Where to go birding
The best patches, reserves and hotspots for finding birds.
Great birding starts with knowing where to look. Discover great birding spots, from wetlands and rainforests to coastlines, woodlands and city parks. Organised by country and region, so you can find your next birding adventure wherever you are.
We're building it with local venues, reserves and birding partners. Look for the gold gem for places offering Lifer Pro member perks.
🇦🇺Australia
72 places
Hunter
9 places
Barrington Tops National Park
World Heritage-listed Gondwana rainforest park rising from near sea level to over 1,500 metres, taking in Antarctic beech forest and sub-alpine swamps. NPWS lists eleven separate birdwatching and wildlife-encounter sites across the park.
Visit websiteBlackbutt Reserve
A City of Newcastle bushland reserve with free wildlife exhibits and a network of trails. Superb Lyrebirds and Eastern Whipbirds are heard along the tracks.
Visit websiteHunter Region Botanic Gardens
Extensive grevillea and native-plant collections that draw honeyeaters and Eastern Spinebills. There is a cafe and nursery on site.
Visit websiteHunter Valley Wildlife Park
Wildlife park at Nulkaba near Cessnock with a walk-through lorikeet enclosure where the birds fly free around visitors, set within a collection of over 200 Australian and exotic animals.
Visit websiteHunter Wetlands Centre
A Ramsar-listed wetland on the edge of Newcastle, with trails and a dedicated birdwatching area across the ponds and reedbeds. One of the best local sites for Magpie Geese, Freckled Duck and migratory waders.
Visit websiteHunter Wetlands National Park
Ramsar-listed estuary wetland on Newcastle's doorstep, holding the second-largest area of mangroves in New South Wales. NPWS names Stockton Sandspit as a leading spot for roosting and feeding shorebirds, with pelicans, cormorants and sea-eagles around Riverside Park, and more than 200 species recorded across the Hunter estuaries.
Visit websiteOakvale Wildlife Park
A hands-on, ZAA-accredited wildlife park near Port Stephens with free-ranging kangaroos and a walk-in aviary.
Visit websiteTilligerry Habitat
A volunteer-run koala reserve on Port Stephens with a foreshore boardwalk. Good for honeyeaters and White-bellied Sea-Eagles.
Visit websiteWorimi Conservation Lands
Four thousand hectares of Stockton Bight beach, dune and swale country co-managed by Worimi Traditional Owners and NPWS, adjoining the Ramsar-listed Hunter estuary. 108 bird species recorded, with Pied Oystercatcher nesting in the swales and Pacific Golden-Plovers roosting behind the frontal dunes.
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New South Wales
23 places
Australian Botanic Garden Mount Annan
Australia's largest botanic garden, with free-ranging Emus and wetlands that draw honeyeaters and waterbirds. Visitor centre and cafe on site.
Visit websiteAustralian Reptile Park
Somersby wildlife park whose Eric's Nature Walk runs through bushland and includes an aviary of native Australian birds alongside a nocturnal house and frog pond.
Visit websiteBicentennial Park (Sydney Olympic Park)
Estuarine wetlands and parkland at Sydney Olympic Park, with over 200 bird species recorded. The wetlands host migratory shorebirds including Latham's Snipe.
Visit websiteBlue Mountains Botanic Garden Mount Tomah
A cool-climate botanic garden at around 1,000 metres in the Blue Mountains. Gang-gang Cockatoos and Crimson Rosellas are regular, and there is a visitor centre and cafe.
Visit websiteBlue Mountains Heritage Centre
The NPWS gateway to the Blue Mountains at Blackheath, with displays and a shop. Nearby trails hold Superb Lyrebirds, Gang-gang Cockatoos and the NSW-endemic Rockwarbler.
Visit websiteBooderee Botanic Gardens
Australia's only Aboriginal-owned botanic garden, on Jervis Bay. The Jervis Bay area is a stronghold for the endangered Eastern Bristlebird.
Visit websiteCentennial Parklands
Large inner-Sydney parkland of ponds, lakes, paperbark swamp, woodland and open grassland with around 130 recorded bird species. Nankeen Night Heron, Royal Spoonbill and Musk Duck work the water, with Tawny Frogmouth roosting near Lachlan Swamp and Pacific Baza overhead.
Visit websiteCumberland State Forest
Australia's only metropolitan state forest — forty hectares of tall eucalypt forest, moist rainforest gully and a 1930s arboretum at West Pennant Hills. Forestry Corporation names parrots and lorikeets throughout, with Eastern Whipbird and Satin Bowerbird as the sought-after species along the Forestry, Palm Gully and Sensory trails.
Visit websiteDeniliquin Visitor Information & Peppin Heritage Centre
The Riverina visitor centre that serves as the base for Deniliquin's Plains-wanderer night tours. The centre sits in Deniliquin's CBD near the Edward River, on the town's first public school site, with a museum, gallery and the Warriston Ram Shed.
Visit websiteDorrigo Rainforest Centre
The NPWS centre for World Heritage Gondwana rainforest at Dorrigo, with the Rainforest Skywalk over the canopy. Regent and Satin Bowerbirds and Paradise Riflebirds occur here.
Visit websiteEurobodalla Regional Botanic Garden
Garden set within retained native bushland in Mogo State Forest on the far south coast, with walking trails through Naturescape and Sandstone gardens. The Garden names Superb Lyrebird among the species visitors may find and runs an iNaturalist project recording wildlife on site.
Visit websiteFeatherdale Sydney Wildlife Park
Doonside park holding a large collection of Australian native wildlife, with a walk-through lorikeet enclosure. Southern Cassowary, Little Penguin and Glossy Black-Cockatoo are among the birds profiled, along with the critically endangered Regent Honeyeater, which Featherdale breeds and releases to the wild.
Visit websiteKu-ring-gai Wildflower Garden
A hundred and twenty-three hectares of remnant Sydney sandstone bushland at St Ives, with heath, tall forest, gullies and ponds. Council runs its own bird walk here, with honeyeaters the dominant group and Glossy Black-Cockatoo among the drawcards.
Visit websiteNorth Coast Regional Botanic Garden
Twenty hectares in central Coffs Harbour blending rainforest, mangroves along the Coffs Creek walk, paperbark forest, ponds and lakes. The Garden names Rufous Fantail, Rainbow Bee-eater, Sacred Kingfisher and Spectacled Monarch among its spring and summer visitors, and publishes birding leaflets.
