Reference
How many bird species are in Kentucky?
Kentucky has 400 bird species on its official list (Kentucky Bird Records Committee, January 2025), the 43rd highest count of the 46 states with a verified count. The list is labeled January 2025: it takes in the committee's decisions through December 2024 and was published in May 2025.
Updated
Kentucky bird list at a glance
| Official count | 400 species |
|---|---|
| List’s date | January 2025 |
| Kept by | Kentucky Bird Records Committee (Kentucky Ornithological Society) |
| Among US states | 43rd highest of the 47 US lists (50 states and DC) with a verified count |
| Official list | KBRC Official State List of Birds |
What does Kentucky’s count include?
- Every species on the committee's official state list, with its decisions through December 2024.
- Species names and order updated through July 2025.
- Rare species the committee reviews are part of the 400, not extra.
Why might you see a different number?
A state’s count is every species ever accepted on its official list, so a figure from another year, or one that counts something else, won’t match.
Every state’s list follows its own rules: see why the counts differ from state to state.
How do you count your own Kentucky list?
Your state list is every species you’ve seen in the state. If you log your sightings in eBird, it lets you filter your life list by place, a state included (eBird’s My eBird help page, updated March 28, 2025), and the data download you can ask for gives the state of every sighting: our guide shows how to download your own eBird data. On paper, count the species you’ve seen in Kentucky; what is a life list? explains how birders keep their lists.
If you’d like your whole life list in print, Birdfolio turns it into a hardcover book, each species beside a classic painting.
Kentucky’s state bird
Northern Cardinal
Kentucky’s state bird is the Northern Cardinal (officially, the “cardinal”), the state bird since 1926. A resolution approved February 17, 1926.
Audubon painted it too: plate 159 of The Birds of America.
Source: Moments in Kentucky Legislative History: State Bird (Kentucky Legislature, with the Kentucky Historical Society), read October 3, 2026. See the state birds of all 50 states, each with its painting.
Birding festivals in Kentucky
Our birding festivals calendar lists one festival in Kentucky, with dates from its own website:
- Land Between the Lakes Hummingbird Festival, Cadiz: dates not announced yet (2026 festival: August 1–2, 2026)
In winter you can also join a Christmas Bird Count near you; our guide explains how.
More about bird counts
- How many bird species are in each state: all 50 states, DC and Canada, each from its official list.
- Bird lists of nearby states: Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.
- State birds of all 50 states, each with its classic painting.
- How many bird species are in the US and Canada, and how birders count them.
- Bird splits and lumps: when one species becomes two, state lists change too.