Rare Birds in District of Columbia
Our list for District of Columbia has 24 rare birds recorded regularly there: 5 residents, 2 winter visitors, 11 passage migrants and 6 scarce visitors
Most likely in October
GBIF · Oct
Share of all bird records in District of Columbia in October, 2019–2024. Each month links to that month’s page.
All 24, most common first
Smallest to largest
Length, cm- Mourning Warbler 10–15 cm
- Clay-colored Sparrow 13–15 cm
- Dickcissel 14–16 cm
- Alder Flycatcher 13–17 cm
- Lark Sparrow 15–17 cm
- Semipalmated Sandpiper 15–18 cm
- Dunlin 16–22 cm
- Evening Grosbeak 16–22 cm
- Budgerigar 18–20 cm
- Eastern Screech-owl 16–25 cm
- Virginia Rail 20–27 cm
- Black Tern 22–26 cm
- Lesser Yellowlegs 23–27 cm
- American Golden-Plover 24–28 cm
- Grey Plover 27–30 cm
- Black-billed Cuckoo 28–32 cm
- Common Tern 31–35 cm
- Red-necked Grebe 40–50 cm
- American Avocet 43–51 cm
- Cattle Egret 46–56 cm
- Surf Scoter 48–60 cm
- Great Horned Owl 46–63 cm
- Glossy Ibis 48–66 cm
- Tundra Swan 120–150 cm
Body length, bill to tail. Rare birds in grey.
Data: EOD – eBird Observation Dataset (Cornell Lab of Ornithology), accessed via GBIF.org, CC BY 4.0. Records from 2019–2024, aggregated and filtered by Birdfact. How these lists are made