Winter Birds in Colorado
The Black-billed Magpie, Dark-eyed Junco and Northern Flicker lead the backyard birds reported in Colorado from December to February, from ten winters of iNaturalist reports.
The top winter birds in Colorado
The songbirds, woodpeckers and doves reported most in Colorado in winter, ranked by their share of all research grade bird reports for the state, December to February. Birds marked winter visitor come for the cold months; the Common Goldeneye leads them here.
1Black-billed Magpie
Pica hudsonia
2.7% of winter bird reports
Year roundPhoto: “BlackBilledMagpie” by Polinova, CC BY-SA 4.0
2Dark-eyed Junco
Junco hyemalis
2.6% of winter bird reports
Year roundPhoto: “Junco hyemalis hyemalis CT1 (cropped)” by Cephas, CC BY-SA 3.0
3Northern Flicker
Colaptes auratus
2.5% of winter bird reports
Year roundPhoto: “Northern yellow-shafted flicker male (33737) (cropped)” by Rhododendrites, CC BY-SA 4.0
4House Finch
Haemorhous mexicanus
2.2% of winter bird reports
Year roundPhoto: “House finch (33688)2” by Rhododendrites, CC BY-SA 4.0
5American Robin
Turdus migratorius
1.9% of winter bird reports
Year roundPhoto: “American robin (71307)” by Rhododendrites, CC BY-SA 4.0
6Black-capped Chickadee
Poecile atricapillus
1.7% of winter bird reports
Year roundPhoto: “Poecile-atricapilla-001” by No machine-readable author provided. Mdf assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY-SA 3.0
7Downy Woodpecker
Dryobates pubescens
1.4% of winter bird reports
Year roundPhoto: “Dryobates pubescens UL 03” by Cephas, CC BY-SA 4.0
8Red-winged Blackbird
Agelaius phoeniceus
1.4% of winter bird reports
Year roundPhoto: “Red-Winged Blackbird” by Chuck Homler, Focus On Wildlife, CC BY-SA 4.0
Every bird reported most in Colorado in winter
The same ranking across all birds, with the ducks, gulls and hawks that turn up at water and along roads beside the feeder birds.
| # | Species | Winter share | Summer share | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Red-tailed Hawk | 5.4% | 2.3% | Year round |
| 2 | Bald Eagle | 3.9% | 0.68% | Year round |
| 3 | Canada Goose | 3.6% | 1.5% | Year round |
| 4 | Common Goldeneye | 3.3% | 0.01% | Winter visitor |
| 5 | Mallard | 3.1% | 2.4% | Year round |
| 6 | Black-billed Magpie | 2.7% | 3.4% | Year round |
| 7 | Dark-eyed Junco | 2.6% | 1.2% | Year round |
| 8 | Northern Flicker | 2.5% | 1.6% | Year round |
| 9 | Hooded Merganser | 2.3% | 0.07% | Winter visitor |
| 10 | House Finch | 2.2% | 1.5% | Year round |
| 11 | American Kestrel | 2.0% | 0.50% | Year round |
| 12 | American Robin | 1.9% | 2.7% | Year round |
| 13 | Ring-billed Gull | 1.7% | 0.21% | Year round |
| 14 | Black-capped Chickadee | 1.7% | 0.59% | Year round |
| 15 | Northern Shoveler | 1.5% | 0.04% | Winter visitor |
| 16 | Common Merganser | 1.4% | 0.30% | Year round |
| 17 | Downy Woodpecker | 1.4% | 0.44% | Year round |
| 18 | Red-winged Blackbird | 1.4% | 1.8% | Year round |
| 19 | Cackling Goose | 1.4% | 0.02% | Winter visitor |
| 20 | American Wigeon | 1.3% | 0.04% | Winter visitor |
Winter visitors to Colorado
A winter visitor here is a bird with a winter share of bird reports at least 10 times its summer share, with at least 20 winter reports. In Colorado that makes 8 species:
Common Goldeneye
Bucephala clangula
3.3% of winter bird reports against 0.01% in summer, about 454 times the summer share.
Hooded Merganser
Lophodytes cucullatus
2.3% of winter bird reports against 0.07% in summer, about 34 times the summer share.
Northern Shoveler
Spatula clypeata
1.5% of winter bird reports against 0.04% in summer, about 34 times the summer share.
Cackling Goose
Branta hutchinsii
1.4% of winter bird reports against 0.02% in summer, about 75 times the summer share.
