Backyard Birds of North Carolina: Year-Round and Seasonal Species

How many birds live in North Carolina?

More than 480 bird species have been recorded in North Carolina and accepted by the state’s bird records committee. Most of them are migrants, seabirds or rare visitors, but a few dozen species make up the great majority of birds seen in yards, parks and at feeders.

What you see depends on where you live. North Carolina has three broad regions:

• Mountains in the west, with cool forests and peaks over 2,000 m (6,500 ft) that support some northern birds found nowhere else in the state.
• Piedmont in the center, the rolling, wooded country around Charlotte, Greensboro and Raleigh, where most people live.
• Coastal Plain in the east, with pine forests, swamps and the Outer Banks.

The birds below are common across most of the state unless the text says otherwise.

Year-round backyard birds

These birds live in North Carolina all year, so you can see them in every season.

Lengths are bill tip to tail tip for adults.

Northern cardinal

The cardinal was named North Carolina’s state bird in 1943, and it is also the state bird of six other states, more than any other species (see our list of US state birds). Males are red all over with a black mask; females are warm tan with red tinges on the wings, crest and tail. Both sexes sing loud, clear whistles, often starting before dawn in late winter. Cardinals do not migrate, and pairs stay on or near their territory all year.

Carolina chickadee

This small, friendly bird is the chickadee of almost all of North Carolina. It travels in small flocks in fall and winter, often joined by titmice, nuthatches and downy woodpeckers, and it hides seeds to eat later. In the highest mountains it is replaced by the very similar black-capped chickadee, which has whiter edges on its wing feathers and a slower, lower call.

Carolina wren

A tiny bird with a huge voice, the Carolina wren sings a ringing “teakettle-teakettle-teakettle” all year. Pairs stay together and often nest in odd places around houses, such as hanging plants, mailboxes, garage shelves and old boots. Despite its name, it is the state bird of South Carolina, not North Carolina. Very cold, snowy winters can sharply reduce its numbers, but populations usually recover within a few years.

Tufted titmouse

The titmouse is a small gray bird with a crest, a rusty wash on its flanks and a loud “peter-peter-peter” song. Like chickadees, titmice grab one seed at a time from a feeder, fly off to crack it open and often store food in bark crevices.

Eastern bluebird

Bluebirds hunt insects from low perches in open lawns, fields, golf courses and cemeteries, dropping to the ground to catch beetles and caterpillars. In winter they gather in small flocks and eat berries such as dogwood, holly and sumac. They nest in tree holes and readily use nest boxes, and networks of bluebird boxes helped the species recover after declines in the twentieth century.

Brown-headed nuthatch

This tiny nuthatch is a specialist of southeastern pine forests and is common in the Coastal Plain and Piedmont wherever there are mature pines. Its squeaky calls sound like a rubber duck. It is one of the few birds known to use tools: it sometimes holds a flake of bark in its bill to pry up other bark and reach hidden insects. Young birds from earlier broods sometimes help their parents feed nestlings.

Other common residents

Blue jays, northern mockingbirds, American crows, downy woodpeckers, house finches, American goldfinches, eastern towhees, white-breasted nuthatches, song sparrows and pine warblers are also widespread. Many American robins stay all winter, though they often move around in flocks looking for berries rather than worms. Pine warblers are unusual among warblers because they will eat seeds and suet in winter.

Summer visitors

These birds arrive in spring, nest in North Carolina and leave again in late summer or fall.

• Ruby-throated hummingbird. The only hummingbird that regularly nests in the eastern United States, usually 7–9 cm (2.8–3.5 in) long. It usually arrives from late March to April and leaves by October, flying to Mexico and Central America. Learn more in our ruby-throated hummingbird profile.
• Chimney swift. A cigar-shaped bird that chatters over towns and nests inside chimneys.
• Purple martin. The largest North American swallow, which in the East nests almost entirely in houses and gourds put up by people.
• Gray catbird and brown thrasher. Relatives of the mockingbird that sing long, varied songs from thickets. Brown thrashers are present all year in much of the state.
• Indigo bunting and blue grosbeak. Two deep blue finch-like birds of field edges and roadsides.
• Painted bunting. The male, with a blue head, green back and red underparts, is one of North America’s most colorful birds. In North Carolina it breeds mainly in coastal thickets in the southeast of the state.

Winter visitors

From about October to April, birds from Canada and the northern US move into North Carolina, and winter is often the busiest season at feeders.

• Dark-eyed junco. Slate gray above and white below, with white outer tail feathers that flash when it flies. Often called the “snowbird.” Juncos also nest in North Carolina’s high mountains, but in winter they spread across the whole state and feed on the ground beneath feeders.
• White-throated sparrow. A large sparrow with a striped head, yellow spot in front of the eye and white throat, which sings a thin “Old Sam Peabody, Peabody, Peabody” whistle.
• Yellow-rumped warbler. The most common winter warbler, brown-gray with a bright yellow rump patch, especially near the coast where it eats wax myrtle berries.
• Ruby-crowned kinglet and yellow-bellied sapsucker. A tiny, restless olive bird and a woodpecker that drills neat rows of sap wells in tree bark.
• Irruptive finches. In some winters, when seed crops fail farther north, red-breasted nuthatches, pine siskins and purple finches move south in large numbers. In other years almost none appear.

A few hummingbirds also winter in North Carolina, most of them western species such as the rufous hummingbird. Our article on where hummingbirds go in winter explains these unusual movements.

Mountain and coastal specialties

The mountains add birds that are rare or absent elsewhere in the state. At high elevations, black-capped chickadees, red-breasted nuthatches, dark-eyed juncos, rose-breasted grosbeaks and veeries nest in cool spruce, fir and northern hardwood forests. Common ravens are also far more common in the mountains than in the Piedmont.

On the coast, boat-tailed grackles, fish crows and brown pelicans become familiar sights, and yards near marshes may host painted buntings in summer and large flocks of yellow-rumped warblers in winter.

Tips for identifying North Carolina backyard birds

• Chickadee or titmouse? Both are small and gray, but the titmouse has a crest and no black bib.
• Female cardinal or sparrow? Female cardinals are tan with a crest and a thick red-orange bill; sparrows are streaked and have smaller, darker bills.
• Brown-headed or white-breasted nuthatch? The brown-headed is tiny with a brown cap and favors pines; the white-breasted is larger, with a black cap and a white face, and prefers hardwoods.
• Listen first. Carolina wrens, cardinals, titmice and chickadees are usually heard long before they are seen. Learning a handful of songs makes the yard much easier to read.

When to watch birds in North Carolina

Spring migration, from April to mid-May, brings colorful warblers, tanagers and orioles through wooded yards on their way north. Fall migration runs from late August to November. Winter is the best time for feeder watching, and the Great Backyard Bird Count each February and Audubon’s Christmas Bird Count in December and early January let anyone add sightings to long-running citizen science surveys.