Visit websitePotoroo Palace Native Animal Sanctuary
Non-profit native animal sanctuary on bush property at Yellow Pinch near Merimbula. Free-roaming Emus, ducks and geese move through the grounds, with cockatoos and other native birds alongside rescued marsupials.
Visit websiteRoyal Botanic Garden Sydney
Harbourside gardens in central Sydney with more than 140 recorded bird species. The resident Powerful Owls and Tawny Frogmouths are the best-known of them, and there is a Visitor Centre on site.
Visit websiteSea Acres Rainforest Centre
An elevated boardwalk through coastal littoral rainforest at Port Macquarie, good for Wonga Pigeons and Rufous Fantails. NPWS-run, with a cafe and shop.
Visit websiteSymbio Wildlife Park
Landscaped wildlife park at Helensburgh south of Sydney, with individual exhibits for Emu and Wedge-tailed Eagle and a penguin colony among more than 500 animals.
Visit websiteTaronga Western Plains Zoo
Open-range zoo on 300 hectares of Wiradjuri Country near Dubbo, with Emu among the Australian species on display and wetland and billabong areas along the circuit. Taronga runs Regent Honeyeater recovery breeding.
Visit websiteTaronga Zoo Sydney
A harbourside zoo with a long-running free-flight bird show. Wild Powerful Owls also turn up in the grounds.
Visit websiteWagga Wagga Botanic Gardens
Free-entry council gardens on Willans Hill whose zoo and aviary precinct centres on a large walk-through free-flight aviary of roughly 100 birds — finches, wrens, doves, lorikeets, and Princess, Superb and King Parrots. Ducks, peafowl, Black Swans and geese roam the grounds freely.
Visit websiteWalgun Cape Byron Information Centre
Clifftop headland reserve at Australia's most easterly point, mixing littoral rainforest, heathland and coastal cliffs. NPWS names White-bellied Sea-Eagle, Australian Pelican, Australian Brush-turkey and Superb Fairywren, with fruit-doves and cuckooshrikes moving through the coastal corridor.
Visit websiteWarrumbungle Visitor Centre
The gateway to Warrumbungle National Park, Australia's first Dark Sky Park. Turquoise Parrots and Diamond Firetails are among the birds found here, and the centre has interpretive displays.
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Victoria
8 places
Ballarat Wildlife Park
Privately owned park on thirty-seven acres of natural bushland at Ballarat East. Free-roaming Emus wander the grounds with the kangaroo mob, and the collection includes cassowaries, a colony of Little Penguins, and raptor and parrot species.
Visit websiteHealesville Sanctuary
A Zoos Victoria sanctuary, and home to the Helmeted Honeyeater breeding programme — the recovery centre for Victoria's critically endangered bird emblem.
Visit websitePhillip Island Nature Parks
Home of the Penguin Parade, where Little Penguins come ashore in front of visitors. Summer brings rafts of Short-tailed Shearwaters back to their burrows.
Visit websiteRoyal Botanic Gardens Victoria — Cranbourne Gardens
Australian-plant botanic garden at Cranbourne combining the designed Australian Garden with more than ten kilometres of tracks through remnant heathland and woodland. RBGV names Superb Fairywren, New Holland Honeyeater and Willie-wagtail among the birds of the Australian Garden.
Visit websiteRoyal Botanic Gardens Victoria — Melbourne Gardens
Thirty-eight hectares of lakes, lawns and mixed plantings on the edge of Melbourne's CBD. The Gardens name coots, cormorants, spinebills and swans among their resident birdlife, with waterbirds nesting around the Ornamental Lake.
Visit websiteSerendip Sanctuary
A Parks Victoria sanctuary with long-running Brolga and Australian Bustard breeding, set among open wetlands full of waterbirds.
Visit websiteWerribee Open Range Zoo
Open-range zoo on the banks of the Werribee River. The Australian Trail runs through bush and grassland where Emus range alongside kangaroos, and the zoo profiles the critically endangered Orange-bellied Parrot as a featured species.
Visit websiteWilsons Promontory National Park
Granite and heathland coastal park at mainland Australia's southern tip, with beaches, dunes, warm-temperate rainforest and grassy woodland. Parks Victoria states half of Victoria's bird species occur here, and names beach-nesting Hooded Plover, Ground Parrot and free-ranging Emus.
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Queensland
8 places
Australia Zoo
Large wildlife park at Beerwah with an extensive Australian and exotic bird collection, Southern Cassowary, Brolga, Black-necked Stork and Wedge-tailed Eagle among them. Free-flight birds feature in the Crocoseum conservation show arena.
Visit websiteBrisbane Botanic Gardens Mt Coot-tha
Fifty-six hectares of subtropical botanic gardens with a lagoon, rainforest, eucalypt forest, heathland and wetland plantings across twenty-seven hectares of Australian plant communities. Council names egrets, cormorants and Dusky Moorhens on the lagoon.
Visit websiteCairns Botanic Gardens
Tropical rainforest gardens in Cairns, alive with Orange-footed Megapodes, Double-eyed Fig-Parrots and Metallic Starlings.
Visit websiteCurrumbin Wildlife Sanctuary
A National Trust sanctuary on the Gold Coast, where the wild Rainbow Lorikeet feeding has been a birding spectacle for decades.
Visit websiteDaintree Discovery Centre
An aerial walkway and canopy tower through the Daintree rainforest, in prime Southern Cassowary country.
Visit websiteDavid Fleay Wildlife Park
Mangrove and melaleuca wetland park at Burleigh Heads with Australian animals in habitat-inspired enclosures. The bird collection includes Brolga, Black-necked Stork, Southern Cassowary, eagles and owls, alongside platypus and crocodiles.
Visit websiteLone Pine Koala Sanctuary
Riverside sanctuary at Fig Tree Pocket with a dedicated bird collection and a free-flight raptor arena flying eagles, owls, kites and falcons. Wild Rainbow Lorikeets come in to the sanctuary's open feeding area.
Visit websiteO'Reilly's Rainforest Retreat
A long-established birding retreat in Lamington National Park. Regent Bowerbirds feed from the hand and Albert's Lyrebird calls through the surrounding rainforest.
