Complete field guide to every bird species recorded in New Jersey. Browse by name, filter by taxonomic family or order, and tap any species for photos, range maps, songs, and identification tips.
All sighting data is sourced from eBird, the world's largest citizen science database for birds. Use this guide to discover what birds live in New Jersey, learn their calls, and plan birding trips to the best hotspots in the region.
New Jersey packs more than 490 recorded species into one of the smallest states in the country, and it holds what many consider the single most famous birding spot in North America: Cape May. The peninsula acts as a funnel for everything moving down the Atlantic Flyway each fall — on the right October cold front, the point fills with thousands of raptors, warblers streaming overhead at first light, and seabirds pouring past the beach, all before breakfast.
The rest of the state more than pulls its weight. The Delaware Bayshore stages one of the planet's great shorebird spectacles each May, when Red Knots and Ruddy Turnstones crowd the beaches to feast on horseshoe-crab eggs. Vast salt marshes behind the barrier islands host skimmers, terns, and Saltmarsh Sparrows; the Kittatinny Ridge carries hawk flights inland; and in winter the Barnegat jetty is the most reliable place on the East Coast to stand an arm's length from Harlequin Ducks.
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Where to bird in New Jersey
Cape May Point State Park
The legendary hawkwatch platform: tens of thousands of raptors funnel past each fall, from kestrel and Merlin flights in September to Golden Eagles and goshawks in November, with the lighthouse and monarch butterflies as backdrop.
Higbee Beach WMA
Cape May's morning-flight phenomenon: on fall cold fronts, thousands of warblers, orioles, and cuckoos stream north over the dike at dawn as they reorient — one of the most astonishing songbird shows in the country.
Avalon Seawatch
From late September through December, counters here tally hundreds of thousands of southbound seabirds — scoter lines stretching to the horizon, loons, gannets, and the odd jaeger, all from a comfortable street-end perch.
Edwin B. Forsythe NWR (Brigantine)
The eight-mile Wildlife Drive loops through salt marsh and impoundments with Atlantic City on the skyline: clouds of shorebirds and waterfowl, breeding Ospreys and skimmers, and hunting Peregrines almost guaranteed in fall.
The Delaware Bayshore
Reeds Beach and the Heislerville WMA impoundments host the late-May spectacle of Red Knots and thousands of other shorebirds gorging on horseshoe-crab eggs — time your visit to high tide in the last two weeks of May.
Sandy Hook
A barrier spit at the mouth of New York Harbor that concentrates spring migrants and fall raptors alike, with a productive seawatch, wintering sea ducks, and a knack for turning up rarities.
Garret Mountain Reservation
North Jersey's classic May warbler patch: a wooded ridge above Paterson where a good morning brings 20-plus warbler species at eye level, plus tanagers, thrushes, and grosbeaks.
DeKorte Park, Meadowlands
Restored marsh impoundments minutes from Manhattan, with boardwalk loops over pools full of shorebirds in migration, ducks in winter, and the New York City skyline behind every scope view.
Barnegat Lighthouse State Park
The winter jetty walk: Harlequin Ducks bobbing in the surf at point-blank range, with Purple Sandpipers, Common Eiders, Long-tailed Ducks, and loons among the rocks from December through March.
New Jersey birding by season
Spring (March–May) — Warbler waves and the horseshoe-crab feast
May mornings at Garret Mountain and Princeton's woodlands drip with warblers, while the month closes with the Delaware Bay shorebird spectacle — Red Knots, turnstones, and Semipalmated Sandpipers carpeting the beaches.
Summer (June–August) — Salt marsh in full swing
Ospreys on every platform, Black Skimmers and Least Terns on the beaches, Saltmarsh Sparrows in the spartina — and by July the first southbound shorebirds are already back at Forsythe.
Fall (September–November) — Cape May earns its reputation
The best fall birding in North America: morning flights at Higbee after each cold front, falcon days on the hawkwatch in early October, seabirds streaming past Avalon, and sparrows and rarities through November.
Winter (December–February) — Harlequins, owls, and hardy seawatching
Barnegat's jetty ducks are the marquee attraction, Snowy Owls haunt the barrier beaches in flight years, and raptors — harriers, Rough-legged Hawks, Short-eared Owls — course over the winter marshes.
All 544 bird species recorded in New Jersey
Every species on this list has been recorded in New Jersey on eBird. Tap any bird for photos, range maps, songs, and identification tips.