Backyard Birds of Utah
Utah stacks Mojave desert, Great Basin salt flats, Wasatch canyons, and red-rock plateau — a Beehive State feeding station works twelve months a year. Sixteen portraits are pinned on the map below, right where each species is most characteristic. Hover any portrait to see its name, tap to jump to its profile, then open its photo gallery and play its call.
Jump to a Species
The Black-billed Magpie — the bold backyard icon of the Wasatch Front — leads the list, followed by feeder regulars, desert finches, and mountain songsters. Every entry links to a full species guide.
Black-billed Magpie- Black-capped Chickadee
- Mountain Chickadee
- Juniper Titmouse
- White-breasted Nuthatch
- Downy Woodpecker
- Northern Flicker
- American Robin
- House Finch
- Cassin’s Finch
- Lesser Goldfinch
- Dark-eyed Junco
- Mountain Bluebird
- Black-chinned Hummingbird
- Broad-tailed Hummingbird
- Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jay
Backyard Birds in Utah: A Year-Round Seasonal Identification Guide
Quick Answer: Birding a Utah Backyard
Utah’s stacked habitats — desert, basin, and mountain — make backyard birding a 12-month pursuit. Anchor birds are year-round residents led by the Black-billed Magpie, Black-capped and Mountain Chickadees, Juniper Titmouse, White-breasted Nuthatch, Downy Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, House Finch, Cassin’s Finch, Lesser Goldfinch, Dark-eyed Junco, and Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jay. Summer adds Mountain Bluebirds, Black-chinned and Broad-tailed Hummingbirds. (The state bird, the California Gull, saved the crops in 1848 — it prefers parking lots to feeders.) In Utah’s arid climate, water is the best feeder, and mountain valleys have black bears — feeders come in at night April through November.
Meet the 105 Backyard Birds of Utah
The magpie leads the list, followed by year-round regulars, winter visitors, and summer breeders. Every card opens a photo gallery, plays a real field recording, and links to the full species guide. Use the seasonal filter bar above to narrow the list.
📍 Salt Lake City
Black-billed Magpie
Pica hudsoniaA spectacular 17.9–23.6-inch corvid: black-and-white with an iridescent green-blue tail half the bird’s length. Magpies patrol Utah open country and ranch yards in noisy bands, visiting platforms for suet and scraps. They cache food, recognize individual people, and are among the smartest birds on Earth.
📍 Provo
Black-capped Chickadee
Poecile atricapillusA tiny 4.7–5.9-inch acrobat with a black cap and bib, white cheeks, and buffy flanks. Chickadees are the bold first visitors to any new feeder, grabbing one seed and flying off to cache it. Listen for the chick-a-dee-dee-dee call that gives the bird its name — and the clear two-note fee-bee whistle of spring.
📍 Logan
Mountain Chickadee
Poecile gambeliThe chickadee of the high country (4.3–5.5 inches): black bib and cap like its eastern cousins, but with a bold white eyebrow stripe slicing through the black. Mountain Chickadees are year-round residents of Utah’s conifer forests and faithful visitors to mountain feeders all winter.
📍 Price
Juniper Titmouse
Baeolophus ridgwayiA small 5.3–6-inch gray bird with a tiny crest — the unadorned spirit of the pinyon-juniper woods. Juniper Titmice live year-round in Utah’s dry foothills, prying seeds and insects from juniper bark, visiting sunflower feeders, and nesting in old woodpecker holes.
📍 Ogden
White-breasted Nuthatch
Sitta carolinensisA compact 5.1–5.5-inch bird in blue-gray with a clean white face and breast and black cap. Nuthatches are the acrobats of the feeder, famously walking headfirst down tree trunks. Year-round residents of Utah hardwoods and older neighborhoods, they call a nasal yank-yank.
📍 Orem
Downy Woodpecker
Dryobates pubescensNorth America’s smallest woodpecker (5.5–6.7 inches) is a Utah backyard regular in every season. Black-and-white checkered wings, a clean white stripe down the back, and a tiny stubby bill separate it from the larger Hairy Woodpecker; males wear a small red patch on the nape.
Recording via Wikimedia Commons / xeno-canto
Read Full Guide →
📍 Layton
Northern Flicker
Colaptes auratusA big 11–12-inch woodpecker in brown-barred plumage with a black bib and spotted belly; eastern birds flash golden wing linings and a red nape crescent. Flickers spend much of their time on the ground lapping up ants, and drum on Utah gutters at dawn in spring — loud, but it’s a love song.
Recording via Wikimedia Commons / xeno-canto
Read Full Guide →
📍 Sandy
American Robin
Turdus migratoriusThe familiar 7.9–11-inch thrush: gray above, brick-red below, yellow-billed. The dawn chorus over a Utah lawn is built on its cheerily-cheerup phrases. Robins nest on porch lights and ledges, and big winter flocks descend on holly and hackberry trees across the state.
📍 Brigham City
House Finch
Haemorhous mexicanusA 5.1–5.5-inch finch: males washed strawberry-red on head, breast, and rump; females plainly streaked. House Finches spread across the East in the 1990s and now crowd Utah tube feeders year-round, warbling long songs that end in an up-slurred veer.
