Laura Erickson's For the Birds

Monday, December 27, 2021

My Top Ten Favorite Birds of All Time

Black-capped Chickadee

What follows is my "Top Ten List of Favorite Birds." It's entirely subjective and arbitrary—at any given moment I may add birds or shift rankings. The tie for seventh place puts a total of 20 species in the "Top Ten." There were a bunch of "First Runners-Up," setting my list of all-time favorites at 57, again entirely subject to change. Within each ranking, birds are listed in taxonomic order.

1. Black-capped Chickadee 

Black-capped Chickadees nesting in yard

2. Pileated Woodpecker 

Pileated Woodpecker

Blue Jay

Blue Jay 

4. Common Nighthawk  

Common Nighthawk  

Florida Scrub-Jay 

Florida Scrub-Jay 

Evening Grosbeak 

Evening Grosbeak

7. Ruby-throated Hummingbird

Ruby-throated Hummingbird at bee balm

Rufous Hummingbird  

Rufous Hummingbird  

Limpkin  

Limpkin  

Piping Plover 

Piping Plover adult with chicks 

Black-capped Vireo 
 
Black-capped Vireo 

Red-eyed Vireo 

Red-eyed Vireo 

Boreal Chickadee

Boreal Chickadee

Golden-crowned Kinglet

Golden-crowned Kinglet

Pine Grosbeak

Pine Grosbeak

Common Redpoll

Common Redpoll

LeConte’s Sparrow 

LeConte's Sparrow profile 

Brown Thrasher 

Brown Thrasher 

Winter Wren 

Winter Wren 

Northern Cardinal 

Northern Cardinal 

There's a tie for First Runner-Up, also very much subject to change, mostly as I realize other species deserve to be here, too.

Sora
Sandhill Crane
American Woodcock
Razorbill
Atlantic Puffin
Black Tern
Wood Stork
Great Blue Heron
California Condor
Boreal Owl
Northern Saw-whet Owl
Resplendent Quetzal
Cuban Tody
Red-headed Woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Eastern Kingbird
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
American Crow
Tufted Titmouse
Tree Swallow
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Bohemian Waxwing 
Cedar Waxwing
Brown Creeper
House Wren
Veery
Hermit Thrush
American Robin
House Sparrow  
Fox Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Song Sparrow
American Redstart
Blackburnian Warbler 
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
 
Razorbill and Atlantic Puffin