#birdsof2026 — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #birdsof2026, aggregated by home.social.
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I got some bad family news right before a long-planned trip to Crater Lake this week, and very nearly cancelled. But it's the kind of bad news that I can't do anything about today, and will need all my energy to help with in a few weeks, so I went. What a stunning place, and what a valuable distraction. Along with one hell of a pretty lake, it was a great couple of days of birding. Though the nutcracker is the most famous Crater Lake bird, I'll always think of it as a mountain bluebird place. It's only fitting that the bluest lake hosts one of the bluest birds.
97) Western Wood-Pewee
98) Purple Finch
99) Northern Yellow Warbler
100) Canada Jay
101) Mountain Bluebird
102) Pine Siskin
103) Chipping Sparrow
104) Clark's Nutcracker
105) Black-billed Magpie
106) Olive-sided Flycatcher -
Whenever I find myself in Portland, as I did today on an early morning airport dropoff, I try to visit one of my old birding haunts. This morning, that meant a magical hour and a half, 22-species walk through Greenway Park in Beaverton. This cinnamon teal made me audibly gasp, showing up pretty as anything about 15 feet in front of me.
95) Cinnamon Teal
96) Black-headed Grosbeak
#BirdsOf2026 -
I had a great few minutes with this beauty, considered rare but not unheard of in May in Lincoln County, OR. The little yellow eyebrow patch is a great field mark and made him look very dapper among the brambles. That's a new one for the farm, the 57th species I've seen there.
94) White-throated Sparrow
#BirdsOf2026 -
I'm really tired of waiting for the decolonized new common names for North American birds. It was supposed to happen years ago, and I have a suspicion that a few old men are holding it back. Like everything else. Anyway, nice to see what should be called a Black-capped Yellow Warbler. And I don't rank birds, but if I did, waxwings would be top ten.
91) Cedar Waxwing
92) Band-tailed Pigeon
93) Wilson's Warbler
#BirdsOf2026 #BirdNamesForBirds -
This shouldn't be a rare sight, but it's starting to be. These beauties, with that strong cardinal bill, are one of the fastest declining songbirds in North America. It was great to see two today, and see reports of many more around town. Stick around. Make babies.
90) Evening Grosbeak
#BirdsOf2026 -
I'm pretty sure I've heard them already, but got my first good look of the year at this classic American farm bird. Incidentally, when I started typing its name, my phone tried to autocorrect to "Brown-hearted" and I have questions.
89) Brown-headed Cowbird
#BirdsOf2026 -
Another one that I really thought I'd already counted this year, but apparently not. Always happy to see these stripey boys with their trademark whistling calls and the most misleading name in all of birddom. An old coworker of mine once drew a comic of them flying straight through deer like arrows.
88) Killdeer
#BirdsOf2026 -
Morning was the puffin time. Alcid paradise at Haystack Rock this morning.
86) Tufted Puffin
87) Pigeon Guillemot
#BirdsOf2026 -
Farthest north I've gone on the coast this year (Haystack Rock) and sadly no puffins today. Fingers crossed for tomorrow. But I did see these beauties. But the real treat was the rock itself.
84) Common Murre
85) Pelagic Cormorant
#BirdsOf2026 #oregon -
Big day at Finley yesterday, my first full day of the year at our fantastic local wildlife refuge. It's a gem, as are so many of our public lands. Two big surprises on the day: I didn't think the pelicans were back for the season, and how HOW did I not have any coots yet? I could have sworn. But I have to trust the app and this thread. They say it's new, it's new.
78) American Wigeon
79) Ring-necked Duck
80) American Coot
81) American White Pelican
82) Hutton's Vireo
83) Marsh Wren
#BirdsOf2026 -
It remains very finchy out. A day after I got one common goldfinch species confirmed, I get the other. There are also purples about, but I want to get an actual look before I count them.
77) Lesser Goldfinch
#BirdsOf2026 -
Very finchy out today on my short walk, just after the rain cleared. Lots of little guys flitting here and there, but I did see my first definitive breeding season goldfinches of the year. Spring keeps springing.
76) American Goldfinch
#BirdsOf2026 -
Two more spring arrivals, and more importantly, two great moments with both of these birds along the Willamette River today. It's also nice to hit 75, the second earliest in my 9 eBird years that I've reached that number. I'm a slow and careful lister, who only marks birds I am very sure of, so every one is a fairly close, unique experience.
74) Greater Yellowlegs
75) Osprey -
Spring continues to arrive, one migrant bird at a time. I had a fabulous half-hour walk at Jackson-Frazier Wetland, with 18 species and 2 new for the year. Oregonians, get out every day you can. Literally see it before it burns, because the summer is going to be rough.
72) Barn Swallow
73) Orange-crowned Warbler
#BirdsOf2026 -
This was my first real trip to the coast this year, where I could actually sit and watch birds, and it was spectacular. Seaducks for days. The harleys in particular are a bird I don't see every year and haven't in the last few. Add in my first pelicans of the year and a lovely close look at a male crossbill, and it was all such a treat.