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South Australia
6 places
Adelaide Botanic Garden
Fifty hectares in the city centre with lakes, the Nelumbo Pond, palm and rainforest glasshouses and mature plantings. The Garden's wildlife page names resident swans, ducks, ibis and kookaburras, and the adjoining Botanic Park holds a Grey-headed Flying-fox camp.
Visit websiteAdelaide Zoo
Eight-hectare city zoo in botanic surrounds with a walk-through rainforest and wetlands aviary. Southern Cassowary, Superb Lyrebird and Palm Cockatoo are on display, alongside the critically endangered Orange-bellied Parrot and Regent Honeyeater.
Visit websiteCleland Wildlife Park
Open wildlife park in the Mount Lofty Ranges where most animals live in natural stringybark forest and wetland habitat rather than enclosures. The park describes native bush birds, forest birds and waterbirds as part of the visit.
Visit websiteLaratinga Wetlands
Constructed wetland on the edge of Mount Barker, built as part of the wastewater reclamation scheme and now a chain of open ponds, reedbeds and revegetated banks linked by walking trails.
Visit websiteUrimbirra Wildlife Park
Open-range park set in native wetlands on the Fleurieu Peninsula holding over 400 Australian native animals. Birds the park names include cockatoos, cassowary and owls, with Emu hand-feeding at the entrance.
Visit websiteWarrawong Wildlife Sanctuary
Thirty-five-acre feral-proof sanctuary at Mylor in the Adelaide Hills, fenced since the 1960s against cats and foxes, with springs, streams, lakes and rainforest gully habitat. The sanctuary states that birds rarely seen outside the fence live protected inside it.
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Western Australia
6 places
Caversham Wildlife Park
Western Australia's largest privately owned native wildlife collection, inside Whiteman Park, with around 2,000 animals. Australian Bustard, Black-breasted Buzzard, Gang-gang Cockatoo and Wedge-tailed Eagle are among the birds it names, and there is a penguin feeding attraction.
Visit websiteHerdsman Lake Discovery Centre (Wildlife Centre)
One of Perth's richest wetlands for crakes, rails and nesting waterbirds, minutes from the city. Run by the WA Gould League.
Visit websiteKanyana Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre
Volunteer-run wildlife sanctuary and hospital set among jarrah trees at Lesmurdie in the Perth hills. Resident birds include Eastern Barn Owl, Rainbow Lorikeet, Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo, Tawny Frogmouth and Emu, and the centre runs early morning bird walks.
Visit websiteKings Park and Botanic Garden
Bushland and botanic garden above the Swan River in Perth, where flocks of the endangered Carnaby's Black-Cockatoo come in to feed.
Visit websitePerth Zoo
Metropolitan zoo on the Swan River foreshore with a substantial native and exotic bird collection. Baudin's and Carnaby's Black-Cockatoo, Brolga, Bush Stone-curlew and Southern Cassowary are among the species it names.
Visit websiteThe Wetlands Centre Cockburn
Community wetlands centre at the heart of the Beeliar Wetlands beside Bibra Lake, with banksia woodland, bushland trails and a wildflower garden. Waterbird numbers on Bibra Lake rise through summer and autumn as smaller lakes dry; bush birds include honeyeaters and black-cockatoos.
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Tasmania
4 places
Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary
Sanctuary and wildlife hospital at Brighton north of Hobart, combining resident-animal enclosures with a statewide rescue operation. Birds it names are Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo, Tawny Frogmouth and Cape Barren Goose, and it runs a seabird rehabilitation programme.
Visit websiteInala Nature Museum & Jurassic Garden
On Bruny Island, the gateway to the endangered Forty-spotted Pardalote and all twelve Tasmanian endemics.
Visit websiteThe Tasmanian Arboretum
Sixty-six hectares of temperate-world trees at Eugenana south of Devonport, taking in open parkland, original forest, limestone outcrops, Founders Lake, a creek and a river. Around 81 bird species have been recorded on site, with Tasmanian Nativehen conspicuous, and the Arboretum maintains its own species list.
Visit websiteTrowunna Wildlife Sanctuary
Eighty-five acres at Mole Creek where alpine, forest and coastal habitats meet, around a central lake. The lake supports ducks, geese and swans; the forest holds goshawks, falcons, honeyeaters, wrens and rosellas, and a resident Wedge-tailed Eagle has lived at the sanctuary for more than thirty-five years.
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Northern Territory
3 places
Alice Springs Desert Park
Arid-zone aviaries and a nocturnal house, plus a free-flight show whose Black-breasted Buzzard cracks eggs with stones.
Visit websiteBowali Visitor Centre (Kakadu National Park)
The main visitor centre for Kakadu National Park, whose wetlands hold vast flocks of Magpie Geese and over 280 recorded bird species.
Visit websiteTerritory Wildlife Park
A walk-through monsoon aviary and a free-flight birds-of-prey show, both built around Top End species.
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Australian Capital Territory
5 places
Australian National Botanic Gardens
Canberra's national collection of Australian native plants, with a rainforest gully that holds Superb Lyrebird and Gang-gang Cockatoos, the city's faunal emblem.
Visit websiteJerrabomberra Wetlands
Purpose-built hides overlook Latham's Snipe, crakes and the elusive Australasian Bittern. Managed by the Woodlands and Wetlands Trust.
Visit websiteMulligans Flat Woodland Sanctuary
Australia's largest single area of Box-Gum Grassy Woodland managed for conservation, in north-east Canberra, enclosed by a predator-proof fence. Birds it names among the species it protects are Bush Stone-curlew and Superb Parrot, alongside reintroduced Eastern Bettongs and Eastern Quolls.
Visit websiteNational Zoo & Aquarium
Combined zoo and aquarium on Lady Denman Drive, Canberra, built around a bookable Barking Owl encounter. Bush Stone-curlew, Superb Parrot, Eastern Whipbird and Little Penguin are also in the collection.
Visit websiteTidbinbilla Nature Reserve
Large reserve in the Tidbinbilla Valley spanning wetlands, grasslands and wet and dry forest. The Sanctuary is a predator-fenced wetland of interconnected ponds reached by a wheelchair-accessible path with boardwalk and viewing platforms, where waterbirds, platypus and turtles are among the residents; Emu and Superb Lyrebird are named elsewhere in the reserve.
