Birds of Montana

Most of Montana is empty of people, which is good for listening. The Montana Bird Records Committee had 442 species on the state list as of July 2021, with 104 of them on the review list of birds seen 20 times or fewer. West of the Continental Divide the state is conifer forest, river valleys and mountain lakes, with Glacier National Park at the top. East of it the land opens into mixed-grass prairie, badlands and the Missouri River breaks, with prairie potholes in the northeast that fill with ducks and shorebirds every spring.

In a yard in Billings, Missoula or Bozeman, though, the state is robin, magpie, chickadee, flicker and raven, with Mallards and Canada Geese on the river and starlings, House Finches and House Sparrows around the buildings.

The Montana album

These are the 100 birds people report most often in Montana, 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 album, singing from the cottonwoods before dawn from March into summer and gathering in flocks along the rivers in winter. The Black-billed Magpie is second, long-tailed and black and white, chattering from the fence with no fear of anything. The Black-capped Chickadee whistles fee-bee from the spruce in February, and the Northern Flicker calls a long wick-wick-wick and drums on whatever is loudest, often the chimney cap.

The Common Raven croaks over town in every month, a sound that separates Montana from most of the East. Mallards and Canada Geese hold the river, the Red-winged Blackbird sings conk-la-ree from the first cattail, and the Red-tailed Hawk screams over the fence line.

The regions, by ear

Glacier and the northern Rockies

Cedar, spruce, subalpine meadow and rock. Glacier National Park has 279 documented bird species and 144 that nest there. The American Dipper sings from the boulders in the rivers all year, Harlequin Ducks ride the rapids, Clark's Nutcrackers rasp above the treeline, White-tailed Ptarmigan hold the alpine, and Golden Eagles are the rare, big shape over the ridges. Thrushes fill the cedar forest with song in June.

The western valleys

Missoula, the Bitterroot and the Flathead. Cottonwood river bottoms with Yellow Warblers and Western Tanagers in June, ponderosa pine on the benches, and Ospreys over the rivers.

The Centennial Valley

High, remote and wet, on the Idaho line. Red Rock Lakes refuge protects more than 53,000 acres, the largest wetland complex in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, with no paved roads. It is Trumpeter Swan country.

The Rocky Mountain Front and Freezeout Lake

Where the plains run into the mountains without warning. Freezeout Lake, between Fairfield and Choteau, is a state wildlife management area known for its waterfowl: Mallards, Gadwalls, Northern Shovelers, teal, pintails, wigeon, Canada Geese and coots, with a Wild Wings birding event every March during spring migration.

The prairie and the potholes

Mixed-grass prairie and wetlands from the Hi-Line to the Dakotas. Bowdoin refuge near Malta, 15,551 acres set aside in 1936 around an old oxbow of the Missouri, has 263 bird species: Western Meadowlarks and pintails in spring, White-faced Ibis, Eared Grebes and American Avocets nesting in summer, godwits, Tundra Swans and Sandhill Cranes in fall, and Sharp-tailed Grouse, Rough-legged Hawks and Snowy Owls in winter.

Best months to listen

March is waterfowl month on the Front. May is the songbird peak in the valleys, and June is the peak in the mountains, when the snow finally leaves the high trails and the thrushes and warblers are on territory. On the prairie, dawn in late May is meadowlark song with nothing to block it. Fall brings cranes, swans and eagles through the eastern refuges. Winter is ravens, magpies, chickadees and, out east, grouse and Snowy Owls. Start before sunrise; the wind comes up by ten.

Places worth the drive

• Glacier National Park: 279 species, dippers, Harlequin Ducks, nutcrackers and ptarmigan.
• Bowdoin National Wildlife Refuge, near Malta: 263 species on the prairie potholes, ibis and grebes in summer, grouse and Snowy Owls in winter.
• Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, Centennial Valley: 53,000 acres of high wetland, Trumpeter Swans, no pavement.
• Freezeout Lake, between Fairfield and Choteau: the March waterfowl flight on the Rocky Mountain Front.

None of it is required for the album. A cottonwood and a feeder in any Montana town hand you the first 20 cards in Warble before the snow is gone.

Listen before you go

Three of the common Montana 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.

Ring-necked Pheasant song

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Recording by dugald, CC0, via iNaturalist.

Questions people ask

Nearby albums

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