Northwest Birds Identification: Common PNW Species

The most common birds in the Pacific Northwest are the American Robin, Song Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco, American Crow and Spotted Towhee. Bird Advisors ranks Oregon's backyard birds by how often they appear on checklists submitted to eBird:

• American Robin: 46% of summer and 35% of winter checklists.
• Song Sparrow: 37% summer, 41% winter.
• Dark-eyed Junco: 21% summer, up to 48% winter.
• American Crow: 30% summer, 32% winter.
• Spotted Towhee: about 27% summer, 29% winter.
• Northern Flicker: 24% summer, 32% winter.
• Black-capped Chickadee: 21% summer, 33% winter.
• California Scrub-Jay: 19% summer, 31% winter.
• European Starling: 25% summer, 29% winter.
• Golden-crowned Sparrow: about 22% of winter checklists.

Explore Washington State's list of ten birds to see near home in Washington overlaps heavily: Anna's Hummingbird, Northern Flicker, Steller's Jay, American Robin, Black-capped Chickadee, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Dark-eyed Junco, White-crowned Sparrow, House Finch and Pine Siskin.

These are the birds that make a Northwest yard look different from an eastern one.

• Steller's Jay: 12-13.5 in, all dark with a prominent crest; Audubon calls it the only all-dark jay with a crest. Coastal birds have blue forehead spots, inland birds white. Its call is a harsh shack-shack-shack, and it can mimic hawk screams.
• Chestnut-backed Chickadee: 4.3-4.7 in, with a rich chestnut back and sides, gray wings and a sooty brown cap. Audubon calls it the most colorful chickadee of the Northwest; it lives in dense, moist conifer forest.
• Varied Thrush: 8.3-10.2 in, about robin-sized. Males have an orange throat and eyebrow, a dark chest band and extensive orange wing markings; females are duller. Audubon describes the song as two or three buzzy whistles that fade, each followed by silence.
• Spotted Towhee: 8.25 in, black or gray hood and back with bold white spots on back, wings and tail corners, and rusty sides. Audubon says it is often noticed first by the sound of it scratching in dead leaves under thickets.
• Anna's Hummingbird: 4 in. Males show rose-red on the throat and crown that can look black or gold; females are green above and dingy gray below, often with red spots on the throat. Audubon notes it holds its tail still while hovering and stays through the winter on the Pacific Coast.
• Bushtit: 4.3-4.7 in, tiny, plain and long-tailed. Flocks of 20-30 move in straggling single file from tree to tree, and pairs build a hanging pocket nest up to a foot long (Audubon).
• Dark-eyed Junco: Explore Washington State describes a chunky sparrow with a black hood, brown back and white outer tail feathers, most comfortable on the ground.
• Red-breasted Nuthatch: plump, short-tailed and long-billed with a reddish wash on the breast; it works down tree trunks (Explore Washington State).
• Pine Siskin: small, gray-brown with a yellowish wash and a needle-pointed bill; it travels in groups and can take over feeders en masse (Explore Washington State).

• Steller's Jay vs Blue Jay and California Scrub-Jay: the Blue Jay has contrasting white underparts, and the scrub-jay has gray upperparts with a blue-and-gray pattern and no crest; the Steller's is dark all over with a crest (Audubon).
• Chestnut-backed vs Black-capped Chickadee: chestnut back and sides with a brown cap on the Chestnut-backed; a black cap and plain back on the Black-capped. Audubon says the Chestnut-backed is always much more richly colored than its relatives.
• Varied Thrush vs American Robin: the same size, but the Varied Thrush has an orange eyebrow, a dark band across the chest and orange bars on the wing; a robin has none of these.
• Spotted Towhee vs robin: also robin-sized with rusty sides, but a black hood and white spots on the back. Audubon says the white spotting is what separates it from the Eastern Towhee.

The Oregon checklist numbers from Bird Advisors show which birds are seasonal, which helps when you are choosing between two candidates:

• More in winter: Dark-eyed Junco (21% summer, 48% winter), Anna's Hummingbird (13% to 24%), Black-capped Chickadee (21% to 33%) and Golden-crowned Sparrow, which Bird Advisors lists for winter.
• More in summer: American Goldfinch (22% summer, 5% winter), Mourning Dove (20% to 10%), Red-winged Blackbird (23% to 16%) and Swainson's Thrush, listed at 16% of summer checklists.
• Year-round: American Crow, Spotted Towhee and European Starling stay close to the same share in both seasons.

A small hummingbird at a feeder in January in western Oregon or Washington is therefore almost certainly an Anna's, which Audubon says stays through winter where no other hummingbirds are present. Varied Thrush, per Audubon, uses thick wet conifer forest and in winter also woods, ravines and thickets.

Start with size against a bird you know (sparrow, robin, crow), then the one or two colors that stand out, then where it was: on the ground, on a trunk, at a feeder or on water. Those three facts cut this page's list to two or three candidates.

If you took a photo, BirdLens suggests the species from it. For birds of prey and owls in the Northwest, use the hawk identification and owl identification pages; for feeder birds across the US, see backyard birds. Along the coast and estuaries, the shorebird identification page covers the waders.

Pine Siskins and House Finches come to seed feeders, Anna's Hummingbirds to nectar feeders all year, and juncos and towhees feed on the ground below. For seed choice and feeder setup, see best bird seed for wild birds.

You may also see advice to put potato out for birds. Bird Spot, a UK bird-feeding site, says leftover mashed or boiled potato and opened jacket potatoes can be offered, but not roast potatoes or chips, which are often high in salt, and never raw potato or peelings. Keep it plain.

Research and drafting for this page were assisted by AI and checked line by line against the sources listed below. If you find an error, tell us and we will correct it.