Backyard Birds in Washington: A Field Guide to the Species at Your Feeder

Everyone jokes about the rain in Seattle, and fair enough — but that same steady, mild, wet climate is exactly why western Washington has some of the busiest backyard feeders on the West Coast. Birds here don’t need to migrate far to escape harsh winters, so a lot of species just stick around all year, showing up at feeders whenever the weather turns grey.

Like Oregon just to the south, Washington splits cleanly along the Cascades. West of the mountains you get the wet, mild Puget Sound lowlands and the Olympic Peninsula’s rainforest. East of the Cascades, it’s a different world — dry shrub-steppe and wheat country, with real winter cold.

The State Bird: American Goldfinch

Washington’s state bird is the American Goldfinch, a small, bright yellow finch that’s a genuine backyard regular — especially if you keep a nyjer seed feeder up through summer, when the males are at their brightest.

Small Birds, Big Variety

For a closer look at some of the smaller species that turn up west of the mountains, our guide to small birds of Washington State covers chickadees, bushtits, and kinglets — tiny, active birds that are easy to overlook but make up a surprising share of what actually visits a feeder here.

A Coastal Regular

Anna’s Hummingbirds have become a genuine winter fixture in the Puget Sound area over the past couple of decades — a species that used to be a California specialty and has steadily pushed north as backyard feeders gave it a reason to stay. Keep a hummingbird feeder up through winter here and don’t be surprised if one shows up on a rainy January morning.