Pennsylvania is an unusual place to start a list like this, because Pennsylvania never actually chose a state bird.
The Ruffed Grouse, designated in 1931, is the state game bird. It is a superb bird — the drumming in April sounds like a distant engine turning over — and you will almost certainly never see one from your kitchen window. It lives in young forest, it flushes from cover, and it has no interest whatsoever in your sunflower seed.
So if not the grouse, what is out there? We went to the data instead of guessing.
The twelve birds Pennsylvania feeders report most
These come from Project FeederWatch, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's long-running count in which volunteers record what turns up at their own feeders through the winter. The 2023–24 season had 924 participants in Pennsylvania — a large enough sample that the order near the top is not noise.
The percentage is the share of Pennsylvania feeder sites that reported the bird at least once that season.
| # | Bird | Share of PA feeders |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Northern Cardinal | 93.0% |
| 2 | Dark-eyed Junco | 91.4% |
| 3 | House Finch | 90.4% |
| 4 | Mourning Dove | 88.5% |
| 5 | Downy Woodpecker | 87.7% |
| 6 | Blue Jay | 86.0% |
| 7 | Tufted Titmouse | 81.1% |
| 8 | Red-bellied Woodpecker | 80.4% |
| 9 | White-breasted Nuthatch | 75.9% |
| 10 | American Goldfinch | 74.4% |
| 11 | Carolina Wren | 72.0% |
| 12 | American Robin | 71.1% |
Four things in that list worth knowing
The junco is second, and most people cannot name it
Slate-grey above, white belly, pale pink bill, and it feeds on the ground under the feeder rather than on it. Juncos arrive in Pennsylvania in autumn and leave in spring, which is why some people call them snowbirds. If you have ever thought there is some little grey bird hopping around down there — that is the second most widely reported feeder bird in the state.
The House Finch is the bird people mistake for a cardinal
Red on the head and chest, but the red sits over brown streaks and the bird is small, with a stubby seed-cracking bill and no crest at all. A cardinal is unmistakably crested and unmistakably red all over. If you are not sure which one you have, three questions will settle it.
Two woodpeckers make the top eight
Downy (#5) and Red-bellied (#8). 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 that runs down the back of the neck. The red on its belly — the thing it is named for — is a faint wash you will almost never see. Ornithology is full of this sort of thing.
The chickadee is not as dominant here as people assume
Black-capped Chickadee comes in around 51% in Pennsylvania — roughly half of feeders — which puts it near the bottom of the top twenty rather than near the top. It is genuinely common; it is just not the automatic top-five bird it is in New England. Pennsylvania sits on the seam where Black-capped and Carolina Chickadees overlap, and FeederWatch keeps a separate row for birds the observer could not tell apart, which splits the count further.
What is on our Pennsylvania mug, and where each bird actually ranks
We would rather tell you this straight than let you find out after it arrives.
The Backyard Birds of Pennsylvania mug is drawn with the American Goldfinch (#10, 74%), the Northern Cardinal (#1, 93%) and the Chickadee (~51%). Every one is a bird a Pennsylvania feeder really gets. The cardinal is the single most reported bird in the state.
If we could add one more today, it would be the Tufted Titmouse at #7 — grey, crested, loud, and at four out of five Pennsylvania feeders. It is on the list of illustrations we still owe this state.
If you want more of them
Black-oil sunflower seed does more work than any other single thing; it is the seed that suits cardinals, finches, titmice, chickadees and nuthatches all at once. Add suet if you want the woodpeckers to stay through the cold. Leave some seed on the ground or on a low tray and the juncos will use it — they rarely perch on a hanging feeder.
And keep water out. In a Pennsylvania January an unfrozen birdbath will out-pull a full feeder.
Where these numbers come from: Project FeederWatch, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Top 25 Feeder Birds for Pennsylvania, 2023–24 season. These are the reports of volunteers at their own feeders, not a formal survey, and they describe the winter feeding season rather than the whole year. Percentages are the share of participating sites that reported the species.
See the mugs for the other states → · Identify a bird in three questions →