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List of birds of Grand Teton National Park facts for kids

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Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, USA, is home to many different kinds of birds! This list tells you about the 263 bird species that have been seen there. It's based on information from the National Park Service (NPS).

The birds are listed in a special scientific order, like how scientists group animals together. This order comes from the American Ornithological Society, which is a group that studies birds. The names of the birds and their families also come from this group.

Most birds on this list are regularly found in Grand Teton National Park. They might live there all year, visit in summer or winter, or just pass through during migration. Some birds are seen less often, and we use special tags to describe how common they are:

  • R (Rare): These birds are usually seen only a few times each year. (11 species)
  • U (Uncommon): You might see these birds every month if you are in the right place at the right time. They can be quite common in certain areas. (58 species)
  • O (Occasional): These birds show up in the park at least once every few years, but not necessarily every year. Their numbers can change. (2 species)
  • NC (Unconfirmed): These birds are thought to be in the park, but there isn't strong proof or any proof at all. (82 species)
  • I (Introduced): These are birds that humans brought to North America. (4 species)

Ducks, Geese, and Waterfowl

Order: Anseriformes Family: Anatidae

This group includes ducks, geese, and swans. These birds are great at living in water. They have webbed feet for swimming and special feathers that shed water. Their bills are usually flat.

Pheasants, Grouse, and Allies

Order: Galliformes Family: Phasianidae

This family includes pheasants and grouse. These birds live on land and are usually plump with short, wide wings. Many of them are hunted for sport or raised for food.

Grebes

Order: Podicipediformes Family: Podicipedidae

Grebes are small to medium-sized birds that dive in freshwater. They have special lobed toes that help them swim and dive very well. However, their feet are set far back on their bodies, making them clumsy on land.

Pigeons and Doves

Order: Columbiformes Family: Columbidae

Pigeons and doves are birds with sturdy bodies, short necks, and thin bills. They have a soft, fleshy area at the base of their bill called a cere.

Cuckoos

Order: Cuculiformes Family: Cuculidae

This family includes cuckoos and roadrunners. These birds come in different sizes, but they all have slender bodies, long tails, and strong legs.

Nightjars and Allies

Order: Caprimulgiformes Family: Caprimulgidae

Nightjars are medium-sized birds that are active at night. They usually nest on the ground. They have long wings, short legs, and very short bills. Their soft feathers are colored to help them blend in with bark or leaves.

Swifts

Order: Apodiformes Family: Apodidae

Swifts are small birds that spend most of their lives flying. They have very short legs and almost never land on the ground. Instead, they perch on vertical surfaces. Many swifts have long, swept-back wings that look like a crescent moon.

Hummingbirds

Order: Apodiformes Family: Trochilidae

Hummingbirds are tiny birds that can hover in the air by flapping their wings very fast. They are the only birds that can fly backward!

Rails, Gallinules, and Coots

Order: Gruiformes Family: Rallidae

This is a large family of small to medium-sized birds like rails and coots. They usually live in thick plants near lakes, swamps, or rivers. They are often shy and hard to spot. Most have strong legs and long toes for walking on soft ground. They tend to have short, rounded wings and are not very strong fliers.

Cranes

Order: Gruiformes Family: Gruidae

Cranes are large birds with long legs and long necks. When they fly, their necks are stretched out, which is different from herons. Many cranes have fancy and loud dances they do when they are trying to find a mate.

Stilts and Avocets

Order: Charadriiformes Family: Recurvirostridae

This family includes avocets and stilts, which are large wading birds. Avocets have long legs and long bills that curve upwards. Stilts have extremely long legs and long, thin, straight bills.

Plovers and Lapwings

Order: Charadriiformes Family: Charadriidae

This family includes plovers. They are small to medium-sized birds with compact bodies, short thick necks, and long, pointed wings. You can find them in open areas all over the world, often near water.

Sandpipers and Allies

Order: Charadriiformes Family: Scolopacidae

This is a large family of shorebirds, including sandpipers, curlews, and snipes. Most of these birds eat small insects and worms they find in mud or soil. Their different leg and bill lengths allow many species to feed in the same places without competing for food.

Skuas and Jaegers

Order: Charadriiformes Family: Stercorariidae

Skuas and jaegers are medium to large birds, usually gray or brown. They often have white marks on their wings. They have longish bills with hooked tips and webbed feet with sharp claws. They are strong, agile fliers.

Gulls, Terns, and Skimmers

Order: Charadriiformes Family: Laridae

This family includes gulls and terns. They are medium to large seabirds, usually gray or white, often with black marks on their heads or wings. They have strong, longish bills and webbed feet.

