Birds of Wyoming

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department list had 452 species as of May 2021, with 118 of them accidental and 7 introduced. The state is high, dry and thinly settled, with sagebrush basins between mountain ranges, the Yellowstone plateau in the northwest corner and the short-grass prairie running off to the east.

The towns, Cheyenne, Casper, Laramie and the rest, have a western town album: robins on the lawns, magpies in the cottonwoods, ravens on the grain elevators, collared-doves on the wires. The meadowlark is just outside the city limits, and so is almost everything else.

The Wyoming album

These are the 100 birds people report most often in Wyoming, 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, singing from the first mild mornings in March and keeping on until dark in June. The Common Raven is second, which is rare for a state album: a deep croak and a knocking call from the cliffs, the power poles and the dumpsters behind the gas station. Canada Geese and Mallards hold every town pond and river bend, and the Black-billed Magpie rounds out the top five, chattering in harsh mag, mag, mag bursts and following the cattle.

The Red-winged Blackbird shouts from the cattails of every stock pond from March, the Northern Flicker yells wick-wick-wick from the cottonwoods, and the Eurasian Collared-Dove coos a three-note coo-COO-coo from the wire in every town. House Sparrows, starlings, House Finches and crows fill in the rest, and the Western Meadowlark is usually the first bird you hear once the houses stop.

The regions, by ear

Yellowstone and the Tetons

Nearly 300 bird species have been sighted in Yellowstone National Park, about 150 of them nesting and about 50 staying year-round, among them Common Ravens, Canada Geese and American Dippers singing from the rocks in the rapids in January. The park supports 19 breeding raptor species and monitors Trumpeter Swans, Golden Eagles, Common Loons, Bald Eagles, Ospreys and Peregrine Falcons. About 30 percent of the breeding birds depend on wetlands, so the willow, aspen and cottonwood bottoms are the loudest places, with Hayden Valley for water birds and raptors and the Alum Creek mudflats for shorebirds. Grand Teton, just south, has the same cast under bigger mountains.

The sagebrush basins and the Green River

Most of the state: sage to the horizon, with a river through it. Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge in the southwest follows the Green River through high desert that gets only 4 to 8 inches of rain a year, a cottonwood oasis that supports more than 300 species of resident and migrant wildlife, with Trumpeter Swans, Greater Sage-Grouse, bitterns in the marsh and Wilson's Warblers in the willows. Out in the sage itself it is Sage Thrashers, Brewer's Sparrows and the meadowlark.

The mountains

The Bighorns, the Wind Rivers, the Snowy Range: spruce, fir and aspen with alpine meadow above. Mountain Bluebirds on the fence posts up to the tree line, Mountain Chickadees in the firs, and Hermit Thrushes at dusk in the timber.

The eastern plains

Short-grass prairie from Cheyenne north to the Black Hills. Lark Buntings, Horned Larks and longspurs skylarking over the grass, Burrowing Owls at the prairie dog towns, and meadowlarks on every post.

Best months to listen

Late May and June are the peak in the basins and the towns, with the robins and meadowlarks on territory. Yellowstone runs later: the park's own advice is spring and early summer for migration and nesting, with late June and July for the high meadows, and fall hawk-watching from late August through October.

Winter is long and windy. Ravens, magpies and flickers never leave, dippers sing in the open water, and the first meadowlark on a fence post in March is the sound of the end of it.

Places worth the drive

• Yellowstone National Park: nearly 300 species, swans, loons and 19 kinds of nesting raptors, Hayden Valley at dawn.
• Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge, near Green River: cottonwoods, swans and sage-grouse in the high desert.
• The Snowy Range, west of Laramie: Mountain Bluebirds and Hermit Thrushes an hour from town.

None of it is required. A yard with a cottonwood and a feeder in Casper or Sheridan gives you the first 20 cards in Warble.

Listen before you go

Three of the common Wyoming 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.

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 Wyoming. Updated September 30, 2026.