📍 Richfield
Cassin’s Finch
Haemorhous cassiniiThe mountain cousin of the House Finch (6–6.7 inches): males are rose-pink with a bright red crown patch and fine streaking below; females are crisply streaked. Cassin’s Finches live in Utah’s conifer belt and drop to feeders in winter, often in cheerful mixed flocks with siskins and goldfinches.
📍 St. George
Lesser Goldfinch
Spinus psaltriaA tiny 4.5-inch finch: males are bright yellow below with a black cap and black (western) or green (eastern) back; females are olive-yellow. Lesser Goldfinches ride Utah flower stalks like acrobats and mob Nyjer feeders in cheerful flocks, chattering sweeet calls as they feed.
📍 Tooele
Dark-eyed Junco
Junco hyemalisThe classic snowbird: a 5.5–6.3-inch sparrow with a slate-gray hood set cleanly against a white belly, white outer tail feathers flashing in flight. Juncos pour into Utah each October and double-scratch for millet under feeders until April — the surest sign of winter.
📍 Moab
Mountain Bluebird
Sialia currucoidesA 6.3–7.9-inch bluebird the color of a high-country sky — males are cerulean blue all over, females soft gray-blue. Mountain Bluebirds hover-hunt insects over Utah’s open meadows and sage flats, and accept nest boxes on open ground far from trees.
📍 Cedar City
Black-chinned Hummingbird
Archilochus alexandriThe widespread hummingbird of the western U.S. (3.5–3.9 inches): emerald-green above with a black chin and a violet throat band that shows only in good light; females are plain green. Black-chinned Hummingbirds nest in Utah backyards and dominate sugar-water feeders all summer.
Recording via Wikimedia Commons / xeno-canto
Read Full Guide →
📍 Vernal
Broad-tailed Hummingbird
Selasphorus platycercusThe mountain hummingbird of the Rockies (3.9–4.3 inches): males have a rose-magenta throat and wings that trill metallically in flight — the soundtrack of a Utah mountain summer. Broad-tails breed at altitude and visit feeders May through August before heading to Mexico.
📍 Kanab
Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jay
Aphelocoma woodhouseiiThe interior West’s scrub-jay (11–11.8 inches): duller blue than its California cousin, with a gray back and pale throat. Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jays live year-round in Utah’s pinyon-juniper belt and towns, caching piñon nuts by the thousand each fall — and remembering most of the hiding places.
Recording via Wikimedia Commons / xeno-canto
Read Full Guide →More Backyard Birds in Utah +89 species
Every other species from our backyard bird library that regularly occurs in Utah — each with its own photo gallery, playable call, and full species guide. Browse 16 per page using the dots below.
Feeder: Visits backyard feeders and water features.
Feeder: Visits backyard feeders and water features.
Feeder: Whole corn, peanuts, and a shallow water pan on open ground.
Feeder: Nyjer (thistle) socks and fine sunflower chips year-round.
Feeder: Perches on fences; nest boxes on poles in open country.
Feeder: White millet and fine cracked corn on ground or platform.
Feeder: Visits backyard feeders and water features.
Feeder: Visits backyard feeders and water features.
Feeder: Visits backyard feeders and water features.
Feeder: Suet crumbs and brush piles or wood stacks for cover.
Feeder: Visits backyard feeders and water features.
Feeder: Sunflower seeds at a sturdy platform feeder in summer.
Feeder: Visits backyard feeders and water features.
Feeder: Visits backyard feeders and water features.
Feeder: Grain and crumbs on ground platforms in open western yards.
Feeder: Suet smeared on tree bark; spirals up trunks for hidden insects.
Feeder: Cracked corn and grain on the ground; a nest parasite.
Feeder: Grape jelly, halved oranges, and sugar water in summer.
Feeder: Suet in hanging baskets — whole buzzing flocks pile on together.
Feeder: Visits backyard feeders and water features.
Feeder: Cracked corn scattered near dense cat-proof shrubs.
Feeder: Sugar-water feeders; North America’s smallest bird.
Feeder: Visits backyard feeders and water features.
Feeder: Cracked corn, sunflower chips, and a shallow water dish.
Feeder: Berry-producing trees and a fountain or moving water.
Feeder: Fine seed mix and grass seed scattered on open ground.
Feeder: Visits backyard feeders and water features.
Feeder: Rarely visits feeders; appreciate these giants from the window.
Feeder: Not a feeder guest — it hunts the birds at your feeders.
Feeder: Sugar-water feeders near desert sage and penstemon.
Feeder: Visits backyard feeders and water features.
Feeder: Large grains on big platform feeders; spreading fast.
Feeder: Suet and crumbs; use starling-resistant caged feeders.
Feeder: Sunflower pieces and cracked corn; double-scratches in leaf litter.
Feeder: Ground grain and a low, shaded water dish in desert yards.
Feeder: Visits backyard feeders and water features.
