Birds of Nebraska

The Nebraska Ornithologists' Union had 467 species on the state list as of August 2021. The east is Missouri River bottomland and hardwood forest. The middle is the Platte valley and corn. The north-central quarter of the state is the Sandhills, roughly 20,000 square miles of mixed-grass prairie on grass-covered dunes, as much as 85 percent of it still intact because most of it was never plowed, dotted with lakes fed by the Ogallala Aquifer. The Panhandle in the west is short grass, pine ridge and the edge of the Rockies.

In a yard in Omaha, Lincoln or Kearney, though, the state is robin, dove, Red-winged Blackbird, jay, cardinal and starling. Those six lead the album.

The Nebraska album

These are the 100 birds people report most often in Nebraska, 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 maple before dawn from March to August. The Mourning Dove is second, cooing from the wire. The Red-winged Blackbird is third, singing conk-la-ree from every roadside slough. The Blue Jay yells from the oaks and the Northern Cardinal whistles from the hedge from February on.

The American Goldfinch bounces overhead calling, Canada Geese hold every park pond, and the Northern Flicker calls a long wick-wick-wick from the cottonwoods and drums on the gutters in April. Common Grackles squeak from the parking lots and Downy Woodpeckers whinny at the feeder.

The regions, by ear

The Missouri River and the eastern woods

Hardwood forest, loess bluffs and floodplain. Fontenelle Forest, 1,500 acres in Bellevue just south of Omaha, has recorded 246 species including 35 warblers, and it is the only place in the state where Red-shouldered Hawks have nested and one of the few with Pileated Woodpeckers. Wood Thrushes and Prothonotary Warblers sing in the bottoms in June,.

The Platte valley

Braided river, sandbars and cornfields between Grand Island and Kearney. Every spring, from early March into early or mid April, hundreds of thousands of Sandhill Cranes stage along the river, part of a flight of up to 450,000 through the central Platte each year, and the sound at dawn is a rolling, trumpeting chorus that carries a long way across the fields. Rowe Sanctuary, 3,000 acres near Gibbon, runs riverside blinds so people can watch the birds leave the roost at first light.

The Sandhills

Grass to the horizon on old dunes, with thousands of ponds and lakes that serve as layover points for cranes, geese and ducks. Western Meadowlarks sing from every post, Sharp-tailed Grouse and pheasants live in the grass, and Crescent Lake refuge, 46,000 acres near Ellsworth set aside in 1931 in the largest continuous dune field in the country, has Burrowing Owls on the uplands and waterfowl on the wet meadows.

The Panhandle

Short grass, buttes and ponderosa pine on the Pine Ridge. Western birds start here: magpies, Lark Buntings flashing black and white over the grass in June, and Golden Eagles along the escarpments.

Best months to listen

March is the month: cranes on the Platte from early March to mid April, and snow geese and ducks moving north at the same time. May is the songbird peak in the eastern woods and along the river. June is meadowlark, grouse and bunting season on the prairie, best at dawn before the wind. Fall is ducks and geese down the Missouri. Winter brings eagles to the open water below the dams, and juncos and woodpeckers to the feeder.

Places worth the drive

• Rowe Sanctuary, Gibbon: crane blinds on the Platte, early March to mid April.
• Fontenelle Forest, Bellevue: 246 species and 35 warblers on 1,500 acres of Missouri River forest.
• Crescent Lake National Wildlife Refuge, near Ellsworth: 46,000 acres of Sandhills prairie and marsh, Burrowing Owls.
• DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge, on the Missouri River north of Omaha: 8,365 acres around an oxbow lake, migrating waterfowl in spring and fall, eagles gathering in winter.

None of it is required for the album. A yard with a cottonwood and a feeder hands you the first 20 cards in Warble by April.

Listen before you go

Three of the common Nebraska 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 Nebraska. Updated September 30, 2026.