Birds of Vermont

The Vermont Bird Records Committee listed 396 species as of March 2024, with 111 of them vagrants, 9 introduced, 1 extinct and 2 extirpated. For a state with no coast, that total comes from Lake Champlain on the western edge, the Connecticut River on the eastern one, the Green Mountains down the middle, and the boreal bogs of the Northeast Kingdom.

Most Vermonters live in the Champlain Valley around Burlington or in the river towns, and the everyday album there is a northern one: chickadee, crow, jay, robin and goldfinch, with a cardinal that only became common in recent decades and a titmouse that followed it north.

The Vermont album

These are the 100 birds people report most often in Vermont, 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, calling chick-a-dee-dee at the feeder through the coldest weeks and whistling a clear two-note fee-bee as early as January thaw. The American Crow is second and the Blue Jay third, the pair that carries across a valley in any month. The American Robin arrives in force in late March and sings until dark by June, and the American Goldfinch calls po-ta-to-chip overhead and sings a long canary-like twitter from the top of a birch.

The Song Sparrow sings from the roadside brush from the first warm days, the Northern Cardinal whistles from the lilac, and the Mourning Dove coos from the wire. The White-breasted Nuthatch gives a nasal yank from the trunk, the Red-winged Blackbird shouts from the cattails of every beaver pond from March, the Downy Woodpecker whinnies from the suet, and the Tufted Titmouse whistles peter, peter from the oaks.

The regions, by ear

The Champlain Valley

Lake, farmland and the one real city. Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge, at the north end of the lake in Franklin County near the Canadian border, was established in 1943 and covers 6,729 acres, mostly wetland, in the river delta; it was named a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance in 2013. It holds the largest concentration of waterfowl on Lake Champlain, with Wood Ducks, Mallards, Green-winged Teal and Ring-necked Ducks, and the entire Vermont breeding population of the state-endangered Black Tern nests in its sanctuary wetlands. The grasslands add Bobolinks, Savannah Sparrows, American Bitterns pumping in the marsh and Wilson's Snipe winnowing overhead at dusk.

The Green Mountains

Hardwood below, spruce and fir above. This is the Hermit Thrush's state at its best, with Veeries spiraling downward and Wood Thrushes fluting in the lower woods at dusk, Ovenbirds shouting teacher from the floor, and Winter Wrens and Blackpoll Warblers on the high ridges along the Long Trail.

The Northeast Kingdom

Spruce, bog and cold lakes. The Nulhegan Basin Division of the Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge, more than 26,000 acres across four towns, protects northern forest that the refuge describes as nesting habitat for migrant thrushes and warblers. The sound is boreal: Common Loons at night, White-throated Sparrows whistling Old Sam Peabody, Canada Jays, Boreal Chickadees and Black-backed Woodpeckers in the spruce.

The Connecticut River valley

Farms, river towns and oxbows down the eastern edge: Eastern Bluebirds on the fence posts, Baltimore Orioles in the big cottonwoods, and Bald Eagles along the river in winter.

Best months to listen

Mid May into June is the peak: the warblers arrive in the second and third weeks of May, the residents are on territory, and the thrushes sing at dawn and dusk from then through July. The mountains and the Kingdom run about two weeks behind the valley, and October brings the ducks into Missisquoi.

Winter is chickadees, nuthatches and jays at the feeder, and if the cones are good, redpolls and Pine Grosbeaks down from Canada.

Places worth the drive

• Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge, Swanton: 6,729 acres of delta marsh, Black Terns, Bobolinks and the lake's biggest duck flocks.
• Nulhegan Basin, Northeast Kingdom: 26,000 acres of boreal forest, loons, Canada Jays and nesting thrushes.
• The Long Trail, anywhere above 2,500 feet in June: Hermit Thrushes, Winter Wrens and Blackpoll Warblers.

None of it is required. A feeder and a maple in Montpelier or Brattleboro give you the first 20 cards in Warble.

Listen before you go

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