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2026 “Next Maine Birds” Predictions Blog

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The state’s 4th or 5th Virginia’s Warbler – and the first away from Monhegan – was one of the rarest birds of the year in Maine, and it was even more special for me since I found it on Peak’s Island in November!

It’s once again time for my annual Predictions Blog, where I view into my crystal binoculars and attempt to forecast some of the “new” birds to grace the State of Maine – and then my own personal state list – in the coming year.

But first, let’s look back at last year’s predictions.

2025 Next Maine Birds Predictions Blog

It was a great year for birding in Maine, with rarities at every season, especially during a truly epic November Rarity season. As a snapshot of just how many notable species were in the state in 2025, consider Noah Gibb and Stacey Huth’s Maine Big Year total of 332 species broke the old record by an astounding 10! Surprisingly, with such an eventful year for rarities in the state, no new species were added to the state’s list in 2025. With that, I’m going to keep Next 25 Species to be found in Maine list the same, but based on current trends and regional sightings, I am doing a little shuffling at the top to bump up Limpkin as the northward mini-irruptions of this tropical/sub-tropical bird continue.

  1. Limpkin
  2. Scopoli’s Shearwater
  3. Neotropical Cormorant
  4. European Herring Gull
  5. Black-chinned Hummingbird
  6. California Gull
  7. Gray Heron
  8. Bermuda Petrel
  9. Graylag Goose
  10. Little Stint
  11. Audubon’s Shearwater
  12. Common Shelduck
  13. Anna’s Hummingbird
  14. Heerman’s Gull
  15. Common Ground-Dove
  16. Allen’s Hummingbird
  17. Spotted Redshank
  18. Lewis’s Woodpecker
  19. Ross’s Gull
  20. Black-capped Petrel
  21. Lesser Nighthawk
  22. Dusky Flycatcher
  23. Painted Redstart
  24. Hooded Oriole
  25. White Wagtail
It’s only a matter of time for Maine to be visited by its first ever Neotropic Cormorant, but it’s another Neotropical species that took the stop slot this year!

As for me, there were so many great birds seen in Maine in 2025, and the birds I chased just scratched the surface of the litany of vagrants this past calendar year as once again, my birding involves fewer and fewer chases each year. The MacGillivray’s Warbler in Yarmouth in November was one of the highlights – including becoming the 255th All-time Saturday Morning Birdwalk bird!- and a Fork-tailed Flycatcher in the Kennebunk Plains in July.

My first self-found rarity of the year was a Ruff at Walsh Preserve on 5/9…

..and Jeannette I chases the Northern Wheatear in Scarborough Marsh in September for a new ABA Area bird for her.

And shortly after successfully relocating a Bell’s Vireo on Monhegan (5th state record; found by Bill Thompson and Jess Bishop the day before), my group and I found the state’s 6th Black-throated Gray Warbler to cap off one of the best weekends on Monhegan in years! Add to that a record-shattering season at the Bradbury Mountain Spring Hawkwatch and two extraordinary flights at Sandy Point on 10/9 and 10/16, and I had an amazing year of birding in Maine.

Black-throated Gray Warbler on Monhegan. A state bird for almost everyone,
but “just” an exceptional “Island Bird” for me.

I even added two species to my State List in 2025, starting with an overdue Cerulean Warbler (#11) found by Doug Hitchcox in Evergreen Cemetery on 5/6. But nothing beats a “self-found” rarity, so finding a Virginia’s Warbler (#20) on Peak’s Island on 11/24 was even more special!

Virginia’s Warbler on Peak’s Island, 11/2025.

Of course, a few potential State Birds got away from me last year. However, all appeared to be one-day wonders, so it’s hard to complain: Crested Caracara in Scarborough Marsh on 4/30, a Franklin’s Gull (some day!) in The County on 5/21, an Anhinga over South Portland on 5/27, and an un-chaseable Ancient Murrelet at Matincus Rock on 6/19.

So, with those hits and misses, my updated list of the Top 25 Next State Birds for Me is now:

  1. Franklin’s Gull (this is getting amusing/frustrating)
  2. Neotropic Cormorant
  3. Brown Pelican
  4. California Gull
  5. Brown Booby
  6. Crested Caracara
  7. Slaty-backed Gull
  8. Boreal Owl
  9. Calliope Hummingbird
  10. Graylag Goose
  11. Gull-billed Tern
  12. Pacific Golden-Plover
  13. Limpkin
  14. Wood Stork
  15. Black-chinned Hummingbird
  16. Brewer’s Blackbird
  17. Anhinga
  18. Yellow Rail
  19. Scopoli’s Shearwater
  20. Western Wood-Pewee
  21. Red-necked Stint
  22. European Herring Gull
  23. Gray Heron
  24. Heerman’s Gull
  25. Little Stint

Well there ya have it, let’s see what 2026 brings, at least when it comes to the birds in Maine.