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🇳🇿New Zealand
31 places
North Island
18 places
Aroha Island Ecocentre
Twelve-hectare predator-managed sanctuary in the Kerikeri Inlet, Bay of Islands, linked to the mainland by a causeway, with bush walks and an inlet beach. The site names North Island Brown Kiwi as its headline species, seen in natural habitat, alongside resident bush and shore birds.
Visit websiteAuckland Botanic Gardens
Sixty-four hectares at Manurewa including around ten hectares of remnant alluvial forest of mature rimu, kahikatea, miro, mataī and tōtara, with a loop trail the Gardens promote for listening to native birdsong. The Gardens support ongoing bird monitoring in the forest.
Visit websiteGannet Safaris Overland
An overland four-wheel-drive route from Te Awanga through farmland and native bush to the clifftop gannet colony at Cape Kidnappers, described by the operator as the world's largest and most accessible, with over 20,000 gannets.
Visit websiteKapiti Island Nature Tours
Guided access to Kāpiti Island, one of New Zealand's most important nature reserves. The predator-free island is best known to birders for Little Spotted Kiwi, which overnight visitors go out to find after dark.
Visit websiteKiwi North (Whangārei Museum & Kiwi House)
Twenty-five hectares of farmland, forest and bush at Maunu with a purpose-built nocturnal house holding a pair of North Island Brown Kiwi in deep leaf litter, with a pond, simulated dawn and dusk, and burrow cameras for viewing when the birds are denned.
Visit websiteNational Aquarium of New Zealand
Marine Parade aquarium at Napier whose Penguin Cove exhibit houses Little Penguin (kororā) on a beach-and-pool habitat, and whose Native NZ Icons area displays kiwi alongside tuatara and tuna kuwharuwharu. It runs a Little Penguin rehabilitation centre and a kiwi breeding programme.
Visit websiteNational Wetland Centre — Rotopiko
Peat-lake reserve at Rotopiko / Lake Serpentine between Hamilton and Te Awamutu, with boardwalk, two short loop walks and a self-guided Discovery Trail through kahikatea forest and wetland margins. The National Wetland Trust promotes a mass fly-in of thousands of birds at dusk.
Visit websiteNgā Manu Nature Reserve
A 14-hectare reserve at Waikanae protecting one of the largest remnants of coastal lowland swamp forest on the Kāpiti Coast, with aviaries holding New Zealand Kaka, Kea, Red-crowned Parakeet (kākāriki) and Blue Duck (whio).
Visit websiteŌtari-Wilton's Bush
A hundred hectares of mature and regenerating podocarp and northern rātā forest and stream valleys a few kilometres from central Wellington, enclosing New Zealand's only public botanic garden dedicated solely to native plants. The Trust promotes the forest for its prolific native birdlife and birdsong.
Visit websiteŌtorohanga Kiwi House
A Waikato wildlife park built around North Island Brown Kiwi and its nocturnal kiwi house. A large dome aviary, walk-through enclosures, wetlands and forested trails also hold Kea and Blue Duck (whio).
Visit websitePūkaha National Wildlife Centre (Mount Bruce)
A forest wildlife centre in the Wairarapa, known for Manukura the white kiwi and for its resident hand-reared North Island Kokako, Kahurangi.
Visit websitePūkorokoro Miranda Shorebird Centre
The gateway to the Firth of Thames shellbanks and tidal flats, where Bar-tailed Godwit (kuaka) and Wrybill are the birds people come for.
Visit websiteRotokare Scenic Reserve
A predator-free sanctuary around a lake in Taranaki, and an active recovery site for Stitchbird (hihi).
Visit websiteSanctuary Mountain Maungatautari
A fenced maunga ecosanctuary in the Waikato, home to South Island Takahe and North Island Kokako. North Island Saddleback (tīeke) and North Island Robin (pītoitoi) can be met on the trails of Te Tūī a Tāne, the Southern Enclosure.
Visit websiteTarapuruhi Bushy Park
A predator-fenced forest sanctuary and historic homestead near Whanganui, with tracks through old-growth forest and Stitchbird feeders along the way.
Visit websiteTiritiri Matangi
An open island sanctuary in the Hauraki Gulf, and one of the most reliable places in the country for South Island Takahe (takahē), North Island Saddleback (tīeke), North Island Kokako and Stitchbird (hihi).
Visit websiteWingspan National Bird of Prey Centre
New Zealand's national bird of prey centre at Rotorua, built around flying displays of the New Zealand Falcon (kārearea).
Visit websiteZealandia Te Māra a Tāne
New Zealand's first fenced urban ecosanctuary, in the hills above Wellington, home to South Island Takahe, North Island Saddleback, Little Spotted Kiwi (kiwi pukupuku) and free-flying New Zealand Kaka.
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South Island
13 places
Albatross Encounter Kaikōura
Boat-based seabird watching off the Kaikōura coast, where great albatrosses and mollymawks come in alongside shearwaters, petrels, skuas and terns. The operator describes Kaikōura as holding one of the greatest varieties of seabirds in a small area anywhere on the New Zealand coast.
Visit websiteBrook Waimārama Sanctuary
The South Island's largest fenced sanctuary, in the hills behind Nelson. Orange-fronted Parakeet (kākāriki karaka), New Zealand Kaka, Rifleman and South Island Robin live inside the fence, and there is a live kaka camera online.
Visit websiteDunedin Botanic Garden
New Zealand's first botanic garden, thirty hectares in North Dunedin, with a walk-through aviary on the upper-garden slopes holding native and overseas species and a co-ordinated captive breeding programme for New Zealand Kaka. Forty wild bird species have been recorded in the garden, among them New Zealand Bellbird (korimako), New Zealand Pigeon (kererū) and Tui.
Visit websiteFarewell Spit
A nature reserve and wetland of international importance curving off the top of the South Island. The wader-watching area draws Bar-tailed Godwits, knots and turnstones, and there is an Australasian Gannet colony near the lighthouse. Public access beyond the first few kilometres is by supervised tour only.
Visit websiteKiwi Park Queenstown
Family-run wildlife sanctuary below the Skyline Gondola with purpose-built nocturnal kiwi houses holding Brown Kiwi, plus a conservation show and a self-guided trail through the aviaries. New Zealand Pigeon (kererū), Campbell Island Teal and Paradise Shelduck (pūtangitangi) are among the collection.
