List of Birds of The United States

List Of Birds Of The United States

This list of United States birds is a comprehensive listing of all the bird species known from the United States as of November, 2010. It does include species recorded in all 50 states.

Continental United States birds most closely resemble those of Eurasia, which was connected to the continent as part of the supercontinent Laurasia until around 60 million years ago. Many groups occur throughout the northern hemisphere and worldwide. However some groups unique to the New World have also arisen; those represented in this list are the hummingbirds, the New World vultures, the New World quail, the tyrant flycatchers, the vireos, the mimids, the New World warblers, the tanagers, the cardinals and the icterids.

Several common birds in the United States, such as the House Sparrow, the Rock Dove, the European Starling, and the Mute Swan are introduced species, meaning that they are not native to this continent but were brought here by man from Europe or elsewhere. Introduced species are marked on this list as (I). There may be species that have individual escapees or small feral populations in North America that are not on this list. This is especially true of birds that are commonly held as pets, such as parrots and finches.

The status of one bird on this list, the Ivory-billed Woodpecker is controversial. Until 2005 this bird was widely considered to be extinct. In April of that year it was reported that ar least one adult male bird had been sighted in the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge in Arkansas. This report however, has not been universally accepted, and the American Birding Association still lists the Ivory-billed Woodpecker as extinct.

This list is based on a checklist used by the AOU, the list used by most field guides for North American birds. It does not include species from any territories or possessions.