Black-capped Chickadee
Poecile atricapillus · Tits and Chickadees
The name, called back at you — a bright, buzzy "chick-a-dee-dee-dee" from a shrub six feet away, before you've even seen the bird.
Everyday
II · Common Birds of New Hampshire
The ones worth knowing cold
None of these will make your week. That's the point of them — learn the chickadee, the titmouse, the two look-alike woodpeckers well enough that they're automatic, and the odd bird in the flock starts to jump out. Every entry leads with what you'd actually notice first: a call, a flash of colour, the shape on the wire.
20 species, ordered from "at your feeder tomorrow" outward. Status and timing from NH Bird Records and eBird. Tap any bird for the full note.
Everyday
at the feeder tomorrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Junco hyemalis · New World Sparrows
Under the feeder after the first hard frost — a slate-grey sparrow with a clean white belly that flashes white outer tail feathers every time it flushes.
Everyday
American Goldfinch
Spinus tristis · Finches
The flight — a deep, bounding roller-coaster line across the yard, with a bright "po-ta-to-chip" called on each upstroke.
Everyday
Northern Cardinal
Cardinalis cardinalis · Cardinals and Grosbeaks
In winter, the colour — a male against snow is the most saturated red in the New Hampshire landscape, nothing else is close.
Everyday
Blue Jay
Cyanocitta cristata · Crows and Jays
A loud, slurred "jay! jay!" scream — or a dead-on imitation of a Red-shouldered Hawk that clears every other bird off the feeder for a jay to move in.
Everyday
White-breasted Nuthatch
Sitta carolinensis · Nuthatches
A bird walking head-first *down* a tree trunk — no other New Hampshire bird does this routinely — while giving a nasal, honking "yank-yank."
Everyday
Tufted Titmouse
Baeolophus bicolor · Tits and Chickadees
A loud, clear, whistled "peter-peter-peter" ringing out of bare March woods, louder than the bird's size suggests.
Everyday
Downy Woodpecker
Dryobates pubescens · Woodpeckers
A small black-and-white woodpecker on a thin twig or a weed stem — too small and light to be doing that if it were a Hairy — giving a soft, descending whinny.
Everyday
Mourning Dove
Zenaida macroura · Pigeons and Doves
The sound on takeoff — a sharp, twittering whistle from the wings, not the voice — as a slim, long-tailed dove flushes off the ground or a wire.
Everyday
American Robin
Turdus migratorius · Thrushes
A bird running across a lawn in short bursts, stopping dead, cocking its head, then stabbing — hunting worms by sight and the vibration underfoot.
Everyday
American Crow
Corvus brachyrhynchos · Crows and Jays
The mob — three or more crows harrying a hawk or an owl across the sky, screaming, the surest way to find a roosting Great Horned Owl in daylight.
Everyday
Common
out most days if you look
Purple Finchstate bird
Haemorhous purpureus · Finches
A finch at the feeder that looks like a House Finch dipped in raspberry juice — the colour washes over the whole head and back, not just a bib.
Common
Hairy Woodpecker
Dryobates villosus · Woodpeckers
A "Downy" that looks wrong — bigger-headed, longer-billed, and it barks a sharp "PEEK!" that's flatter and more emphatic than a Downy's soft pik.
Common
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Sitta canadensis · Nuthatches
A tinny, nasal "yank" like a tiny toy horn, higher and faster than a White-breasted Nuthatch — often from high in a spruce before you see the bird.
Common
Broad-winged Hawk
Buteo platypterus · Hawks and Eagles
In September, a swirling column of hawks a thousand feet up — a "kettle" — all circling the same thermal, then peeling off south in a line.
Common
Common Loon
Gavia immer · Loons
In summer, the voice across the water at night — a long, rising wail, or the manic laughing "tremolo" of a bird that's been disturbed.
Common
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Setophaga coronata · New World Warblers
In an October migrant flock, a small grey-brown bird that flicks up a bright lemon-yellow rump patch every time it moves — hence the field name, "butter-butt."
Common
Snow Bunting
Plectrophenax nivalis · Longspurs and Snow Buntings
A flock lifting off bare ground all at once — a scatter of white, the wings flashing like the first flurries of the season, before the birds resettle a little further on.
Common
Uncommon
regular, if you know the spot and the week
Common Nighthawk
Chordeiles minor · Nightjars
On an August evening, long-winged birds twisting and jinking high over the river in loose flocks, each showing a white bar across the wing near the tip.
Uncommon
Northern Saw-whet Owl
Aegolius acadicus · Owls
You almost never notice one on your own. In spring, a monotonous "toot… toot… toot" all night from wet woods, one note a second, going on for minutes.
Uncommon
Past the everyday birds, the gradient keeps going —the rare & notable list picks up where this one leaves off, or watch the whole state by season onthe migration map.