Birds of Oregon

The Oregon Bird Records Committee had 547 species on its list as of August 2022, with 164 of them rare enough to sit on the review list. The count is high because the state runs from the Pacific to the Great Basin: rocky headlands and seabird colonies, the wet Coast Range, the Willamette Valley where most Oregonians live, the Cascades, and then a dry eastern two-thirds of sagebrush, rimrock and marsh that most visitors never see.

By ear, the west side is soft and layered: robins, juncos and Song Sparrows through a drizzle that lasts from November to May, Pacific Wrens pouring out long songs from the ferns, a Varied Thrush humming one eerie note from the firs. Cross the pass and the sound opens up: meadowlarks, Sandhill Cranes and the wind.

The Oregon album

These are the 100 birds people report most often in Oregon, 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 and sings from February to July, before dawn and after dark under the streetlights. The Song Sparrow is second, a dark, streaky western bird that sings its clear notes, buzz and trill from every blackberry tangle, and the American Crow is third and everywhere. The Dark-eyed Junco is the feeder bird of the state, trilling on one pitch from a Douglas-fir in spring and ticking in the shrubs all winter.

The Northern Flicker shouts a long wick-wick-wick and drums on gutters in March. The Black-capped Chickadee whistles fee-bee in the valley towns, and the Spotted Towhee buzzes a hoarse trill from the underbrush. Two jays split the state: the California Scrub-Jay screeches from the oaks and rooftops of the valley, and the Steller's Jay rasps from the conifers and takes over as soon as the road climbs.

The regions, by ear

The coast

Headlands, sea stacks and wide beaches. Common Murres and cormorants crowd the offshore rocks in summer, Western Gulls and Brown Pelicans work the surf, Black Oystercatchers pipe from the tide pools, and in the spruce behind the beach a Pacific Wren sings for ten seconds without a breath.

The Willamette Valley

Farms, oak savanna and the cities. William L. Finley National Wildlife Refuge, ten miles south of Corvallis, was set up in 1964 as winter habitat for the dusky Canada goose, a subspecies of about 16,000 birds that nests on Alaska's Copper River Delta and winters almost entirely in these valley wetlands. Its 5,700 acres of oak savanna, wet prairie and riparian forest hold the largest remaining piece of native Willamette Valley wet prairie, and more than 260 recorded bird species.

The Cascades

Big fir and hemlock forest, then high lakes and lava. The Varied Thrush hums its single drawn-out note from the shade, Hermit Thrushes and Swainson's Thrushes spiral through the evening, Mountain Chickadees and Red-breasted Nuthatches work the pines on the dry eastern slope.

The high desert and Malheur

Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, about 30 miles south of Burns in the Harney Basin, was created by President Theodore Roosevelt on August 18, 1908, and now covers 187,757 acres of marsh, desert, grassland and rimrock. As many as 320 bird species and 58 mammals have been recorded there. Sandhill Cranes bugle over the meadows, pintails and Tundra Swans fill the ponds, and in a good year well over 300,000 migrating ducks feed on Harney Lake. Late spring and early fall are the times to go; summer bakes and winter freezes.

Best months to listen

West of the Cascades, song starts early: robins and Song Sparrows in February, juncos and towhees in March, and by late April the valley is full and the coast wrens are at their loudest. May is the peak everywhere. June and July belong to the mountains, where thrushes sing until dark. Fall brings the ducks and geese back to the valley refuges and the seabirds close to shore, and winter is the quiet season of juncos at the feeder and swans on the flooded fields.

Places worth the drive

• Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, southeast Oregon: cranes, ducks and up to 320 species in a desert marsh.
• William L. Finley National Wildlife Refuge, south of Corvallis: dusky Canada geese in winter, oak savanna and wet prairie.
• Cape Meares and the Three Capes, on the coast: murres and cormorants on the rocks, Pacific Wrens in the spruce.

None of it is required. A Portland backyard with a fir, a feeder and a blackberry hedge gives you the first 20 cards in Warble by the end of March.

Listen before you go

Three of the common Oregon 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.

Eurasian Collared-Dove song

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Recording by Gabriel Dixon, CC0, via iNaturalist.

Questions people ask

Nearby albums

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