Birds of Utah

The Utah Bird Records Committee had 469 species on its list as of July 2022, with 119 of them accidental and 10 introduced. That is a lot of birds for a state most people picture as salt flats and sandstone, and the reason is water: the Great Salt Lake marshes sit where the Pacific and Central flyways meet, so migrants from both sides of the continent funnel through.

Most Utahns live along the Wasatch Front, from Ogden to Provo, and the everyday album is a city album with mountains behind it: robins on the lawn, House Finches on the wire, magpies in the park.

The Utah album

These are the 100 birds people report most often in Utah, 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 its rolling cheerily, cheer-up from March well into summer and starting before the sky is light. The House Finch is second, a long bubbling warble from the top of a spruce with a burry note near the end. The Mallard and the Canada Goose are in every city pond and canal, and the European Starling whistles and clicks from the rooftops.

Two birds mark this as the West. The Common Raven is in the top five, a deep croak from the cliffs and the power poles, and the Black-billed Magpie is right behind it, a long-tailed black and white bird that chatters in harsh mag, mag, mag bursts from the cottonwoods. The Song Sparrow sings from the streamside willows, the Red-winged Blackbird holds every cattail patch, the Mourning Dove coos from the wire, and the Northern Flicker shouts a long wick-wick-wick from the big trees in spring.

The regions, by ear

The Wasatch Front and the canyons

City below, mountains above. Twenty minutes up any canyon out of Salt Lake City the sound changes to Steller's Jays, Mountain Chickadees whistling a hoarse fee-bee-bee, Western Tanagers in the firs and Black-headed Grosbeaks in the aspen.

The Great Salt Lake and Bear River

Marsh, mudflat and open water. Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, where the river empties into the northeast arm of the lake near Brigham City, is the largest freshwater part of the Great Salt Lake ecosystem. More than 250 species use it and 67 nest there: American Avocets and Black-necked Stilts by the thousands, White-faced Ibis in colonies of up to 10,000, and Tundra Swans in the tens of thousands in spring and fall, all seen from a 12-mile auto tour route.

The Uintas and the high country

Spruce, fir and alpine lakes. Mountain Bluebirds on the fence posts of the high meadows, Clark's Nutcrackers rasping from the pines, and Hermit Thrushes at dusk in the timber.

Red rock country

Sandstone, pinyon and juniper from Moab to St. George. Zion National Park lists 291 bird species through the year and is an Important Bird Area at the state and global level. The Canyon Wren is the voice of the canyons, a cascade of clear whistles falling down the scale off the rock, and it lives in the park year-round, as does the reintroduced California Condor. Peregrine Falcons nest on the cliffs, Mexican Spotted Owls hide in the side canyons, and Gambel's Quail and Greater Roadrunners turn up on the desert floor.

Best months to listen

Mid May into June is the peak along the Wasatch Front and in the canyons, when the residents are on territory and the tanagers and grosbeaks have arrived. The high country runs later, with the Uintas best in late June and July. Red rock country goes the other way: March and April in Zion, before the heat, and again in October.

Bear River has its own calendar, the spring and fall swan passages, with shorebirds and ibis through the summer. In the valleys, magpies, ravens and flickers never leave.

Places worth the drive

• Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, near Brigham City: more than 250 species, avocets and stilts by the thousands, a 12-mile auto tour.
• Zion National Park: 291 species, Canyon Wrens, condors and Peregrine Falcons on the cliffs.
• Big Cottonwood and Little Cottonwood Canyons, above Salt Lake City: mountain birds half an hour from downtown.

None of it is required. A yard with a spruce and a feeder in Sandy or Logan gives you the first 20 cards in Warble.

Listen before you go

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

Canada Goose song

0:12

Recording by Chase Harris, CC0, via iNaturalist.

Mallard song

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Recording by Fionn Ó Marcaigh, CC BY 4.0, via iNaturalist.

California Quail song

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Recording by Anne Parsons, CC0, via iNaturalist.

Questions people ask

Nearby albums

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