American Wigeon
Mareca americana
1.3% of winter bird reports against 0.04% in summer, about 35 times the summer share.
Gadwall
Mareca strepera
1.3% of winter bird reports against 0.07% in summer, about 19 times the summer share.
Ferruginous Hawk
Buteo regalis
1.1% of winter bird reports against 0.04% in summer, about 27 times the summer share.
Bufflehead
Bucephala albeola
1.1% of winter bird reports against 0.01% in summer, about 126 times the summer share.
When Colorado’s top winter birds are reported
The eight birds with the most winter reports in Colorado, month by month. A resident draws a flat line; a winter visitor rises in the middle of the chart and drops to nothing at the edges.
Red-tailed Hawk
Peaks in January at 5.7%; winter 5.5%, summer 2.3%.
Bald Eagle
Peaks in February at 4.4%; winter 4.1%, summer 0.69%.
Canada Goose
Peaks in March at 3.8%; winter 3.4%, summer 1.5%.
Common Goldeneye
Peaks in January at 3.6%; winter 3.2%, summer 0.01%.
Mallard
Peaks in October at 4.1%; winter 3.0%, summer 2.4%.
Black-billed Magpie
Peaks in October at 4.9%; winter 2.7%, summer 3.4%.
Dark-eyed Junco
Peaks in December at 2.8%; winter 2.6%, summer 1.2%.
Northern Flicker
Peaks in October at 2.9%; winter 2.5%, summer 1.6%.
Winter bird counts in Colorado
Three counts run through the winter, each open to anyone in Colorado with a window onto a feeder. Soonest first:
Starts in 22 days
Project FeederWatch
November 1, 2026 to April 30, 2027
Run by Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Birds Canada
“Project FeederWatch runs from November 1 through April 30. For each count, select two consecutive days as often as once a week.”
Project FeederWatchStarts in 65 days
Christmas Bird Count
December 14, 2026 to January 5, 2027
Run by National Audubon Society
“Feeder Counts: Count all the birds you see or hear from your own backyard or local park at a stationary bird feeder within a CBC circle. No binoculars or hiking required, and you can participate with less time commitment.”
Christmas Bird CountStarts in 125 days
Great Backyard Bird Count
February 12, 2027 to February 15, 2027
Run by Cornell Lab of Ornithology, National Audubon Society and Birds Canada
“Count the birds you see for as little as 15 minutes on one of the four days.”
Great Backyard Bird CountThe 2026 count: 8,257 species on 467,696 checklists, an estimated 1,146,284 participants.
Feeding birds in winter
Cleaning
“Clean your seed or suet feeders regularly (e.g., every week or two) and more often during periods of heavy use or wet weather.”
Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Project FeederWatch
“Debris (such as leftover bits of seeds and hulls) can harbor pathogens that make birds sick.”
Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Project FeederWatch
Disinfecting
“To disinfect your feeders, soak the (cleaned) parts for 10 minutes in a diluted bleach solution (e.g., one part bleach to nine parts water).”
Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Project FeederWatch
Sick birds
“Fluffed-up feathers, lethargy, abnormal growths, and crusty eyes are all symptoms of various avian illnesses.”
Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Project FeederWatch
House finches
“For example, not every bird that is exposed to Mycoplasma gallisepticum will contract conjunctivitis; however, House Finches are especially susceptible to this bacterium, which led to serious declines in North American populations in the 1990s.”
Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Project FeederWatch
Bird flu
“Bird feeders are unlikely to result in increased spread of avian influenza since the species of bird that tend to come to feeders are not commonly infected.”
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
“However, feeders do concentrate passerines and increase the risk of transmission of other infectious diseases that do impact their health, including salmonella, E. coli and mycoplasma.”
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Planting
“Creating natural spaces that attract birds to the cover and food provided by native vegetation appropriate to the location is far healthier than feeders.”
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Quoted exactly from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; each link opens the full page.
Winter birds in other states
The same ranking runs in every state below, and the national list of winter backyard birds puts them side by side.
Questions about winter birds in Colorado
Compiled 2026-09-22 from research grade bird observation counts for Colorado on iNaturalist, December to February, winters 2016-17 through 2025-26, against June to August, summers 2016 through 2025: 43,545 winter bird reports in all. Shares are uploads by the public divided by all bird uploads for the state, so they follow birders as well as birds. The top bird took 5.4% of them. Count dates and feeding guidance are quoted from the organisers and agencies linked above.