65) Western Gull
66) Harlequin Duck
67) Black Oystercatcher
68) Surf Scoter
69) Red Crossbill
70) Black Scoter
71) Brown Pelican -
I spend most of my time watching birds in parks and wilder land, and that means I sometimes miss the ones that hang out in human spaces. These days, you're more likely to see these dudes in a big box store parking lot than their native wetlands and grasslands, but I'm glad I saw them on the farm, in the grass where they belong.
64) Brewer's Blackbird
#BirdsOf2026 -
Spring continues its approach, and the migration is speeding up. Today, at Ankeny Hill refuge, I spotted my first migrating hummingbird of the year, a great look at a male rufous. After a long flight on such tiny wings, I hope you have a good summer, little one.
63) Rufous Hummingbird
#BirdsOf2026 #oregon -
Swallow season has arrived in western Oregon, and to me at least, it has come all at once. I usually see Trees at least a little before VGs, but today they both put on a show at Willamette Park and showed me all their butts and faces, so I could see the difference. Welcome to spring.
61) Tree Swallow
62) Violet-green Swallow -
Introduced, but they count. It's not their fault that we brought them here, or that they happen to like it so much and do so well where we put them. The hoo-HOO-hoos have arrived.
60) Eurasian Collared-Dove
#BirdsOf2026 -
I saw my first vulture of the year today, often one of my favorite days of the year. My muse, my champion, the golden purifier, Cathartes aura. And I can't even enjoy it. I can't welcome this old friend back to my skies, because I am mourning those my government is killing and the many, many more who will die and be harmed because of it.
59) Turkey Vulture
#BirdsOf2026 -
We pretty regularly get chickadees both -capped and -backed at the farm, but I can't ID the latter by song, so it always takes me a little longer. Gotcha.
58) Chestnut-backed Chickadee
#BirdsOf2026 -
I know I've heard Phoebes before today, but I hadn't positively identified one until this great look this morning, perched close and singing at Starker Arts Park in Corvallis.
57) Black Phoebe
#BirdsOf2026 -
Good little-bird day at the park today. Three sparrow species—song, golden-crowned and white-crowned—plus juncos, hummingbirds, chickadees, wren, etc. Probably a killdeer too, which would have been #57, but I wasn't quite sure enough to count it.
56) White-crowned Sparrow
#BirdsOf2026 -
Today is the start of this year's Great Backyard Bird Count. I went to my local wetland and heard one of the few birds that this mediocre auditory birder can reliably count by sound, as two rails were calling at each other from opposite sides of the boardwalk.
Any eBird observations from now through Monday help scientists and managers more effectively protect birds for decades to come.
More info: https://www.birdcount.org/55) Virginia Rail
#BirdsOf2026 -
When I watch birds, I tend to do it in the wildest places I have time to get to, and so it sometimes takes me a while to see city birds that are some of the most common in the country. Today, in the parking lot of Jackson-Frazier Wetland, I finally picked up the rare, the elusive, the enigmatic:
54) House Sparrow
#BirdsOf2026 -
I had to drop someone off at the airport very early this morning, and took the opportunity to visit two of my favorite spots from back when I lived around Portland: Greenway Park and Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge. Between the two, I saw 30 species of birds, 8 new for the year. I definitely have work to catch up on from taking the extra time off, but it was well worth it. Both places are gems, and if you get a chance, I can't recommend visiting them enough.
46) Cackling Goose
47) Green-winged Teal
48) Common Merganser
49) Great Egret
50) Northern Shoveler
51) Northern Pintail
52) Ruddy Duck
53) Pied-billed Grebe -
One more, and now I'm really running out of easy winter ones. Still a few weird ducks to track down, but then it's going to slow way down until spring migration arrival. I'm three ahead of last year at this time, and more importantly, I've had some very pretty walks.
45) Golden-crowned Sparrow
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This is ridiculous, scary weather for western Oregon in January. But just for today, I'm choosing not to think about what it means for our water year or what it portends for summer. We spent 3 hours birding Salem's Minto-Brown Island Refuge and Park, and saw 21 species of birds, 6 of them new to me for the year. Glorious walk.
39) Gadwall
40) Great Blue Heron
41) Bald Eagle
42) Red-tailed Hawk
43) Belted Kingfisher
44) Western Bluebird -
Fabulous day, bird-wise at least. It's very funny how long it took me to see a goose. They're everywhere, just not where I was walking until today. One of my favorite things is seeing two similar birds next to each other, to clearly see the differences. Today I got that with the woodpeckers. What a treat.
33) Canada Goose
34) Downy Woodpecker
35) Hairy Woodpecker
36) American Kestrel
37) Pacific Wren
38) Fox Sparrow