Visit websiteMotueka Sandspit
A sandspit at the Motueka River mouth, reached on foot from the edge of town, and one of the top wader roosts in the country, recognised as a site of international significance. Thousands of shorebirds gather at high tide, among them Bar-tailed Godwit (kuaka), Red Knot and Wrybill (ngutu pare), while Variable Oystercatcher (tōrea pango) nests along the spit.
Visit websiteNatureland Wildlife Trust
Small not-for-profit zoo on Tahunanui Beach Reserve, Nelson, whose collection includes Kea, New Zealand Kaka, Morepork (ruru) and New Zealand Pigeon (kererū). Its Conservation Corner is a breed-for-release aviary run with Project Janszoon and the Department of Conservation, releasing native birds into Abel Tasman National Park.
Visit websiteOrokonui Ecosanctuary
The South Island's fenced cloud-forest sanctuary north of Dunedin, home to South Island Takahe, South Island Kaka and Southern Brown Kiwi (Haast tokoeka).
Visit websiteRakiura National Park Visitor Centre
The southernmost Department of Conservation visitor centre, at Oban on Stewart Island/Rakiura, with displays on the island's natural and cultural values and information on Ulva Island/Te Wharawhara, a predator-free open bird sanctuary.
Visit websiteRoyal Albatross Centre (Taiaroa Head)
Taiaroa Head, at the tip of the Otago Peninsula, holds the world's only mainland breeding colony of Northern Royal Albatross (toroa).
Visit websiteTe Anau Bird Sanctuary (Punanga Manu o Te Anau)
A free, self-guided Department of Conservation sanctuary on the shore of Lake Te Anau, where South Island Takahe (takahē) are the birds most people come for, alongside Antipodes Island Parakeet and Brown Teal (pāteke).
Visit websiteTravis Wetland
Urban freshwater wetland and nature heritage park in eastern Christchurch with raupō beds, open water, sand dunes and regenerating tōtara and mataī forest, served by boardwalks, a viewing tower and a bird hide. Australasian Swamphen (pūkeko), New Zealand Scaup (pāpango), Australasian Shoveler (kuruwhengi) and Sacred Kingfisher (kōtare) are among the residents, and Brown Teal (pāteke) have been released on site.
Visit websiteWillowbank Wildlife Reserve
A wildlife reserve on the edge of Christchurch, family owned and operated by the Willis family for more than fifty years. It was the first in New Zealand to open a glass-free nocturnal kiwi house, so kiwi can be watched behaving naturally without a barrier.
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🇺🇸United States
112 places
Northeast
20 places
Audubon Society of Rhode Island Nature Center & Aquarium
Coastal trails at Bristol with a boardwalk out over the Narragansett Bay marsh. The trails cross the 28-acre Claire D. McIntosh Wildlife Refuge, running from the pollinator garden through upland meadows to the marsh boardwalk.
Visit websiteBraddock Bay Bird Observatory
A major banding station on the Lake Ontario shore, and one of the premier spring raptor migration sites in the east.
Visit websiteCape May Bird Observatory
The observatory at the tip of Cape May Point, where the peninsula funnels autumn hawk and songbird migration into one of the most concentrated movements in North America.
Visit websiteConnecticut Audubon Society Center at Fairfield (Birdcraft)
Birdcraft, one of the first private songbird sanctuaries established in America. Five acres of mixed hardwood forest, thickets and a shallow pond, circled by a loop trail and boardwalk, with more than 150 species recorded.
Visit websiteConstitution Marsh Audubon Center & Sanctuary
Audubon's tidal-marsh sanctuary on the Hudson River, among Marsh Wrens and herons. The 270-acre tidal wetland is an Audubon New York Important Bird Area and a New York State Bird Conservation Area.
Visit websiteCornell Lab of Ornithology (Sapsucker Woods)
The global hub of ornithology at Ithaca, with trails through Sapsucker Woods and the Lab's live feeder cams.
Visit websiteDrumlin Farm Wildlife Sanctuary
A working farm and wildlife sanctuary with resident owls and hawks, plus Bobolinks in the grassland.
Visit websiteEdwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge
The Wildlife Drive out over Barnegat Bay, good for Brant, herons and shorebirds. More than 48,000 acres of southern New Jersey coast with over 360 species recorded, and an eight-mile Wildlife Drive with two observation towers and a marsh boardwalk.
Visit websiteGreenwich Audubon Center
Home of the Quaker Ridge Hawk Watch and its autumn raptor migration. The centre stewards seven sanctuaries totalling 686 acres, with hardwood forest, open fields, a lake, streams and vernal pools.
Visit websiteHawk Mountain Sanctuary
The world's first refuge for birds of prey, where the autumn count from North Lookout takes in kettles of Broad-winged Hawks over the Kittatinny Ridge.
Visit websiteHog Island Audubon Camp
A residential Audubon camp on the rock coast and spruce woods of Muscongus Bay, running since 1936 for adults, teens and families. Part of Audubon's Seabird Institute, its Saving Seabirds session lands participants on Eastern Egg Rock, where Project Puffin began.
Visit websiteIpswich River Wildlife Sanctuary
Mass Audubon's largest sanctuary, taking in the Rockery, waterfowl and canoeing among nesting herons.
Visit websiteMeigs Point Nature Center
At the eastern end of Hammonasset Beach State Park on Long Island Sound, the centre interprets the park's salt marsh, beach and woodland habitats. Its “in the air” gallery covers the birds of Hammonasset with an osprey platform, live birds, and nests and eggs, alongside touch tanks and native gardens.
Visit websiteNH Audubon Susan N. McLane Center
NH Audubon's flagship centre in Concord, with trails through the Silk Farm Wildlife Sanctuary. Three miles of trails link Great Turkey Pond with a 15-acre grassland managed for Bobolink and Savannah Sparrow.
Visit websiteParker River National Wildlife Refuge
Plum Island, where migrating shorebirds pass through and Snowy Owls turn up in winter. More than 4,700 acres of beach and dune, maritime shrub, cranberry bog, impoundment and salt marsh, and critical habitat for the threatened Piping Plover.
