Winter Birds in Minnesota
The Black-capped Chickadee, Downy Woodpecker and Northern Cardinal lead the backyard birds reported in Minnesota from December to February, from ten winters of iNaturalist reports.
The top winter birds in Minnesota
The songbirds, woodpeckers and doves reported most in Minnesota 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 Pine Grosbeak leads them here.
1Black-capped Chickadee
Poecile atricapillus
5.1% 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
2Downy Woodpecker
Dryobates pubescens
4.2% of winter bird reports
Year roundPhoto: “Dryobates pubescens UL 03” by Cephas, CC BY-SA 4.0
3Northern Cardinal
Cardinalis cardinalis
3.5% of winter bird reports
Year roundPhoto: “Male northern cardinal in Central Park (52612)” by Rhododendrites, CC BY-SA 4.0
4Pine Grosbeak
Pinicola enucleator
3.1% of winter bird reports
Winter visitorPhoto: “Pine Grosbeak (Pinicola enucleator) (13667564073)” by Ron Knight from Seaford, East Sussex, United Kingdom, CC BY 2.0
5Redpoll
Acanthis flammea
3.0% of winter bird reports
Winter visitorPhoto: “Carduelis flammea CT6” by Cephas, CC BY-SA 3.0
6White-breasted Nuthatch
Sitta carolinensis
2.9% of winter bird reports
Year roundPhoto: “White-breasted nuthatch (26471)” by Rhododendrites, CC BY-SA 4.0
7Dark-eyed Junco
Junco hyemalis
2.8% of winter bird reports
Winter visitorPhoto: “Junco hyemalis hyemalis CT1 (cropped)” by Cephas, CC BY-SA 3.0
8House Sparrow
Passer domesticus
2.5% of winter bird reports
Year roundPhoto: “House sparrow male in Prospect Park (53532)” by Rhododendrites, CC BY-SA 4.0
Every bird reported most in Minnesota 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 | Black-capped Chickadee | 5.1% | 1.1% | Year round |
| 2 | Downy Woodpecker | 4.2% | 1.3% | Year round |
| 3 | Bald Eagle | 4.1% | 2.0% | Year round |
| 4 | Northern Cardinal | 3.5% | 1.5% | Year round |
| 5 | Mallard | 3.3% | 3.8% | Year round |
| 6 | Pine Grosbeak | 3.1% | 0% | Winter visitor |
| 7 | Redpoll | 3.0% | 0% | Winter visitor |
| 8 | White-breasted Nuthatch | 2.9% | 0.79% | Year round |
| 9 | Dark-eyed Junco | 2.8% | 0.02% | Winter visitor |
| 10 | Wild Turkey | 2.6% | 2.5% | Year round |
| 11 | House Sparrow | 2.5% | 1.5% | Year round |
| 12 | Red-bellied Woodpecker | 2.3% | 0.62% | Year round |
| 13 | Trumpeter Swan | 2.3% | 1.5% | Year round |
| 14 | Hairy Woodpecker | 2.3% | 0.53% | Year round |
| 15 | Blue Jay | 2.3% | 1.4% | Year round |
| 16 | Pileated Woodpecker | 2.2% | 0.73% | Year round |
| 17 | Canada Jay | 2.1% | 0.06% | Winter visitor |
| 18 | Great Gray Owl | 2.0% | 0.06% | Winter visitor |
| 19 | American Crow | 2.0% | 0.75% | Year round |
| 20 | Evening Grosbeak | 1.8% | 0.01% | Winter visitor |
Winter visitors to Minnesota
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 Minnesota that makes 8 species:
Pine Grosbeak
Pinicola enucleator
3.1% of winter bird reports and no summer reports at all.
Redpoll
Acanthis flammea
3.0% of winter bird reports and no summer reports at all.
Dark-eyed Junco
Junco hyemalis
2.8% of winter bird reports against 0.02% in summer, about 139 times the summer share.
Canada Jay
Perisoreus canadensis
2.1% of winter bird reports against 0.06% in summer, about 36 times the summer share.
Great Gray Owl
Strix nebulosa
2.0% of winter bird reports against 0.06% in summer, about 35 times the summer share.
Evening Grosbeak
Hesperiphona vespertina
1.8% of winter bird reports against 0.01% in summer, about 141 times the summer share.
Northern Hawk Owl
Surnia ulula
1.3% of winter bird reports and no summer reports at all.
Northern Shrike
Lanius borealis
1.3% of winter bird reports and no summer reports at all.
When Minnesota’s top winter birds are reported
The eight birds with the most winter reports in Minnesota, 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.
Black-capped Chickadee
Peaks in January at 5.2%; winter 5.0%, summer 1.2%.
Downy Woodpecker
Peaks in December at 5.0%; winter 4.2%, summer 1.3%.
Bald Eagle
Peaks in March at 5.6%; winter 4.0%, summer 2.1%.
Northern Cardinal
Peaks in December at 4.4%; winter 3.7%, summer 1.5%.
Mallard
Peaks in March at 5.2%; winter 3.3%, summer 3.7%.
Pine Grosbeak
Peaks in January at 3.0%; winter 2.4%, summer 0%.
Redpoll
Peaks in February at 4.9%; winter 3.0%, summer 0%.
White-breasted Nuthatch
Peaks in December at 3.3%; winter 3.0%, summer 0.81%.
Winter bird counts in Minnesota
Three counts run through the winter, each open to anyone in Minnesota 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 Minnesota
Compiled 2026-09-22 from research grade bird observation counts for Minnesota on iNaturalist, December to February, winters 2016-17 through 2025-26, against June to August, summers 2016 through 2025: 30,399 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 5.1% of them. Count dates and feeding guidance are quoted from the organisers and agencies linked above.