I think it’s about time for another Wood Stork to visit the state as well.

2014 Maine State List Predictions

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About this time each year on my blog, I make two lists of predictions for the coming year in Maine birding.  The first is my (somewhat-educated) guesses of the next 25 birds to be added to Maine’s state list.  The second is my predictions of the next 25 birds that I will add to my own personal state list.

But first, let’s recap 2013.  This past year, only one new species was added to the Maine list (although there was a report of a Rock Wren in Washington County this fall; I know little of the details): Eurasian Collared-Dove that appeared at a Falmouth feeder on 5/28.  This was my #1-ranked bird for each of the last two years.  I was hardly going out on a limb with this one, as this bird continues to rapidly colonize North America.  While reports in New England continue to be sparse, we can only foresee these becoming much more regular and eventually colonizing much of Maine.

For 2014, I added Neotropical Cormorant to the list, based on the expanding population in the interior of the continent and increasing vagrancy to distant corners of the continent.  I also replaced Bermuda Petrel with Barolo Shearwater.  Recently split from Little Shearwater, this pelagic waif has been detected near the mouth of the Gulf of Maine.  It seems it’s only a matter of time before a research vessel or even a whale-watch trip (especially following a tropical system) finds one within Maine waters.  I also shuffled around a few species based on increasing populations and/or trends in vagrancy.

So here goes my Top 25 Next Species for Maine list:
1)   California Gull
2)   Ross’s Gull
3)   Graylag Goose
4)   Roseate Spoonbill
5)   Little Stint
6)   Fieldfare
7)   Hammond’s Flycatcher
8)   Black-chinned Hummingbird
9)   Spotted Towhee
10)  Audubon’s Shearwater (on “hypothetical” list)
11)  Neotropic Cormorant
12)  Black-tailed Gull
13)  Anna’s Hummingbird
14)  Redwing
15)  Allen’s Hummingbird
16)  Barolo Shearwater
17)  Long-billed Murrelet
18)  Common Ground-Dove
19)  Western Wood-Pewee (my gut still tells me a bird I found on Monhegan last fall was actually this species, but a good voice recording is going to be necessary to confirm identification).
20)  Spotted Redshank
21)  Yellow-legged Gull
22)  Brown-chested Martin
23)  Bermuda Petrel
24)  Gray Flycatcher
25)  Common Scoter

As for me personally, 2013 was a productive year.  I added eight birds to my state list (with last year’s rankings):
a) Hoary Redpoll (#2), Bowdoinham feeder, 2/4.
b) Northern Lapwing (honorable mention), Range Hill Road, Poland, 5/6.
c) Acadian Flycatcher (#22), FortFoster, 5/21.
d) Mew Gull (#21), Thomaston, 8/8.
e) Black-necked Stilt (honorable mention), Eastern Road, Scarborough Marsh, 6/23.
f) Kentucky Warbler (#12), East Point, Biddeford Pool, 9/9.
g) Bell’s Vireo (#23), Bailey Island, Harpswell, 10/23.
h) Hermit Warbler (honorable mention), Harpswell feeder, 12/12.

Of those, only the Acadian Flycatcher and Bell’s Vireo were “self-found,” which is always the more fulfilling way to add to one’s state list.  I’ll have to do better with this in 2014.  Unfortunately, it brings my self-found list down to 88.7% of my total state list (363).

I also “dipped” on the St. George American White Pelican in September, waiting until it was no longer being seen before going to look for it.  I chased enough in 2013, but I could have chased much more.  In fact, I never made the effort, was away, or just didn’t get lucky enough for some other potential state birds (American Three-toed Woodpecker, the collared-dove, Great Skua, Yellow-headed Blackbird, and Bullock’s Oriole all immediately come to mind).

There are lots of options for birds to add to my own list in the coming year(s), so narrowing it down to 25 and ranking them is really just a guessing game.  Of course previous records and trends are taken into account.
1) Slaty-backed Gull
2) American Three-toed Woodpecker
3) Great Skua
4) Eurasian Collared-Dove
5) Gyrfalcon
6) Graylag Goose
7) Say’s Phoebe
8) American White Pelican
9) Western Grebe
10)  Boreal Owl
11)  Fork-tailed Flycatcher
12)  Tundra Swan
13)  Yellow Rail
14)  Ivory Gull
15)  Franklin’s Gull
16)  Sabine’s Gull
17)  Black-bellied Whistling-Duck
18)  California Gull
19)  Calliope Hummingbird
20)  Ross’s Gull
21)  Roseate Spoonbill
22)  Sage Thrasher
23)  Hammond’s Flycatcher
24)  Yellow-headed Blackbird
25)  Loggerhead Shrike

So there ya have it.  Now, let’s go birding and see what 2014 will bring!