Loons

Order: Gaviiformes Family: Gaviidae

Loons are aquatic birds, about the size of a large duck, but they are not related to ducks. Their feathers are mostly gray or black, and they have spear-shaped bills. Loons swim and fly well, but they are very clumsy on land because their legs are at the back of their bodies.

Cormorants and Shags

Order: Suliformes Family: Phalacrocoracidae

Cormorants are medium to large water birds, usually with dark feathers and colored skin on their faces. Their bills are long, thin, and sharply hooked. They have four webbed toes.

Pelicans

Order: Pelecaniformes Family: Pelecanidae

Pelicans are very large water birds with a special pouch under their beak. Like other birds in their group, they have four webbed toes.

Herons, Egrets, and Bitterns

Order: Pelecaniformes Family: Ardeidae

This family includes herons, egrets, and bitterns. Herons and egrets are medium to large wading birds with long necks and legs. Bitterns have shorter necks and are more secretive. When birds in this family fly, they pull their necks back, unlike other long-necked birds.

Ibises and Spoonbills

Order: Pelecaniformes Family: Threskiornithidae

This family includes ibises and spoonbills. They have long, wide wings and long bodies with long legs. Their bills are also long; ibises have bills that curve downwards, while spoonbills have straight, flat bills.

New World Vultures

Order: Cathartiformes Family: Cathartidae

New World vultures are not closely related to Old World vultures, but they look similar because they evolved in similar ways. Like Old World vultures, they eat dead animals. However, New World vultures use their excellent sense of smell to find dead animals, while Old World vultures find them by sight.

Osprey

Order: Accipitriformes Family: Pandionidae

The Osprey family has only one type of bird. Ospreys are fish-eating birds of prey. They have a very large, strong, hooked beak for tearing meat, strong legs, powerful claws, and sharp eyesight.

Hawks, Eagles, and Kites

Order: Accipitriformes Family: Accipitridae

This family includes hawks, eagles, and harriers. These birds of prey have very large, strong, hooked beaks for tearing meat from their prey. They also have strong legs, powerful claws, and excellent eyesight.

Barn-Owls

Order: Strigiformes Family: Tytonidae

Barn-owls are medium to large owls with big heads and unique heart-shaped faces. They have long, strong legs with powerful claws.

Owls

Order: Strigiformes Family: Strigidae

Typical owls are usually solitary birds of prey that are active at night. They have large eyes that face forward and good hearing. They have a hawk-like beak and a clear circle of feathers around each eye called a facial disk.

Kingfishers

Order: Coraciiformes Family: Alcedinidae

Kingfishers are medium-sized birds with large heads, long pointed bills, short legs, and short tails.

Woodpeckers

Order: Piciformes Family: Picidae

Woodpeckers are small to medium-sized birds with chisel-like beaks. They have short legs, stiff tails, and long tongues that help them catch insects. Many woodpeckers tap loudly on tree trunks with their beaks.

Falcons and Caracaras

Order: Falconiformes Family: Falconidae

This family includes falcons. They are birds of prey that are active during the day. Unlike hawks and eagles, falcons kill their prey with their beaks instead of their claws.

Tyrant Flycatchers

Order: Passeriformes Family: Tyrannidae

Tyrant flycatchers are songbirds found across North and South America. They look a bit like Old World flycatchers but are stronger and have tougher bills. They don't have very complex songs. Most of them eat insects.

Vireos, Shrike-Babblers, and Erpornis

Order: Passeriformes Family: Vireonidae

Vireos are small to medium-sized songbirds found only in the New World. They are usually greenish and look like wood warblers, but they have stronger bills.

Shrikes

Order: Passeriformes Family: Laniidae

Shrikes are songbirds known for catching other birds and small animals. They sometimes stick the uneaten parts of their prey on thorns. A shrike's beak is hooked, like a bird of prey.

Crows, Jays, and Magpies

Order: Passeriformes Family: Corvidae

This family includes crows, ravens, jays, and magpies. Corvids are larger than most songbirds, and some of the bigger ones are very smart.

Tits, Chickadees, and Titmice

Order: Passeriformes Family: Paridae

The Paridae are mostly small, sturdy woodland birds with short, strong bills. Some have crests on their heads. They are adaptable birds that eat a mix of seeds and insects.

Larks

Order: Passeriformes Family: Alaudidae

Larks are small birds that live on the ground. They often have amazing songs and special display flights. Most larks don't have very bright feathers. They eat insects and seeds.

