Birds of Virginia

The Virginia Avian Records Committee counted 487 species and four species pairs as of January 1, 2022, with 109 of them accidental and 7 introduced. The state earns that total with three very different edges: the Atlantic and the Chesapeake Bay in the east, the Piedmont farm country in the middle, and the Blue Ridge and the Alleghenies in the west.

Most Virginians live in the Northern Virginia suburbs, Richmond and Hampton Roads, and the everyday album there is a southeastern one: cardinal, wren, chickadee, titmouse, jay, crow and a Red-bellied Woodpecker in the oaks.

The Virginia album

These are the 100 birds people report most often in Virginia, 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 Northern Cardinal leads, with a loud clear whistle before dawn from late winter through summer and a metallic chip from the hedge all year. The Carolina Wren is second and louder for its size than anything else in the state, a three-part teakettle, teakettle, teakettle from the woodpile in January as readily as June. The American Crow and the Blue Jay fill in the middle distance, caws, screams and the jay's uncanny hawk impression.

The Carolina Chickadee and the Tufted Titmouse travel together through the oaks, a fast four-note whistle and a ringing peter, peter, peter. The Mourning Dove coos from the wire, the robin sings at first light on the lawn, the Red-bellied Woodpecker rolls a churr from the trunk, and the American Goldfinch bounces overhead calling po-ta-to-chip. The Turkey Vulture makes the top twelve on sight rather than sound; it hisses and grunts but does not sing, so it is one leader you cannot catch by ear.

The regions, by ear

The Eastern Shore and the coast

Beach, dune, salt marsh and maritime forest. Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge, on the Eastern Shore, was established in 1943 to protect migratory birds and is one of the most visited refuges in the country, with 15 miles of trails and 14 managed impoundments. Piping Plovers, American Oystercatchers and Least Terns nest on the beach in summer, and Snow Geese pour into the impoundments in late fall. The sound of the place is Laughing Gulls and Willets yelling over the marsh.

Tidewater and the Dismal Swamp

Flat pine and cypress country south of the James River, with the Great Dismal Swamp at the bottom of it. In April and May the swamp woods are among the best warbler forests on the East Coast: Prothonotary Warblers over the ditches and Ovenbirds shouting from the floor.

The Piedmont

Rolling farmland, hedgerows and second-growth woods from Fairfax to Danville, where the album's top twelve live, plus Eastern Bluebirds on the fence lines, meadowlarks in the hayfields and Eastern Towhees telling you to drink your tea from the brush.

The Blue Ridge and the mountains

Shenandoah National Park sits along the crest of the Blue Ridge, and more than 190 species of resident and transient birds use it, about half of them breeding, including eighteen kinds of warblers. Around thirty species stay all year, among them Tufted Titmice, Carolina Chickadees, Wild Turkeys and Barred Owls. Scarlet Tanagers sing their hoarse robin song from the canopy in June, Cerulean Warblers hang on after a long decline, Peregrine Falcons have been restored to the cliffs, and Big Meadows holds open-country birds found nowhere else in the park.

Best months to listen

Late April through May is the peak everywhere: the residents are singing on territory, the warblers are moving up the Blue Ridge, and the swamp woods of Tidewater are full. The mountains stay busy into June. September and October are quieter in the woods but loud on the coast, as shorebirds and then waterfowl arrive at Chincoteague, with the geese peaking in November.

Winter is cardinals, wrens and chickadees at the feeder, Bald Eagles along the rivers, and White-throated Sparrows whistling under the shrubs.

Places worth the drive

• Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge, Eastern Shore: plovers and terns on the beach in summer, Snow Geese in fall, 15 miles of trails.
• Shenandoah National Park: more than 190 species, eighteen nesting warblers, tanagers in June, Big Meadows for open-country birds.
• Great Dismal Swamp, near Suffolk: cypress, cedar and spring warblers.
• Any Piedmont farm road at dawn in May: bluebirds, meadowlarks and towhees for free.

None of it is required. A yard with a holly and a brush pile in Charlottesville or Norfolk hands you the first 20 cards in Warble.

Listen before you go

Three of the common Virginia 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.

Rock Pigeon song

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Recording by Richard Littauer, CC BY 4.0, via iNaturalist.

Questions people ask

Nearby albums

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