Illinois adopted the Northern Cardinal in 1929, and the cardinal is very nearly the most reported bird at Illinois feeders. Very nearly.
It comes second. The bird ahead of it is a slate-grey sparrow that most people could not name, does not sing much, and will not perch on your feeder — and it is at 94% of Illinois feeders, more than any other bird in the state.
The twelve birds Illinois feeders report most
From Project FeederWatch, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's winter count, in which volunteers record what turns up at their own feeders. The 2023–24 season had 407 participants in Illinois. The percentage is the share of Illinois feeder sites that reported the bird at least once.
| # | Bird | Share of IL feeders |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dark-eyed Junco | 94.3% |
| 2 | Northern Cardinal | 92.4% |
| 3 | Mourning Dove | 89.4% |
| 4 | House Sparrow | 88.9% |
| 4 | House Finch | 88.9% |
| 6 | Downy Woodpecker | 85.6% |
| 7 | American Goldfinch | 79.4% |
| 8 | Blue Jay | 78.3% |
| 9 | Red-bellied Woodpecker | 76.8% |
| 10 | American Robin | 75.4% |
| 11 | Black-capped Chickadee | 74.7% |
| 12 | White-breasted Nuthatch | 72.1% |
Four things in that list worth knowing
The bird in first place is only visiting
Dark-eyed Juncos breed in the boreal forest and in the mountains, and come down into Illinois for the winter. Slate-grey above, clean white belly, pale pink bill, white outer tail feathers that flash when they fly. They feed on the ground under the feeder rather than on it, so if your only feeder is a hanging tube you may never get a proper look at the most widely reported bird in your state. Put a handful of seed on a low tray and you will.
By April they are gone, which is why the old name for them is snowbird.
Fourth place is a tie, and one of them is not native
House Sparrow and House Finch both at 88.9%. The House Sparrow was deliberately introduced to North America in the 1850s and is not a sparrow in the American sense at all — it is an Old World weaver finch. The House Finch is native to the western United States and spread east from birds released on Long Island in the 1940s. Two of the five commonest birds at an Illinois feeder, and neither of them got here on its own.
The chickadee is only eleventh, and the reason is geography
Illinois runs from the latitude of Boston to the latitude of Virginia, and the state is cut across the middle by the seam where Black-capped and Carolina Chickadees meet. FeederWatch counts them as separate rows plus a third row for birds the observer could not separate — so the chickadees are there in numbers, but the count is split three ways and each row lands lower than the bird deserves.
Two woodpeckers in the top nine
Downy (#6) and Red-bellied (#9). The Downy is sparrow-sized with a stubby bill; the Red-bellied is much larger, barred black-and-white across the back, with a red cap running down the nape — and a belly whose faint red wash you will almost never see. Suet keeps both through an Illinois January.
What is on our Illinois mug, and where each bird actually ranks
The Backyard Birds of Illinois mug is drawn with the American Goldfinch (#7, 79%), the Blue Jay (#8, 78%) and the Northern Cardinal (#2, 92%) — the state bird, and second only to a winter visitor.
The one we would add next is the Dark-eyed Junco at #1. It is on the list of illustrations we still owe this state, and Illinois is the clearest case in the country for drawing it.
If you want more of them
Black-oil sunflower covers the cardinal, House Finch, chickadee and nuthatch at once. Safflower is the trick worth knowing here: cardinals take it readily and House Sparrows mostly do not, which is one way to get a feeder back from the fourth-commonest bird in the state. Suet for the woodpeckers. And a low tray for the juncos, or you will spend the winter missing them.
Where these numbers come from: Project FeederWatch, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Top 25 Feeder Birds for Illinois, 2023–24 season. These are volunteer reports from their own feeders, not a formal survey, and they describe the winter feeding season rather than the whole year — which is why a winter visitor like the junco sits first. Percentages are the share of participating sites that reported the species. Illinois state bird designation: 1929.
See the mugs for the other states → · Identify a bird in three questions →