Colorado — 520 species and counting...

Welcome to Colorado Birding — a project of Colorado Field Ornithologists by and for the birders of Colorado as well as for birders visiting from elsewhere. Here you will find a variety of information related to birding in our state. There are checklists for the state and every county, site descriptions of good birding locations with current sightings recorded, plus information on habitats, hazards, access to sites and specialty species. You can even test your ID skills with our quizzes or participate in the life listing game. Whether you are a native or a visitor, we hope this site will help you plan trips to find the birds you seek. More importantly, we hope it will encourage you to explore new corners of this marvelous state, to add to our existing knowledge of Colorado birds and their distributions, and to support rural economies. Be sure to thank the many authors and photographers that made these pages possible!

Colorado Field Ornithologists is pleased to partner with BirdingHotspots.org for details on birding the 3500+ eBird hotspots in our state.

Geographic Terminology

  • EAST AND WEST SLOPE — Colorado is split into east and west slopes by the Continental Divide, which is the boundary between drainages that lead to the Pacific Ocean and drainages that lead to the Atlantic. The resulting division is often considered to be cultural and economic as well as geographic.
  • FRONT RANGE — The Front Range is Colorado's easternmost mountain range, which runs north-south from Milner Pass on the Larimer/Grand County line to Pikes Peak in the south. By extension, the term is also used to refer to the urban corridor that covers the adjacent plains from Fort Collins south to Pueblo. Three million of Colorado's four million people live along the Front Range. The Front Range foothill valleys are sometimes referred to as the Colorado Piedmont.
  • INTERMOUNTAIN PARKS — In Colorado, the term "park" is used to describe wide high-elevation intermountain valleys...hence the valleys of North, Middle and South Park and the towns of Estes Park and Winter Park. The general term "intermountain parks" or "mountain parks" is often used to refer not only to the places just mentioned but to all the high-elevation valleys, including the San Luis Valley (SLV) and the Gunnison Basin.

Latest Unusual Sightings from Colorado eBird

eBird is an application that gathers observations from birders for use in scientific modeling. These are birds that eBird considers unusual sightings. They have not necessarily been through a review process so chase at your own risk.

 

Birding in Colorado

County Birding

Select a county and see all of the tried and true areas that are good for birding. Each site may be viewed for more details on how to get there and where to go birding.

Birding a City

Have you found yourself in an unfamiliar city and would like to bird a bit? This list of all cities and towns over 10,000 population will give you a hand in finding a good place to go.

Specialty Birds

Colorado has a number of species that many people would like to find. Our highways to the high country make many of these more accessible here than in any other part of the country.

Checklists

A wide variety of printable checklists for the state and counties are available courtesy of the Colorado Bird Records Committee, the official keeper of lists. They are frequently updated as new birds are added.

Better Birding by Habitat

Different species have different habitat requirements. Colorado's many varied habitats contrast from the riparian valleys to the high tundra and everything in between.

Test Your ID Skills

Test your identification skill by studying photos of birds as we usually see them, not crisp field guide images. Hopefully the answers will help you improve your birding.

Send us a message

Ways to connect with Colorado birders