Visit websitePowdermill Nature Reserve
The Carnegie Museum of Natural History's 2,200-acre field station in the Allegheny Mountains at Rector, combining oak-maple forest, old fields, forested streams and ponds. The Powdermill Avian Research Center runs one of North America's longest-running bird banding programmes alongside a bioacoustics lab specialising in nocturnal flight calls, and the nature centre's exhibition gallery is built around that avian research.
Visit websiteTom Ridge Environmental Center
Gateway to Presque Isle, a 3,200-acre sandy peninsula on Lake Erie and Pennsylvania's only seashore, whose shifting habitats make it a favoured landfall for migrating birds. The centre combines interactive exhibits with a 75-foot glass-enclosed observation tower over the peninsula and working research labs.
Visit websiteVermont Institute of Natural Science
A raptor rehabilitation centre at Quechee with live birds-of-prey exhibits. The 47-acre property slopes to the backwater of the Ottauquechee River, where an accessible Forest Canopy Walk boardwalk rises over 100 feet above the forest floor.
Visit websiteWellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary
Cape Cod tidal flats where the shorebird and horseshoe-crab spectacle plays out. The 1,183-acre sanctuary overlooks Wellfleet Harbour, with about five miles of trails reaching salt marsh, barrier beach and pine woodland.
Visit websiteThe Wetlands Institute
Back-bay salt marsh near Stone Harbor, known for its terrapins and nesting Laughing Gulls. A quarter-mile Salt Marsh Trail with interpretive stations runs out into the marsh to a 125-foot pier over a tidal creek.
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Mid-Atlantic
5 places
Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge
Wintering waterfowl on the Chesapeake, and one of the densest nesting Bald Eagle populations in the east.
Visit websiteBombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge
Vast tidal salt marsh on Delaware Bay, holding large shorebird and Snow Goose concentrations. A 12-mile Wildlife Drive circles the impoundments, with a boardwalk trail over salt marsh and 30-foot towers at Raymond, Bear Swamp and Shearness.
Visit websiteKiptopeke State Park
562 acres at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay on Virginia's Eastern Shore, described by Virginia State Parks as the largest migratory stop-over on the Atlantic Flyway for autumn songbirds and raptors. Maritime forest, dunes, Bay shoreline and Taylor Pond are served by an accessible hawk observatory, a wood warbler boardwalk and two viewing blinds.
Visit websitePatuxent Research Refuge
13,000 acres of forest, meadow and wetland between Washington and Baltimore, the only national wildlife refuge established to support wildlife research. Unbroken tree cover shelters deep-forest songbirds including Scarlet Tanager, and the National Wildlife Visitor Center's blind overlooks feeders working for Downy Woodpecker, White-breasted Nuthatch and American Goldfinch.
Visit websitePickering Creek Audubon Center
Farm, forest and tidal creek on Maryland's Eastern Shore, with a strong bird-education programme. 450 acres of mature hardwood forest, brackish marsh, meadow and cropland, with over a mile of shoreline and a 60-box Eastern Bluebird nest trail.
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Southeast
16 places
Audubon Center & Sanctuary at Francis Beidler Forest
The world's largest remaining old-growth cypress-tupelo swamp, with Prothonotary Warblers along the boardwalk.
Visit websiteBernheim Arboretum & Research Forest
Sixteen thousand acres of Kentucky forest, good for Cerulean Warblers and spring migrants. Founded in 1929, it carries around forty miles of trails, a canopy walk 75 feet above the forest floor, and the 36-acre Big Prairie managed for grassland birds.
Visit websiteChattahoochee Nature Center
River wetlands north of Atlanta, with marsh boardwalks and birds-of-prey aviaries. Six trails cover 2.5 miles of the 127-acre property, the longest being the accessible River Boardwalk Trail over wetland and bottomland forest.
Visit websiteCircle B Bar Reserve
The Marsh Rabbit Run boardwalk in central Florida, with Roseate Spoonbills, Wood Storks and wading birds throughout.
Visit websiteCorkscrew Swamp Sanctuary
The largest old-growth bald cypress forest in North America, with nesting Wood Storks and Painted Buntings along the boardwalk.
Visit websiteDauphin Island Bird Sanctuary
137 acres of maritime forest, marsh, dune, swamp, lake and beach on the Alabama coast, protected specifically as stopover habitat for neotropical migrants making landfall across the Gulf. A three-mile trail system designated a National Recreational Trail runs through it.
Visit websiteGreen Cay Nature Center & Wetlands
A boardwalk over constructed wetlands in Palm Beach County, good for Purple Gallinules, herons and Least Bitterns.
Visit websiteHuntington Beach State Park
2,500 acres at Murrells Inlet combining three miles of beach, the Mullet Pond freshwater impoundment, tidal salt marsh and a rock jetty, with over 300 species recorded — the park's own site calls it the best birding spot in South Carolina. Bald Eagles nest across the marsh from the nature centre, the jetty draws Purple Sandpiper and Red-throated Loon, and the federally endangered Piping Plover winters on the beach.
Visit websiteIjams Nature Center
Knoxville's urban birding hub, with more than 300 acres of trails along the Tennessee River. More than 14 miles of natural-surface trails pass woodlands, meadows and ponds, taking in Mead's Quarry and the Ross Marble Natural Area.
Visit websiteJ.N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge
Wildlife Drive on Sanibel Island, where Roseate Spoonbills and wading birds work the mangrove flats.
Visit websiteMerritt Island National Wildlife Refuge
Black Point Wildlife Drive beside the Kennedy Space Center, good for Roseate Spoonbills, Painted Buntings and wintering ducks.
Visit websiteNorth Carolina Botanical Garden
Native-plant gardens at Chapel Hill with Piedmont woodland birding through the collections. An 88-acre forest behind the display gardens carries three miles of Piedmont Nature Trails, including the Streamside and Oak Hickory loops.
Visit websiteReelfoot Lake State Park
A 15,000-acre shallow cypress lake in north-west Tennessee formed by the 1811–12 New Madrid earthquakes, ringed by old-growth cypress swamp and lakeshore trails. Bald Eagles nest and winter here in numbers, American White Pelicans arrive on autumn migration, and Prothonotary Warbler and Wood Duck are seen from the visitor centre and the Keystone Trail.
