Reference
How many bird species are in Missouri?
Missouri has 445 bird species on its official list (Missouri Bird Records Committee, no date on the list), the 33rd highest count of the 46 states with a verified count. It includes 10 provisional species, 5 extinct ones and 3 that are no longer found in Missouri.
Updated
Missouri bird list at a glance
| Official count | 445 species |
|---|---|
| List’s date | Not given on the list (we read it on October 2, 2026) |
| Kept by | Missouri Bird Records Committee (Missouri Birding Society) |
| Provisional | 10 species |
| Extinct or gone | 5 extinct, 3 no longer found in Missouri |
| Among US states | 33rd highest of the 47 US lists (50 states and DC) with a verified count |
| Official list | Missouri and its Birds (Missouri Birding Society) |
What does Missouri’s count include?
- 10 species the committee lists as provisional.
- 5 extinct species and 3 no longer found in Missouri.
- Species numbered 1 to 445 on the society's checklist.
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 Missouri 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 Missouri; 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.
Missouri’s state bird
Eastern Bluebird
Missouri’s state bird is the Eastern Bluebird (officially, the “native “bluebird” (Sialia sialis)”), the state bird since 1927. Revised Statutes of Missouri § 10.010 (1927). The law names the bluebird, Sialia sialis: the Eastern Bluebird.
This picture is plate 113 of Audubon’s The Birds of America.
Source: Missouri State Symbols: State Bird (Missouri Secretary of State), read October 3, 2026. See the state birds of all 50 states, each with its painting.
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: Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Tennessee.
- 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.