at Duluth. October and November bring ducks, swans and geese through the western refuges. Winter is chickadees, nuthatches and woodpeckers at the feeder, crows and ravens over the snow, and, in some years, owls down from Canada. Stay up late for the loons.

Places worth the drive

• Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, northeast: 1,090,000 acres and 1,100 lakes, loons, eagles and Peregrine Falcons.
• Hawk Ridge, Duluth: the fall raptor flight along Lake Superior, September and October.
• Agassiz National Wildlife Refuge, northwest: 61,500 acres of marsh and bog, 300 species, Franklin's Gulls and nesting waterfowl.
• Tamarac National Wildlife Refuge, near Detroit Lakes: 250 species, Trumpeter Swans and loons where three forests meet.

None of it is required. A feeder in Bloomington hands you the first 20 cards in Warble by the time the snow is gone.

Listen before you go

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

Canada Goose song

0:12

Recording by Chase Harris, CC0, via iNaturalist.

Wood Duck song

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Recording by Chase Harris, CC0, via iNaturalist.

Mallard song

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

Questions people ask

Nearby albums

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