Redwood Coast Bird Checklist: Notable Species of Del Norte & Redwood National Park

Full checklists for this region are long. Redwood National and State Parks report about 280 species within their boundaries and publish a checklist PDF on the NPS birds page. Del Norte County's list stands at 427 species on Joseph Morlan's county page, which also links to a county checklist. This page doesn't repeat those lists. Instead it picks out the birds that published sources highlight for the Redwood Coast, and notes where and when each source says to look. Use it to plan a trip, then use eBird or the official checklists for details at a specific site.

Sea, rocks and estuaries

Species	Where	When / notes	Source
Marbled Murrelet	Feeds at sea; nests on old-growth conifer limbs 2–30 miles inland. Dawn viewing at Elk Prairie, Elk Meadow, lower Redwood Creek Trail, Lost Man Creek trailhead, Stout Grove	Late March to mid-September, peak mid-May to end of July, from 30 minutes before to 30 minutes after sunrise	NPS
Common Murre	Castle Rock; park cliffs and offshore rocks	Castle Rock has the largest breeding population on the Pacific Coast (estimates up to 100,000)	Wikipedia; NPS
Pigeon Guillemot; three cormorant species	Nest on cliffs and rocks within the parks	Nesting species	NPS
Scoters, grebes, loons	Offshore, in large groups	Bring a scope	NPS
Rhinoceros Auklet	Named by Audubon for the original Del Norte trail	Check eBird for current reports	Audubon
Black Oystercatcher	Nests on Castle Rock	View from Pebble Beach Drive	Wikipedia
Aleutian cackling goose	Roosts on Castle Rock; feeds in the Smith River bottoms	Spring staging near Crescent City; over 21,000 roost on Castle Rock	USFWS; Wikipedia
Black Brant	Humboldt Bay eelgrass meadows	More than 50% of the Pacific population refuels here	USFWS
Bald Eagle, Osprey, Peregrine Falcon, Belted Kingfisher	Estuaries, ponds and lagoons	Also ducks, herons, egrets and coots	NPS

Beaches and shorebirds

Species	Where	When / notes	Source
Whimbrel, Sanderling, Western Sandpiper	Sandy beaches such as Gold Bluffs, Crescent and Freshwater Spit	Migration and winter	NPS
Willet	Named by Audubon for the original trail	—	Audubon
Western Snowy Plover	Beaches	Threatened; possible but not guaranteed	NPS
Gulls (three or more species), Caspian Tern, California Brown Pelican	Often resting on beaches	Varies by season	NPS
Shorebirds (many species)	Humboldt Bay wetlands	Over half a million in spring migration	USFWS

Forest, river and prairie

Species	Where	When / notes	Source
American Dipper, Yellow Warbler, Spotted Sandpiper, Common Merganser	Riparian forest on Redwood Creek, Prairie Creek, Mill Creek, Smith River	Riparian specialists	NPS
Vaux's Swift, Common Raven	Along or above streams	Habitat generalists	NPS
Ruffed Grouse; flycatchers, warblers, thrushes, jays, woodpeckers, owls	Redwood and conifer forest: Howland Hill Rd, Cal Barrel Rd, Newton Drury Pkwy, Walker Rd, US 199	—	NPS
Pileated Woodpecker, Gray Jay, Spotted Owl	Forest birds named by Audubon for the original trail	—	Audubon
White-headed Woodpecker, Cassin's Finch, Mountain Chickadee	Also named by Audubon for the trail	—	Audubon
Acorn Woodpecker, Western Bluebird, Black-throated Gray Warbler, California Quail, Western Scrub-Jay	Oak woodland and prairie: Bald Hills Road, Dolason and Lyon's Ranch trails	Oak specialists	NPS
Red-tailed Hawk, White-tailed Kite, Merlin, Western Meadowlark	Same oak-prairie area	Open-country birds	NPS

Rarities on record

Morlan's page lists Del Norte County's "Best Bird" as a White-collared Swift at Pt. St. George on 21 May 1982. The runner-up was a Bristle-thighed Curlew at Crescent City on 14–16 May 1998. Other contenders he names are Common Crane, Steller's and Common Eiders, Red-headed Woodpecker and Brambling.

A species to watch for in future

The NPS says Redwood National Park is exploring a proposed reintroduction of the endangered California Condor to its historic range within the park. Treat this as a proposal, not an established population.

Conservation status notes

Marbled Murrelet: federally listed as threatened in California, Oregon and Washington in 1992, and endangered under California law, per the NPS. See the murrelet page.
Aleutian cackling goose: listed as endangered in 1967 and reclassified as threatened in 1990. It was removed from the federal list in 2001 after recovering to about 37,000 birds, per the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Western Snowy Plover: described as threatened on the NPS birds page.

For where these sites are, see the sites guide and region map.