Feeder: Grape jelly, halved oranges, raisins, and dense shady shrubs.
Feeder: Visits backyard feeders and water features.
Feeder: Visits backyard feeders and water features.
Feeder: Visits backyard feeders and water features.
Feeder: Visits backyard feeders and water features.
Feeder: Visits backyard feeders and water features.
Feeder: Suet blocks and whole peanuts; favors larger trees near feeders.
Feeder: Berry-producing shrubs and a ground birdbath in shady yards.
Feeder: Cracked corn, millet, and crumbs; nests in cavities and crevices.
Feeder: Nest boxes with 1-inch holes; eats insects, not seed.
Feeder: Suet and nut pieces in arid scrub yards.
Feeder: Visits backyard feeders and water features.
Feeder: White millet and fine sunflower chips near brushy slopes.
Feeder: White millet and cracked corn on the ground or a low platform.
Feeder: Suet, fruit slices, and dense berry-producing shrubs.
Feeder: Suet crumbs; occasionally sips at hummingbird feeders.
Feeder: Visits backyard feeders and water features.
Feeder: Nyjer and fine sunflower chips; irrupts to feeders in dense flocks.
Feeder: Visits backyard feeders and water features.
Feeder: Suet and crushed nuts; communal winter flocks in pine towns.
Feeder: Sunflower seeds on open platforms; visits erratically with cone crops.
Feeder: Suet, black oil sunflower, and peanut bits at tube feeders.
Feeder: Visits backyard feeders and water features.
Feeder: Visits backyard feeders and water features.
Feeder: Sunflower, millet, and corn — arrives in loud flocks.
Feeder: Visits backyard feeders and water features.
Feeder: Visits backyard feeders and water features.
Feeder: Visits backyard feeders and water features.
Feeder: Visits backyard feeders and water features.
Feeder: Visits backyard feeders and water features.
Feeder: Visits backyard feeders and water features.
Feeder: Hunts small feeder birds in winter; give feeders escape cover.
Feeder: Mixed seed and white millet near brushy edges; loves a birdbath.
Feeder: Coarse seed mixes on a ground platform near dry thickets.
Feeder: Whole peanuts, suet, and large nuts at mountain cabins.
Feeder: Visits backyard feeders and water features.
Feeder: Visits backyard feeders and water features.
Feeder: Visits backyard feeders and water features.
Feeder: Visits backyard feeders and water features.
Feeder: Mealworms and a nest box facing open ground.
Feeder: Visits backyard feeders and water features.
Feeder: Tree-cavity style nest boxes; listen for the bouncing-ball call.
Feeder: Visits backyard feeders and water features.
Feeder: Sunflower chips and white millet on the ground near brush.
Feeder: Visits backyard feeders and water features.
Feeder: Visits backyard feeders and water features.
Feeder: Suet cakes, berries, and peanut butter smeared on bark.
The Utah Seasonal Feeder Calendar
🌱 Spring
March – MayMountain Bluebirds return to nest boxes in March; magpies are already nesting. Hang nectar feeders by late April for Black-chinned and Broad-tailed Hummingbirds. In the Wasatch foothills, bears leave dens in April — bring feeders in at night where bears are seen.
☀️ Summer
June – AugustUtah’s dry heat rules everything: change hummingbird nectar every 1–2 days, shade seed feeders, and keep a dripping birdbath running — water outdraws every feeder from June to September. Bluebirds raise second broods; watch for juvenile scrub-jays and finches at feeders by July.
🍂 Autumn
September – NovemberMountain birds drift down to the valleys. Juncos, siskins, and White-crowned Sparrows arrive in October; hummingbirds leave by mid-September. Stock seed and suet ahead of the first Wasatch snow, and watch for Evening Grosbeaks in mountain towns.
❄️ Winter
December – FebruaryPrime feeding season. Black oil sunflower, suet, and Nyjer carry chickadees, nuthatches, and finch flocks through inversion season. A heated birdbath is the biggest draw in a frozen valley, and magpies clean up suet scraps.
Frequently Asked Questions: Backyard Birding in Utah
- The Backyard Icon: The Black-billed Magpie — iridescent, bold, and unafraid — patrols Wasatch Front yards year-round for suet, scraps, and peanuts.
- The State Bird: The California Gull (state bird since 1955) saved Mormon settlers’ crops from crickets in 1848 — you’ll see it at parking lots and reservoirs, not feeders.
- Water Wins: Utah is the second-driest state — a dripping birdbath attracts more species than any seed feeder, from finches to warblers.
- Winter Finches: Cassin’s Finches, Pine Siskins, and Evening Grosbeaks hit Utah feeders all winter — mountain towns add rosy-finches after storms.
- The Map: The pinned map at the top of this page shows where each of the 16 featured birds is most characteristic; every pin jumps to a profile with photos, a playable call, and a full guide link.
- Best Single Upgrade: A suet cage plus a heated birdbath — chickadees, nuthatches, magpies, and finches through inversion-season cold.
Utah Birding Checklist
Region: Utah — 105 Backyard Species