Hi folks. I wanted to make a map of the most-commonly sighted birds across the U.S. Check it out! Does it seem reasonable? Do you agree with your state?
Method: I downloaded eBird data for each state over the 10-year period from 2016-2025 (example for NC: https://ebird.org/barchart?byr=2016&eyr ... 12&r=US-NC). This data gives a "frequency" metric, which is calculated as the fraction of birder checklists that include a specific bird (regardless of if the birder saw 1 or 100 of those birds). The data is approximately weekly, so I computed annual-means weighted by the number of days in each "week." (It seems like the first three weeks of each month are 7 days each, and the final week has the remainder).
As SirVive pointed out, this data will be weighted toward more charismatic, easier to recognize birds (sorry sparrows!). If you'd like to know the top 10 for a given state, let me know. Also, let me know if you have suggestions to improve the map. A note: If I calculate means weighted by number of observations instead of time, some states change. Would that be a better metrics? It would weight the results toward the times of year that birders bird, but that's probably when the most bird are around.
Most common bird by state
-
GracesWarbler
- Posts: 15
- Joined: Sat Jan 10, 2026 4:43 pm
- Location: Boone, NC
- Has thanked: 21 times
- Been thanked: 23 times
- Contact:
Most common bird by state
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
-
SirVive
- Posts: 59
- Joined: Thu Jan 15, 2026 3:38 pm
- Location: SW Washington, USA
- Has thanked: 61 times
- Been thanked: 44 times
Re: Most common bird by state
Interesting map. I'm kinda surprised that the top isn't also AMRO in WA but crows are certainly common. And that outlier SOSP 
I wonder if there's a way to show the %, as in 'likelihood' if you go out birding that you'll see X without making it too cluttered? Is it 20 or 80% of checklists that have an X sighting?
I wonder if there's a way to show the %, as in 'likelihood' if you go out birding that you'll see X without making it too cluttered? Is it 20 or 80% of checklists that have an X sighting?-
GracesWarbler
- Posts: 15
- Joined: Sat Jan 10, 2026 4:43 pm
- Location: Boone, NC
- Has thanked: 21 times
- Been thanked: 23 times
- Contact:
Re: Most common bird by state
Thanks. I agree that it's a little surprising, and probably biased in a variety of ways. For Washington, the top three birds (American Crow, Song Sparrow, and American Robin) are all very close, appearing on around 46% of lists. The number four bird (Dark-eyed Junco) appears on about 40% of lists. If I weight the annual mean by number of lists instead of doing a time-average, American Robin becomes #1 just barely.
Showing percentages might be interesting, but would probably produce too much clutter. Plus, I think it's a little deceptive to show those percentages, since the data is compiled by people actively looking for birds, instead of normal people going about their day. For example, in NC, the Northern Cardinal shows up on 63% of lists, which sounds pretty high. (And frankly, in my region, I'd say the Song Sparrow is much more common).
Showing percentages might be interesting, but would probably produce too much clutter. Plus, I think it's a little deceptive to show those percentages, since the data is compiled by people actively looking for birds, instead of normal people going about their day. For example, in NC, the Northern Cardinal shows up on 63% of lists, which sounds pretty high. (And frankly, in my region, I'd say the Song Sparrow is much more common).
-
GracesWarbler
- Posts: 15
- Joined: Sat Jan 10, 2026 4:43 pm
- Location: Boone, NC
- Has thanked: 21 times
- Been thanked: 23 times
- Contact:
Re: Most common bird by state
I decided to post my map to reddit, and some spirited discussion followed. Generally, people found the map to be inaccurate, and discussed various biases in the eBird data. I had naively assumed that birders did their best to report the birds they saw, but multiple people mentioned that people don't report common birds that aren't interesting, like sparrows. It looks like the topic has been removed, but you can see the discussion here if you're interested: https://www.reddit.com/r/birding/commen ... _by_state/
As a second effort, I might explore the Breeding Bird Survey.
As a second effort, I might explore the Breeding Bird Survey.
Re: Most common bird by state
That is interesting. A couple observations, from my own experience.... yes, some portion of birders do not report all birds so that can definitely make the numbers be off a bit.GracesWarbler wrote: Sun Aug 02, 2026 12:23 am I decided to post my map to reddit, and some spirited discussion followed. Generally, people found the map to be inaccurate, and discussed various biases in the eBird data. I had naively assumed that birders did their best to report the birds they saw, but multiple people mentioned that people don't report common birds that aren't interesting, like sparrows. It looks like the topic has been removed, but you can see the discussion here if you're interested: https://www.reddit.com/r/birding/commen ... _by_state/
As a second effort, I might explore the Breeding Bird Survey.
Secondly most people live in cities or urban areas which creates a non natural habitat that will naturally lead to city friendly species being disproportionately reported.
It would appear to me that several of the people there commenting are city residents. Saying House Sparrows are the most common bird in a state based off of your living in a urban city neighborhood, where they are common, does not account for the vast areas of comparatively undeveloped land.
If your doing your sampling from Walmart parking lot, yeah, your going to come up with something stupid like Common Grackle is actually more common than Cardinals. Even that is ignorance gone to seed, Great-tailed Grackle out numbers Common in Texas.
That's like saying 1 out of 3 building in the world are skyscrapers because I'm standing in the middle of Manhattan.