“All well and good,” I hear you cry. “But how many birds did you see in Colorado, and what were they?”
Here they are, in the approximate order in which I saw them.
- Red-winged Blackbird
- Great-tailed Grackle
- Eurasian Collared Dove
- Common Grackle
- Ring-necked Pheasant
- Northern Harrier
- Barn Swallow
- House Sparrow
- Mourning Dove
- Western Meadowlark
- Eastern Kingbird
- Downy Woodpecker
- Orchard Oriole
- Wood Duck
- Burrowing Owl
- Western Kingbird
- Lark Bunting (lifer)
- Horned Lark
- Great Blue Heron
- Spotted Sandpiper
- American Avocet
- Northern Shoveler
- Gadwall
- Northern Pintail
- Long-billed Curlew
- Willet
- Wilson’s Phalarope
- Blue-winged Teal
- White Pelican
- American Coot
- Canada Goose
- Double-crested Cormorant
- Ring-billed Gull
- Franklin’s Gull
- California Gull
- Forster’s Tern
- Whimbrel
- Ruddy Duck
- Clark’s Grebe
- Greater Yellowlegs
- Lesser Yellowlegs
- Say’s Phoebe
- Loggerhead Shrike
- Red-headed Woodpecker
- Cliff Swallow
- Lark Sparrow
- American Robin
- Common Yellowthroat (heard)
- Virginia Rail (heard)
- Sora (heard)
- Black Rail (lifer — heard)
- Chipping Sparrow
- Ash-throated Flycatcher
- Brown-headed Cowbird
- Gray Flycatcher
- Black-headed Grosbeak
- Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
- Western Scrub-Jay
- Common Raven
- Golden Eagle
- Turkey Vulture
- Plumbeous Vireo (lifer)
- Cooper’s Hawk
- Cassin’s Finch (lifer)
- Violet-green Swallow
- Western Tanager
- Dusky Flycatcher (lifer)
- Virginia Warbler
- Red-shafter Flicker
- Audubon Warbler
- House Wren
- Mountain Chickadee
- Townsend’s Solitaire
- Vesper Sparrow
- Broad-tailed Hummingbird (lifer)
- Black-billed Magpie
- Mountain Bluebird
- Pygmy Nuthatch
- Rufous-crowned Sparrow
- Spotted Towhee
- House Finch
- White-throated Swift
- Rock Dove
- Prairie Falcon
- Mallard
- Belted Kingfisher
- Yellow Warbler
- Song Sparrow (heard)
- Black-capped Chickadee
- Bushtit
- Clark’s Nutcracker
- Steller’s Jay
- Western Bluebird
Mammals
- Desert Cottontail (lifer)
- Pronghorn
- Mule Deer
- Colorado Chipmunk (lifer)
- Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel (lifer)
- Mountain Cottontail (lifer)
- Eastern Fox Squirrel
- Bighorn Sheep (lifer)
Rattlesnakes
none