Virginia adopted the Northern Cardinal in 1950, and of all fifty states, Virginia may have picked the most defensible bird.
The cardinal turns up at 96% of Virginia feeders — one of the highest shares for any bird in any state. It is not a symbol that lives somewhere else. It is the bird on the fence, every morning, all year, because cardinals do not migrate.
Here is the rest of the list.
The twelve birds Virginia 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 868 participants in Virginia — a large sample. The percentage is the share of Virginia feeder sites that reported the bird at least once.
| # | Bird | Share of VA feeders |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Northern Cardinal | 96.0% |
| 2 | House Finch | 89.2% |
| 3 | Carolina Wren | 89.1% |
| 4 | Tufted Titmouse | 88.8% |
| 5 | Mourning Dove | 86.8% |
| 6 | Downy Woodpecker | 85.4% |
| 7 | Dark-eyed Junco | 85.2% |
| 8 | Red-bellied Woodpecker | 81.5% |
| 9 | Blue Jay | 80.2% |
| 10 | American Goldfinch | 77.4% |
| 11 | White-breasted Nuthatch | 76.9% |
| 12 | White-throated Sparrow | 73.9% |
Four things in that list worth knowing
The Carolina Wren is third, and it is the loudest thing in the yard
89% of Virginia feeders. A wren weighing under an ounce produces a ringing tea-kettle tea-kettle tea-kettle that carries across two gardens. Warm rusty brown above, buff below, with a bold white eyebrow stripe and a tail it holds cocked upright. It is also one of the few birds here that will take suet and peanut bits rather than seed.
Virginia is at the northern edge of one wren and the southern edge of one junco
Carolina Wrens get knocked back by hard winters and recover over the following mild ones, so their numbers swing. Dark-eyed Juncos (#7, 85%) are the reverse — they arrive in autumn, feed on the ground under the feeder all winter, and are gone by spring.
Two woodpeckers in the top eight
Downy at #6 and Red-bellied at #8. The Downy is sparrow-sized with a short stubby bill; the Red-bellied is much bigger, barred black-and-white across the back, with a red cap running down the nape. The red belly it is named for is a faint wash you will almost never see.
The titmouse is fourth and most people do not use its name
Tufted Titmouse, 89% of feeders — grey, crested, black-eyed, and far louder than a bird that size should be. It caches seed one piece at a time and comes straight back for the next.
What is on our Virginia mug, and where each bird actually ranks
The Backyard Birds of Virginia mug is drawn with the Carolina Wren (#3, 89%), the Blue Jay (#9, 80%) and the Northern Cardinal (#1, 96%). All three are in the Virginia top ten, and the cardinal is the most reported bird in the state.
The one we would add next is the Tufted Titmouse at #4. It is on the list of illustrations we still owe this state.
If you want more of them
Black-oil sunflower seed does most of the work — cardinal, House Finch, titmouse, nuthatch and chickadee all take it. Add suet if you want both woodpeckers and the Carolina Wren to stay through the cold. Scatter a little seed on a low tray or on bare ground and the juncos will use it; they rarely perch on a hanging feeder.
Keep water out through winter. In a Virginia 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 Virginia, 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. Virginia state bird designation: 1950.
See the mugs for the other states → · Identify a bird in three questions →