Visit websiteSweetwater Wetlands Park
A 125-acre constructed wetland of ponds, cattail marsh and forested slough built to clean Sweetwater Branch before it flows onto Paynes Prairie, and now recording over 260 bird species alongside alligators and otters. Six observation decks, a half-mile boardwalk and 3.5 miles of gravel trail give open water and marsh views, with Great Blue Herons working the shallows.
Visit websiteWarner Park Nature Center
Set in Nashville's Warner Parks, a designated Important Bird Area, the centre runs a songbird and hummingbird banding station that has completed thirty consecutive years of MAPS research — the oldest such station in Tennessee. Baltimore Oriole, Northern Parula and Scarlet Tanager feature among the birds recorded, and the campus holds a natural history museum, teaching pond and the Sandy Bivens Bird Garden of native landscaping.
Visit websiteWoodlands Nature Station
Sits between Honker and Hematite lakes as the gateway to the 8,500-acre Nature Watch area of Land Between the Lakes, in the middle of the Mississippi Flyway, where more than 250 bird species have been documented. Non-releasable resident ambassadors include Bald Eagle and Great Horned Owl, and the backyard gardens and feeders draw hummingbirds.
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Texas
10 places
Aransas National Wildlife Refuge
The principal wintering grounds of the endangered Whooping Crane. More than 115,000 acres of Texas Gulf Coast habitat, with a 16-mile auto tour, walking trails and observation towers over San Antonio Bay, and over 400 species recorded.
Visit websiteBentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park
Headquarters of the World Birding Center, on Rio Grande floodplain woodland and thorn brushland where about 360 bird species have been recorded, among them Plain Chachalaca, Great Kiskadee, Altamira Oriole and Swainson's Hawk. Private vehicles are kept out of the park; a two-storey accessible hawk observation tower, bird blinds, feeding stations and water features sit along roughly seven miles of trail.
Visit websiteChihuahuan Desert Nature Center & Botanical Gardens
A desert botanical garden and nature centre in the Chihuahuan Desert near Fort Davis. Inside the fenced garden are a Wildscape Garden, a pollinator trail, a native grasses exhibit and a cactus museum of around 200 taxa.
Visit websiteEdinburg Scenic Wetlands
A 40-acre reclaimed wetlands site inside a city park and part of the World Birding Center network, with two large wetland ponds, a canal overlook, dragonfly and discovery ponds and a 3.5-acre native butterfly habitat around the interpretive centre. Green Kingfisher, Least Grebe and American Avocet are among the birds viewable from seven observation docks and 2.5 miles of walking trail.
Visit websiteEstero Llano Grande State Park
A 230-acre park on the Arroyo Colorado holding the largest wetlands environment in the World Birding Center network — shallow ponds, mudflats, native woodland and thorn scrub, with about 340 bird species documented. Green Jay, White-tipped Dove, Altamira Oriole and Roseate Spoonbill are among those seen from the accessible Indigo Blind and over five miles of trail around Alligator Lake.
Visit websiteHouston Audubon (High Island Sanctuaries)
The High Island sanctuaries, where spring fallout drops warblers into Boy Scout Woods and the Smith Oaks rookery fills with nesting waders.
Visit websiteQuinta Mazatlan
A historic adobe mansion set in urban thornforest at McAllen, where Green Parakeets and Clay-colored Thrush are part of the city's birdlife.
Visit websiteResaca de la Palma State Park
The largest tract in the World Birding Center network, 1,200 acres built around a resaca fringed by old-growth Texas ebony and anacua woodland, Tamaulipan thornscrub and restored grassland savannah. Resaca crossings and four observation decks give views of Altamira Oriole, Plain Chachalaca, Roseate Spoonbill and Least Grebe along more than ten miles of trail and a 2.8-mile paved tram loop.
Visit websiteSanta Ana National Wildlife Refuge
Lower Rio Grande Valley woodland holding Green Jays, Plain Chachalacas and the valley specialities birders come for.
Visit websiteSouth Padre Island Birding and Nature Center
A World Birding Center site with a boardwalk out over the Laguna Madre, good for fallout migrants and Roseate Spoonbills.
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Midwest
9 places
Aullwood Audubon Center & Farm
Prairie and farm trails near Dayton, a classic Midwest Audubon education centre. Six miles of trails cross the 200-acre sanctuary, taking in woodland, wetlands and ponds alongside the prairie and farmland.
Visit websiteBlack Swamp Bird Observatory
Host of The Biggest Week in American Birding, sitting right beside the Magee Marsh boardwalk and its warbler migration.
Visit websiteEagle Creek Park Ornithology Center
Perched on a bluff overlooking a bird sanctuary west of Eagle Creek Reservoir, in a park the National Audubon Society deems an Important Bird Area, amid deciduous woods, ponds, streams, grassland and wetland. The centre holds raptor ambassadors and a roughly 100-specimen bird hall across four habitats; its rear observation room overlooks up to twenty-one duck species on migration, and a north-facing room looks onto feeders and a hummingbird garden.
Visit websiteFriends of Sax-Zim Bog Welcome Center
A welcome centre built for birders visiting the bog, where the draw is boreal specialities — Great Gray Owl, Boreal Chickadee and Northern Hawk Owl.
Visit websiteGrange Insurance Audubon Center
Restored Scioto River wetlands south of downtown Columbus. Set within the 119-acre Scioto Audubon Metro Park, an Important Bird Area with close to 200 recorded species.
Visit websiteHawk Ridge Bird Observatory
The ridge above Duluth where tens of thousands of raptors funnel along the Lake Superior shore on autumn migration.
Visit websiteKalamazoo Nature Center
Over 1,100 acres of beech-maple forest, prairie and wetland near Kalamazoo, home to the Kalamazoo Valley Bird Observatory. Its Kleinstuck migration survey, running since 1973, has documented 209 species, including Eastern Towhee, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Hermit Thrush and Ruby-crowned Kinglet, and the centre bands Ruby-throated Hummingbirds.
Visit websiteMagee Marsh Wildlife Area
The boardwalk known as the Warbler Capital of the World, where spring migrants drop in off Lake Erie.
Visit websiteWhitefish Point Bird Observatory
A migration corridor at the tip of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, covering raptors, waterbirds and owl banding on Lake Superior.