Swallows

Order: Passeriformes Family: Hirundinidae

This family of birds is built for catching food while flying. They have slender bodies, long pointed wings, and short bills with wide mouths. Their feet are good for perching but not for walking.

Kinglets

Order: Passeriformes Family: Regulidae

Kinglets are a small family of birds that look a bit like titmice. They are very tiny birds that eat insects. Adult kinglets have colorful crowns on their heads, which is how they got their name.

Waxwings

Order: Passeriformes Family: Bombycillidae

Waxwings are a group of songbirds with soft, silky feathers. They have unique red tips on some of their wing feathers that look like sealing wax, giving them their name. These birds live in northern forests. They eat insects in summer and berries in winter.

Nuthatches

Order: Passeriformes Family: Sittidae

Nuthatches are small woodland birds. They have a special ability to climb down trees headfirst, which most other birds can't do. Nuthatches have big heads, short tails, and strong bills and feet.

Treecreepers

Order: Passeriformes Family: Certhiidae

Treecreepers are small woodland birds that are brown on top and white underneath. They have thin, pointed bills that curve downwards, which they use to pull insects out of tree bark. Like woodpeckers, they have stiff tail feathers that help them support themselves on vertical trees.

Gnatcatchers

Order: Passeriformes Family: Polioptilidae

These delicate birds look and act like Old World warblers. They move quickly through leaves, looking for insects. Gnatcatchers are mostly soft bluish-gray and have a long, sharp bill for eating insects. Many species have distinct black patterns on their heads (especially males) and long, black-and-white tails that they often hold up.

Wrens

Order: Passeriformes Family: Troglodytidae

Wrens are small and often hard to see, but they have very loud songs. They have short wings and thin, downward-curving bills. Several species often hold their tails straight up. All wrens eat insects.

Mockingbirds and Thrashers

Order: Passeriformes Family: Mimidae

This family includes thrashers and mockingbirds. These birds are famous for their amazing voices and their ability to copy many different bird calls and other sounds they hear outside. They usually have dull gray and brown feathers.

Starlings

Order: Passeriformes Family: Sturnidae

Starlings are small to medium-sized songbirds with strong feet. They fly strongly and directly and often gather in large groups. They prefer open areas and eat insects and fruit. Their feathers are usually dark with a shiny, metallic look.

Dippers

Order: Passeriformes Family: Cinclidae

Dippers are small, sturdy birds that find their food in cold, fast-moving streams.

Thrushes and Allies

Order: Passeriformes Family: Turdidae

Thrushes are a group of songbirds that are plump and have soft feathers. They are small to medium-sized birds that eat insects or sometimes everything. They often feed on the ground. Many thrushes have beautiful songs.

Wagtails and Pipits

Order: Passeriformes Family: Motacillidae

This family includes wagtails and pipits. They are small songbirds with medium to long tails. They are slender birds that eat insects on the ground in open areas.

Finches, Euphonias, and Allies

Order: Passeriformes Family: Fringillidae

Finches are songbirds that eat seeds. They are small to medium-sized and have strong, usually cone-shaped beaks. They fly with a bouncy motion, flapping and then gliding with their wings closed. Most finches sing well.

Longspurs and Snow Buntings

Order: Passeriformes Family: Calcariidae

This group of songbirds was once thought to be part of the New World sparrows. However, they are different in many ways and are usually found in open grassy areas.

New World Sparrows

Order: Passeriformes Family: Passerellidae

Until 2017, these birds were grouped with another family. Most of them are called sparrows, but they are not closely related to the Old World sparrows. Many of these birds have unique patterns on their heads.

Yellow-breasted Chat

Order: Passeriformes Family: Icteriidae

This bird was once thought to be a wood-warbler, but experts weren't sure. In 2017, it was placed in its own family.

Troupials and Allies

Order: Passeriformes Family: Icteridae

The icterids are a group of small to medium-sized, often colorful songbirds found only in the New World. This family includes blackbirds and orioles. Most species have black as their main feather color, often brightened with yellow, orange, or red.

New World Warblers

Order: Passeriformes Family: Parulidae

Wood-warblers are a group of small, often colorful songbirds found only in the New World. Most live in trees, but some, like the ovenbird, live more on the ground. Most birds in this family eat insects.

Cardinals and Allies

Order: Passeriformes Family: Cardinalidae

Cardinals are a family of strong, seed-eating birds with powerful bills. They usually live in open woodlands. Male and female birds often have different colored feathers.

See also

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List of birds of Grand Teton National Park Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.