Birds of New Hampshire

The New Hampshire Rare Bird Committee and New Hampshire Audubon had 425 species on the state list as of February 2021. That is a big number for a state this size, and the reasons are a seacoast with Great Bay behind it, and mountains and lakes to the north that pull in birds that belong to Canada.

Most people live in the southern third, from Nashua and Manchester up to Concord and over to the coast, in towns with big oaks and a feeder on the deck. That is chickadee, jay, titmouse and nuthatch country.

The New Hampshire album

These are the 100 birds people report most often in New Hampshire, 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 and is the first bird most New Hampshire kids learn: chick-a-dee-dee-dee at the feeder all winter, and a clear whistled fee-bee that starts in late January when nothing else is singing. The Blue Jay is second, screaming from the oaks and doing a passable Red-tailed Hawk, and the American Crow is third, present in every month and loud about it.

The Tufted Titmouse whistles peter, peter, peter from March on, the White-breasted Nuthatch honks down the trunk, and the Downy Woodpecker whinnies at the suet. The American Goldfinch bounces overhead all year and the Northern Cardinal whistles from the hedges in every month. The Dark-eyed Junco is the winter bird under the feeder, and the Song Sparrow takes over the roadside brush in April.

The regions, by ear

The Seacoast and Great Bay

A few miles of Atlantic shore and, behind it, the tidal estuary of Great Bay. Great Bay National Wildlife Refuge in Newington, established in 1992, holds more than 1,000 acres of mud flats, marsh, swamp, ponds, woods and fields on one of the longest undeveloped stretches of the bay, and it has the state's biggest concentration of wintering Bald Eagles. Gulls on the ocean side; ducks, herons and ospreys on the bay.

The Merrimack Valley and the south

Oak, white pine, old fields and suburbs. All the backyard birds, plus phoebes on the porch, Wood Thrushes in the woodlots and Red-winged Blackbirds in every cattail ditch.

The Lakes Region

Winnipesaukee and the smaller lakes around it. Common Loons wail and yodel from the water after dark in June, and Ospreys whistle over the coves.

The White Mountains

Spruce and fir above the hardwoods, with Hermit Thrushes fluting at dusk, Winter Wrens pouring out long songs from the blowdowns, and ravens croaking off the ledges.

The North Country

Above the notches the forest turns boreal. Umbagog National Wildlife Refuge, established in 1992 around Umbagog Lake near Errol, is 25,650 acres of lake, floating bog, marsh and forest where the boreal and hardwood forests meet, about 70 percent of it in New Hampshire. More than 229 species have been recorded and 137 breed there, including 24 kinds of warbler, Ospreys, Bald Eagles and loons, which the state lists as threatened. The best way in is by boat.

Best months to listen

May is the peak, when the warblers arrive and the residents are all singing at once. Late May into June is when the North Country and the mountains come alive, a few weeks behind the coast. June is loon month on the lakes. September brings the warblers back through, duller and mostly silent, and October brings the juncos down to the yards. Winter is chickadee, titmouse, nuthatch and jay at the feeder, and eagles on the ice at Great Bay. The whistle of a chickadee in late January is the first sign that the year has turned.

Places worth the drive

• Great Bay National Wildlife Refuge, Newington: more than 1,000 acres of marsh, mud flat and woods, and the state's largest gathering of wintering Bald Eagles.
• Umbagog National Wildlife Refuge, near Errol: 25,650 acres of boreal lake and bog, loons, eagles and two dozen kinds of warbler, best reached by boat.
• The White Mountains: drive up out of the hardwoods into spruce and fir, then get out and listen for thrushes and Winter Wrens.
• Lake Winnipesaukee: loons from a dock at dusk in June.

None of it is required. A feeder in Concord fills the first 20 cards in Warble before the snow melts.

Listen before you go

Three of the common New Hampshire 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.

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 New Hampshire. Updated September 30, 2026.