Birds of Missouri

Missouri is bigger and more varied than it gets credit for. The Missouri Birding Society had 437 species on the state list as of July 2021. North of the Missouri River the land was prairie and is now corn, with the loess hills along the western edge. South of it the Ozarks rise, a plateau of oak and hickory cut by clear, spring-fed rivers. The southeast corner, the Bootheel, is the top of the Mississippi Delta, flat and wet, with a swamp at Mingo that shows what the whole corner looked like before it was drained.

In a yard in Kansas City, Columbia or St. Louis, though, the state is cardinal, jay, robin, dove, Red-bellied Woodpecker and titmouse. Those six lead the album.

The Missouri album

These are the 100 birds people report most often in Missouri, 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 leads the album, whistling from the top of a bare tree in February before anything else has started. The Blue Jay is second, yelling from the oaks and imitating the Red-shouldered Hawk that lives in the same woods. The American Robin runs the dawn chorus from March into July, the Mourning Dove coos from the wire, and the Red-bellied Woodpecker rolls a churr from the walnut and comes to the suet all winter.

The Tufted Titmouse whistles peter, peter, peter, the Carolina Wren shouts teakettle from the woodpile, and the Downy Woodpecker whinnies from the branches above. The Eastern Bluebird sits on the fence beside its box in every county, and the Turkey Vulture, tilts over the highway on warm afternoons.

The regions, by ear

The Ozarks

Oak and hickory ridges, glades and rivers. The Ozark National Scenic Riverways on the Current and Jacks Fork has nearly 200 bird species and more than 50 confirmed nesters, and it sits on the Mississippi Flyway, so spring and fall bring migrants down the river corridors. The canebrakes along the water hold the Swainson's Warbler, a shy singer at the edge of its range and endangered in the state. In June the ridges are Wood Thrush and Summer Tanager song, Ovenbirds and Whip-poor-wills, and Bald Eagles are fairly common along the rivers in winter.

The Bootheel and Mingo

The flat, wet southeast. Mingo refuge is 21,592 acres of bottomland hardwood forest, cypress-tupelo swamp, marsh and upland woods with 279 bird species, kept for migrating waterfowl and to protect the forest that once covered the whole corner. Prothonotary Warblers sing from the cypress in summer, and the Barred Owl asks who cooks for you from the swamp after dark.

The Missouri River and the northwest

Bottomland, bluffs and big water. Loess Bluffs refuge in the northwest corner has wetland, forest and grassland habitat with more than 310 bird species, and it is known for two things: lesser snow geese in numbers that lift off the pools in the afternoon, and Bald Eagles, both surveyed weekly from fall through spring. A ten-mile auto tour runs through the marsh.

Northern prairie and farm country

Corn, hedgerows and a few prairie remnants. Eastern Meadowlarks whistle from the posts, Dickcissels buzz from the roadsides in June, and Red-winged Blackbirds fill the ditches.

Best months to listen

Snow geese move through Loess Bluffs on both migrations, fall and again in late winter and early spring. Late April through May is the songbird peak, with warblers moving up the rivers and the residents on territory. June is the Ozark month: thrushes, tanagers and Whip-poor-wills from first light and again at dusk. Fall migration runs September and October, ducks and geese into November. Winter brings eagles to the big rivers and the reservoirs, and cardinals, titmice and woodpeckers to the feeder.

Places worth the drive

• Mingo National Wildlife Refuge, near Puxico: 21,592 acres of cypress swamp and bottomland forest, 279 species, auto tour March to November.
• Loess Bluffs National Wildlife Refuge, near Mound City: snow geese and eagles from fall through spring, more than 310 species, a ten-mile auto tour.
• Ozark National Scenic Riverways, Current and Jacks Fork rivers: nearly 200 species, Swainson's Warbler in the cane, eagles in winter.
• Any Ozark river at dawn in June: thrushes, tanagers and Whip-poor-wills.

None of it is required for the album. A yard with an oak and a bluebird box hands you the first 20 cards in Warble by April.

Listen before you go

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

Canada Goose 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.

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 Missouri. Updated September 30, 2026.