Utah's state bird is the California Gull. The story goes that in 1848 gulls descended on swarms of crickets eating the early settlers' crops — and the state has honoured the bird ever since. It is a real Utah bird, around the Great Salt Lake and in parking lots. It is not a feeder bird.
At Utah feeders, the list is led by the House Finch, at 95.6% of sites.
The twelve birds Utah 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 67 participants in Utah — a small sample, so treat close numbers as ties rather than rankings. The percentage is the share of Utah feeder sites that reported the bird at least once.
| # | Bird | Share of UT feeders |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | House Finch | 95.6% |
| 2 | Dark-eyed Junco | 85.3% |
| 3 | Eurasian Collared-Dove | 76.5% |
| 4 | Black-capped Chickadee | 73.5% |
| 5 | House Sparrow | 70.6% |
| 6 | Lesser Goldfinch | 64.7% |
| 7 | American Goldfinch | 61.8% |
| 8 | Northern Flicker | 61.8% |
| 9 | Downy Woodpecker | 61.8% |
| 10 | American Robin | 60.3% |
| 11 | Mourning Dove | 52.9% |
| 12 | Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay | 52.9% |
Four things in that list worth knowing
Two goldfinches
Lesser Goldfinch (#6) and American Goldfinch (#7) are almost level at Utah feeders. The Lesser is smaller, and the male has a dark back — black or greenish — with bright yellow underneath all year. The American Goldfinch is the one that fades to olive-buff in winter. Both come to nyjer.
The introduced dove is third
Eurasian Collared-Dove is at 76% of Utah feeders; the native Mourning Dove is eleventh, at 53%. The collared-dove — paler, square-tailed, with a thin black collar — has spread across the West since the 1990s and is now one of the commonest birds in Utah towns.
A western jay and a western towhee
Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay is twelfth: blue and grey, with no crest, and very bold at a feeder. Spotted Towhee ties with it — black hood, rufous sides and white spots on the back, usually scratching in the leaves under shrubs. Black-billed Magpie is at half of Utah sites.
No cardinal, no Blue Jay
Neither of the two most familiar eastern feeder birds makes Utah's top 25. If you have moved from the East, the scrub-jay is your blue bird and the House Finch is your red one.
What is on our Utah mug, and where each bird actually ranks
The Backyard Birds of Utah mug shows the House Finch (#1, 96%), the Black-capped Chickadee (#4, 74%), the American Goldfinch (#7, 62%) and the American Robin (#10, 60%). All four are in the Utah top ten.
The ones we would add next are the Dark-eyed Junco (#2) and the Lesser Goldfinch (#6). They are on the list of designs we still owe this state.
If you want more of them
Black-oil sunflower seed covers the House Finch, chickadee and scrub-jay. Nyjer in a tube or sock brings both goldfinches and the siskins. Suet brings the flicker and Downy Woodpecker. Millet scattered on the ground brings the juncos, towhees, doves and quail.
Where these numbers come from: Project FeederWatch, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Top 25 Feeder Birds for Utah, 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. Percentages are the share of participating sites that reported the species.
See the mugs for the other states → · Identify a bird in three questions →