Alpine birds are adapted to live at high elevations, such as delayed and reduced breeding and the physiological ability to withstand arid, hypoxic, and windy conditions. They tend to only migrate over short distances, usually only doing so vertically to the highest peaks for the breeding season.
Unfortunately, their populations are expected to decline due to the changing landscape and climate. These changes, such as melting glaciers, invasive growth of forest and shrub vegetation, reduced snow, and increased temperatures and precipitation, have led to their habitats shrinking.
List of Alpine Birds
Birds of Prey
- Broad-winged Hawk
- California Condor
- Cooper’s Hawk
- Ferruginous Hawk
- Golden Eagle
- Loggerhead Shrike
- Merlin
- Northern Harrier
- Northern Shrike
- Osprey
- Peregrine Falcon
- Prairie Falcon
- Red-shouldered Hawk
- Red-tailed Hawk
- Rough-legged Hawk
- Sharp-shinned Hawk
- Swainson’s Hawk
- Turkey Vulture
Waterbirds
- American Avocet
- American Dipper
- American Pipit
- Barrow’s Goldeneye
- Black-necked Stilt
- Black Rail
- Blue-winged Teal
- Bufflehead
- Cackling Goose
- Canada Goose
- Canvasback
- Cinnamon Teal
- Clark’s Grebe
- Common Merganser
- Double-crested Cormorant
- Eared Grebe
- Eurasian Wigeon
- Gadwall
- Great Egret
- Greater Scaup
- Green Heron
- Green-winged Teal
- Hooded Merganser
- Horned Grebe
- Lesser Scaup
- Long-tailed Jaeger
- Mallard
- Northern Pintail
- Northern Shoveler
- Pacific Loon
- Redhead
- Ring-necked Duck
- Ross’s Goose
- Ruddy Duck
- Sandhill Crane
- Snow Goose
- Snowy Egret
- Sora
- Surf Scoter
- Tufted Duck
- Tundra Swan
- Virginia Rail
- Western Grebe
- Wood Duck
Shorebirds
- American Golden-plover
- Arctic Tern
- Baird’s Sandpiper
- Black Tern
- Bonaparte’s Gull
- California Gull
- Caspian Tern
- Common Tern
- Dunlin
- Forster’s Tern
- Herring Gull
- Iceland Gull
- Killdeer
- Least Sandpiper
- Lesser Yellowlegs
- Marbled Godwit
- Pectoral Sandpiper
- Red-necked Phalarope
- Ring-billed Gull
- Sabine’s Gull
- Snowy Plover
- Solitary Sandpiper
- Spotted Sandpiper
- Western Sandpiper
- White-faced Ibis
- Willet
- Wilson’s Phalarope
- Wilson’s Snipe
Ground Birds
- California Quail
- Mountain Quail
- Sooty Grouse
- White-tailed Ptarmigan
- Wild Turkey
Pigeons and Doves
- Band-tailed Pigeon
- Eurasian Collared-Dove
- Mourning Dove
- Rock Pigeon
Nocturnal Birds
- Barn Owl
- Burrowing Owl
- Common Nighthawk
- Common Poorwill
- Flammulated Owl
- Great Gray Owl
- Great Horned Owl
- Long-eared Owl
- Spotted Owl
Forest Birds
- Acorn Woodpecker
- Alpine Chough
- American Goldfinch
- American Redstart
- American Robin
- Anna’s Hummingbird
- Ash-throated Flycatcher
- Black-and-white Warbler
- Black Phoebe
- Black-throated Gray Warbler
- Black-throated Sparrow
- Bohemian Waxwing
- Brewer’s Blackbird
- Brewer’s Sparrow
- Brown Creeper
- Brown-headed Cowbird
- Brown Thrasher
- Bullock’s Oriole
- Bushtit
- California Scrub-Jay
- Canada Jay
- Canada Warbler
- Canyon Wren
- Cassin’s Finch
- Cassin’s Vireo
- Cedar Waxwing
- Chestnut-backed Chickadee
- Chestnut-sided Warbler
- Chipping Sparrow
- Clark’s Nutcracker
- Clay-colored Sparrow
- Cliff Swallow
- Common Raven
- Common Yellowthroat
- Dark-eyed Junco
- European Starling
- Evening Grosbeak
- Fox Sparrow
- Gray Flycatcher
- Gray Plover
- Great-tailed Grackle
- Green-tailed Towhee
- Hairy Woodpecker
- Hooded Warbler
- Horned Lark
- House Finch
- House Sparrow
- House Wren
- Indigo Bunting
- Juniper Titmouse
- Lark Sparrow
- Lincoln’s Sparrow
- Mountain Chickadee
- Nashville Warbler
- Pileated Woodpecker
- Pine Grosbeak
- Pygmy Nuthatch
- Red-breasted Nuthatch
- Red-breasted Sapsucker
- Red Crossbill
- Rufous Hummingbird
- Sagebrush Sparrow
- Steller’s Jay
- Swainson’s Thrush
- Townsend’s Solitaire
- Townsend’s Warbler
- Wallcreeper
- Warbling Vireo
- Western Meadowlark
- Western Tanager
- Williamson’s Sapsucker
- Willow Flycatcher
- Yellow-rumped Warbler
- Yellow Warbler
Other birds have been seen in alpine conditions, including birds of prey that fly up to great heights to feed, like the Lammergeier, which drops bones while flying on rocks to crack them open.
