Winter Birds in South Carolina
The Northern Cardinal, Eastern Bluebird and Yellow-rumped Warbler lead the backyard birds reported in South Carolina from December to February, from ten winters of iNaturalist reports.
The top winter birds in South Carolina
The songbirds, woodpeckers and doves reported most in South Carolina 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 Yellow-rumped Warbler leads them here.
1Northern Cardinal
Cardinalis cardinalis
4.3% of winter bird reports
Year roundPhoto: “Male northern cardinal in Central Park (52612)” by Rhododendrites, CC BY-SA 4.0
2Eastern Bluebird
Sialia sialis
3.8% of winter bird reports
Year roundPhoto: “Sialia sialis -Michigan, USA -pair-8c” by Sandysphotos2009, CC BY 2.0
3Yellow-rumped Warbler
Setophaga coronata
3.0% of winter bird reports
Winter visitorPhoto: “Yellow-rumped warbler singing (41612) (cropped)” by Rhododendrites, CC BY-SA 4.0
4Northern Mockingbird
Mimus polyglottos
2.3% of winter bird reports
Year roundPhoto: “Mockingbird in Bay Ridge (85082)” by Rhododendrites, CC BY-SA 4.0
5House Finch
Haemorhous mexicanus
2.2% of winter bird reports
Year roundPhoto: “House finch (33688)2” by Rhododendrites, CC BY-SA 4.0
6Mourning Dove
Zenaida macroura
2.0% of winter bird reports
Year roundPhoto: “Mourning dove perched (61179)” by Rhododendrites, CC BY-SA 4.0
7Chipping Sparrow
Spizella passerina
2.0% of winter bird reports
Year roundPhoto: “Spizella-passerina-015 edit” by Mdf, Edited by Fir0002, CC BY-SA 3.0
8Pine Warbler
Setophaga pinus
2.0% of winter bird reports
Year roundPhoto: “Pine warbler (90070)” by Rhododendrites, CC BY-SA 4.0
Every bird reported most in South Carolina 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 | Northern Cardinal | 4.3% | 4.7% | Year round |
| 2 | Eastern Bluebird | 3.8% | 2.8% | Year round |
| 3 | Yellow-rumped Warbler | 3.0% | 0.01% | Winter visitor |
| 4 | Northern Mockingbird | 2.3% | 2.5% | Year round |
| 5 | Great Blue Heron | 2.3% | 2.6% | Year round |
| 6 | House Finch | 2.2% | 2.8% | Year round |
| 7 | Mourning Dove | 2.0% | 2.8% | Year round |
| 8 | Chipping Sparrow | 2.0% | 0.99% | Year round |
| 9 | Pine Warbler | 2.0% | 0.43% | Year round |
| 10 | Great Egret | 1.9% | 3.6% | Year round |
| 11 | Ring-billed Gull | 1.8% | 0.17% | Winter visitor |
| 12 | White-throated Sparrow | 1.8% | 0.00% | Winter visitor |
| 13 | American Robin | 1.8% | 1.3% | Year round |
| 14 | Carolina Wren | 1.7% | 1.9% | Year round |
| 15 | Carolina Chickadee | 1.7% | 1.4% | Year round |
| 16 | Dark-eyed Junco | 1.7% | 0.04% | Winter visitor |
| 17 | Red-shouldered Hawk | 1.6% | 0.99% | Year round |
| 18 | Double-crested Cormorant | 1.5% | 0.41% | Year round |
| 19 | Downy Woodpecker | 1.5% | 1.1% | Year round |
| 20 | Turkey Vulture | 1.4% | 0.89% | Year round |
Winter visitors to South Carolina
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 South Carolina that makes 7 species:
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Setophaga coronata
3.0% of winter bird reports against 0.01% in summer, about 416 times the summer share.
Ring-billed Gull
Larus delawarensis
1.8% of winter bird reports against 0.17% in summer, about 11 times the summer share.
White-throated Sparrow
Zonotrichia albicollis
1.8% of winter bird reports against 0.00% in summer, about 746 times the summer share.
Dark-eyed Junco
Junco hyemalis
1.7% of winter bird reports against 0.04% in summer, about 46 times the summer share.
Hooded Merganser
Lophodytes cucullatus
1.4% of winter bird reports and no summer reports at all.
Cedar Waxwing
Bombycilla cedrorum
1.2% of winter bird reports against 0.01% in summer, about 86 times the summer share.
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Corthylio calendula
1.1% of winter bird reports against 0.00% in summer, about 237 times the summer share.
When South Carolina’s top winter birds are reported
The eight birds with the most winter reports in South Carolina, 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.
Northern Cardinal
Peaks in September at 5.5%; winter 4.3%, summer 4.7%.
Eastern Bluebird
Peaks in February at 4.1%; winter 3.9%, summer 2.8%.
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Peaks in February at 4.3%; winter 3.1%, summer 0.01%.
Northern Mockingbird
Peaks in May at 3.1%; winter 2.4%, summer 2.5%.
Great Blue Heron
Peaks in June at 2.9%; winter 2.2%, summer 2.6%.
House Finch
Peaks in September at 3.4%; winter 2.2%, summer 2.8%.
Mourning Dove
Peaks in September at 3.7%; winter 2.1%, summer 2.8%.
Chipping Sparrow
Peaks in March at 2.5%; winter 2.1%, summer 0.98%.
Winter bird counts in South Carolina
Three counts run through the winter, each open to anyone in South Carolina 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 South Carolina
Compiled 2026-09-22 from research grade bird observation counts for South Carolina on iNaturalist, December to February, winters 2016-17 through 2025-26, against June to August, summers 2016 through 2025: 64,373 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 4.3% of them. Count dates and feeding guidance are quoted from the organisers and agencies linked above.