Complete field guide to every bird species recorded in New York. 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 York, learn their calls, and plan birding trips to the best hotspots in the region.
New York birding runs from the most famous urban migrant trap on Earth to genuine boreal wilderness. Central Park in May is a rite of passage — warblers concentrated into a green island amid concrete — while the Adirondack High Peaks hold Bicknell's Thrush, one of the most range-restricted breeding birds in North America.
The state's geography does the work: Atlantic beaches and salt marsh on Long Island, the Great Lakes shorelines funneling raptors and waterbirds upstate, and the Niagara River — which in late fall hosts one of the greatest gull concentrations in the world, with 19 species recorded.
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Where to bird in New York
Central Park
The Ramble in May needs no introduction: 25+ warbler species on a good morning, all at close range, plus a birding culture all its own. October brings sparrows and owls to the North Woods.
Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge
Salt marsh and impoundments inside city limits — August shorebird numbers that rival anywhere in the Northeast, terns and skimmers off the West Pond, and fall raptors overhead.
Montauk Point
Long Island's winter seawatching capital: all three scoters by the thousand, Common Eiders, Razorbills, and Harlequin Ducks against the lighthouse rocks.
Niagara River Corridor
November–December gull madness — tens of thousands of birds riding the rapids, with Iceland, Glaucous, Little, Sabine's, and if you're lucky Ross's or Ivory among them. A world-class spectacle most birders haven't heard of.
Braddock Bay & Derby Hill
The two great Lake Ontario hawkwatches: south winds in April push tens of thousands of raptors along the shoreline, including the continent's best spring Broad-winged and Red-shouldered flights.
Adirondack boreal bogs
Bloomingdale Bog and Ferd's Bog for Gray Jay, Black-backed Woodpecker, and Boreal Chickadee; Whiteface Mountain's summit road for singing Bicknell's Thrush in June.
Fire Island & Robert Moses SP
Fall songbird flights at the lighthouse, Piping Plovers and terns on the beaches, and one of the East Coast's better sea-duck and gannet shows offshore.
Sterling Forest State Park
The Northeast's most reliable Golden-winged Warblers, plus Cerulean and Hooded Warblers in the oak woods an hour from Manhattan.
Montezuma Wetlands Complex
The Finger Lakes' waterfowl factory: fall Snow Goose clouds, breeding Cerulean Warblers at the marsh edges, and Sandhill Cranes now nesting.
New York birding by season
Spring (April–May) — Parks full of warblers, skies full of hawks
Central Park and every urban green space concentrates migrants; meanwhile Braddock Bay and Derby Hill count raptors by the ten-thousand on south winds. Mid-May is peak everywhere.
Summer (June–August) — Boreal breeders and beach birds
June is Bicknell's Thrush time in the Adirondacks; Long Island's beaches run with plovers, oystercatchers, and tern colonies; shorebird migration is already returning by late July at Jamaica Bay.
Fall (September–November) — Coastal flights and the gull show
Morning flights at Fire Island and Robert Moses after cold fronts, sparrow waves through October, and then the Niagara gulls — plan a late-November trip and dress warm.
Winter (December–February) — Sea ducks, owls, and finches
Montauk's scoter rafts, Short-eared Owls in the grasslands, Snowy Owls on the barrier beaches in flight years, and winter finches when the cone crop sends them south.
All 606 bird species recorded in New York
Every species on this list has been recorded in New York on eBird. Tap any bird for photos, range maps, songs, and identification tips.