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

A few Octobers ago I drove out to Hawk Mountain in the Kittatinny Ridge with a friend who swore it would be worth the trip, and I spent most of that morning skeptical right up until the first Broad-winged Hawk kettle came over — dozens of birds spiraling together on a thermal, then peeling off one by one to glide south along the ridge. I hadn’t known Pennsylvania had anything like that going on. Most people haven’t, since it happens well above the treeline of most backyards.

That’s a decent summary of Pennsylvania birding generally: a state most people associate with farmland and Philadelphia traffic turns out to sit on one of the most important raptor migration corridors in eastern North America, on top of a genuinely strong year-round backyard bird community.

Why Pennsylvania sees so much bird traffic

The Appalachian ridges running diagonally across the state create updrafts that migrating hawks, eagles, and falcons use to glide long distances without flapping, concentrating fall migration along specific ridgelines rather than spreading it evenly across the landscape. Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, founded in 1934, was the world’s first refuge established specifically to protect birds of prey, created after conservationists documented hunters shooting migrating raptors by the thousands as they funneled along the ridge.

Beyond the ridges, Pennsylvania’s habitat runs from Piedmont farmland in the southeast to dense Appalachian forest in the center of the state to a short stretch of Lake Erie shoreline in the northwest corner — enough variety that the backyard bird list changes noticeably depending on which part of the state you’re in.

The state bird: Ruffed Grouse

Pennsylvania picked a bird you’re far more likely to hear than see. Ruffed Grouse perform a drumming display by rapidly beating their wings against the air (not against their body, despite how it sounds) to produce a deep, accelerating thump that carries through the forest — often mistaken for a distant engine trying and failing to start. It’s a forest interior species that almost never shows up at a backyard feeder, which makes it an unusual state bird choice compared to the cardinals and robins most other states picked, but a fitting one for a state this heavily forested.

Regulars at a Pennsylvania feeder

Black-capped Chickadee

Present statewide and one of the most reliable feeder visitors in any season. Chickadees cache seeds constantly and appear to remember thousands of hiding spots using a hippocampus that grows in fall specifically to handle the added memory load.

Tufted Titmouse

A gray, crested bird with a surprisingly loud “peter-peter-peter” call for its size. Titmice will pluck fur directly from a sleeping animal to line their nests, and readily use nest boxes intended for other cavity-nesting species if the hole is the right size.

Northern Cardinal

A year-round fixture across the state, staying a vivid red through even the coldest Pennsylvania winters while everything else fades to brown and gray. Non-migratory pairs often stay together year-round rather than reforming each spring.

Blue Jay

Loud, intelligent, and a genuine force in how Pennsylvania’s oak forests spread after the last glaciation — jays bury acorns by the thousands each fall and forget a meaningful share of them, effectively planting new oaks across the landscape.

Dark-eyed Junco

Pennsylvania’s “snowbird,” arriving from further north each fall and disappearing again each spring — its presence at a feeder is a more reliable cold-weather indicator than most forecasts.

Woodpeckers of Pennsylvania’s forests

Downy and Hairy Woodpecker

Near-identical in pattern, distinguished mostly by size and bill length; the Hairy is noticeably larger with a bill close to the length of its head, while the Downy’s is stubbier. Both are common suet-feeder visitors statewide.

Pileated Woodpecker

The largest woodpecker in Pennsylvania’s forests, nearly crow-sized with a flaming red crest, capable of excavating rectangular cavities in dead trees large enough to be visible from a distance. Pennsylvania’s extensive forest cover, especially in the state’s center and north, supports a healthy population.

Birds of prey and the ridge migration

The Pennsylvania birds of prey guide covers the state’s raptors in more depth, including the species that pass through on the Kittatinny Ridge each fall.

Red-tailed Hawk

Present year-round across the state, most visible perched on highway light poles and open farmland edges scanning for rodents.

Broad-winged Hawk

The hawk most associated with Pennsylvania’s famous fall migration — unlike the Red-tailed Hawk, Broad-wingeds migrate in large communal flocks called kettles, sometimes numbering in the thousands, riding thermals south toward Central and South America for the winter.

Owls of the forest and field

Call identification is covered in the Pennsylvania owl sounds guide.

Great Horned Owl

Pennsylvania’s most widespread owl, nesting as early as January and calling through the coldest part of winter, well before most other birds have started their breeding season.

Barred Owl

A forest owl with a distinctive call often phrased as “who cooks for you, who cooks for you-all,” found in Pennsylvania’s larger wooded tracts and river bottomlands, generally more vocal and easier to hear than to actually see.

Water and wetland birds

Pennsylvania’s rivers, farm ponds, and the Lake Erie shoreline support a solid water bird community, covered in the Pennsylvania herons guide and the state’s doves guide.

Great Blue Heron

Found along nearly any river, pond, or wetland with enough fish to hunt, standing motionless at the water’s edge long enough to be mistaken for a statue before it strikes. Herons nest in colonies, sometimes dozens of nests crowded into a single stand of trees along a riverbank.

Summer arrivals worth watching for

Baltimore Oriole

Arriving in early May, orioles weave a distinctive hanging, sock-shaped nest and can be reliably pulled toward a yard with orange halves or grape jelly on a platform feeder during migration — a trick that works on few other Pennsylvania backyard species.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

The only hummingbird species that regularly breeds in Pennsylvania, arriving in late April as early flowers open and gone again by early fall once nectar sources dry up for the season.

What this means for backyard birding in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania’s real strength isn’t any single showstopper species — it’s the combination of a strong year-round backyard community with one of the most significant raptor migration corridors on the East Coast passing directly overhead each fall. Most of that migration goes unnoticed by people watching a feeder at ground level, which is part of why a trip to somewhere like Hawk Mountain tends to change how people think about what’s flying over their own yard the rest of the year.