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Great Plains
3 places
Crane Trust Nature & Visitor Center
A visitor centre near Wood River on the stretch of the Platte where Sandhill Cranes stage, with tallgrass prairie and bison alongside.
Visit websiteIain Nicolson Audubon Center at Rowe Sanctuary
An Audubon centre on the Platte River, where up to 600,000 Sandhill Cranes roost on spring migration.
Visit websiteKansas Wetlands Education Center
Overlooks Cheyenne Bottoms, the largest inland marsh in the United States and a Ramsar-designated Wetland of International Importance, run by Fort Hays State University with Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks. Picture windows, binoculars and spotting scopes look out over a mitigation marsh where Whooping Cranes are tracked on migration and Northern Harriers quarter the reeds.
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Mountain West
7 places
Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge
Great Salt Lake wetlands holding American Avocets and Wilson's Phalaropes, with the James V. Hansen education centre on site.
Visit websiteBird Conservancy of the Rockies
Formerly the Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory, running a banding station and the Old Stone House at Barr Lake State Park.
Visit websiteDenver Botanic Gardens
An urban oasis in Denver that pulls in migrants and hummingbirds. The 24-acre York Street site, with neighbouring Cheesman Park, is designated a birding hotspot on eBird.
Visit websiteIntermountain Bird Observatory
Boise State University's field programme in the foothills above the city, covering Boise Ridge raptor migration and the Lucky Peak banding station.
Visit websiteNational Elk Refuge
More than 24,700 acres of grassland, wetland and forest on the Jackson Hole valley floor, ringed by the Teton and Gros Ventre ranges. Alongside its wintering elk herd the refuge protects habitat for Trumpeter Swan and Bald Eagle, and its founding purpose was later extended by executive order to cover bird nesting habitat.
Visit websiteThe Peregrine Fund — World Center for Birds of Prey
An interpretive centre above the Snake River plain near Boise, with live California Condors and other raptors on view.
Visit websiteTracy Aviary
A historic public aviary in Salt Lake City's Liberty Park, combining live bird exhibits with its own conservation science programme.
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Southwest
13 places
Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum
Part zoo, part botanical garden, part natural history museum west of Tucson, with a live raptor free-flight programme and Sonoran Desert species such as Gambel's Quail and Cactus Wren around the grounds.
Visit websiteBosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge
The winter roost for Sandhill Cranes and Snow Geese on the Rio Grande, and the site the Festival of the Cranes is built around.
Visit websiteBoyce Thompson Arboretum
Arizona's oldest botanical garden, where riparian habitat along Queen Creek has drawn over 270 recorded bird species.
Visit websiteDesert Botanical Garden
A desert garden in Phoenix where Curve-billed Thrasher and Costa's Hummingbird work the cactus collections.
Visit websitePatagonia-Sonoita Creek Preserve
A cottonwood-willow gallery forest along the creek, good for Gray Hawk and Thick-billed Kingbird. A volunteer-built one-mile trail links the preserve to the Paton Center for Hummingbirds, passing upland habitat and a mesquite bosque.
Visit websitePaton Center for Hummingbirds
The Patagonia hummingbird yard that birders have been visiting for decades, and the most reliable place in the country for Violet-crowned Hummingbird.
Visit websiteRamsey Canyon Preserve
The Nature Conservancy's flagship preserve in the Huachuca Mountains, and one of the great hummingbird canyons of the Southwest.
Visit websiteRandall Davey Audubon Center & Sanctuary
At the mouth of Santa Fe Canyon in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristos, good for Western Tanager and Canyon Towhee.
Visit websiteRio Grande Nature Center State Park
A bosque and riverside park on the Rio Grande flyway in Albuquerque, with ponds, a native plant garden and a pollinator garden. Indoor and outdoor viewing areas and wildlife viewing blinds overlook the ponds, and 1.2 miles of interpretive trail connect to the city bosque trails along the river.
Visit websiteSanta Rita Lodge (Madera Canyon)
A lodge and feeding station in Madera Canyon, with up to fifteen hummingbird species at the feeders and Elegant Trogon in the canyon above.
Visit websiteSoutheastern Arizona Bird Observatory
An observatory known for its hummingbird banding work and for Ash Canyon Bird Sanctuary, the classic site for Lucifer Hummingbird.
Visit websiteTucson Botanical Gardens
Small, intimate gardens in midtown Tucson that pull in hummingbirds and desert songbirds. Among more than twenty themed spaces is a Backyard Bird Garden planted for food and shelter, and an old grapefruit grove that sometimes holds a Great Horned Owl.
Visit websiteWhitewater Draw Wildlife Area
A managed wetland with riparian and grassland fringes in the Sulphur Springs Valley near McNeal, best known as a major winter roost for Sandhill Cranes and managed by Arizona Game and Fish for waterfowl and wetland birds. Cinnamon Teal, White-faced Ibis and Vermilion Flycatcher are among the other regulars, viewed from parking-area trails and platforms.
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California
15 places
Audubon Center at Debs Park
A nature centre in the hills of Los Angeles, good for California Thrasher and Nuttall's Woodpecker. The centre covers 17 acres within the 282-acre Ernest E. Debs Regional Park, with the Butterfly Loop and Children's Woodland trails and bird blinds.
Visit websiteBig Morongo Canyon Preserve
A 31,000-acre desert preserve in the Little San Bernardino Mountains where a fault line pushes groundwater to the surface, creating one of California's most important cottonwood-willow riparian habitats and a gateway to the Sand to Snow National Monument. 263 bird species have been recorded, and a boardwalk-accessible observation area at the nature centre has seed and hummingbird feeders, a water feature and shaded seating.
Visit websiteBolsa Chica Conservancy
The Conservancy's interpretive centre adjoins the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve, over 1,400 acres of salt marsh with roughly half open to the public on trails. The Conservancy describes the wetlands as both an important migratory stop and a nesting ground, with shorebirds gathering on mudflats exposed by the receding tide and Least Tern, Snowy Plover and Black-necked Stilt nesting on the reserve's islands and dunes.
Visit websiteBuena Vista Audubon Nature Center
Stands on the north shore of the 220-acre Buena Vista Lagoon Ecological Reserve, California's first Ecological Reserve, with interpretive displays, a natural history library, a second-storey viewing deck and a quarter-mile nature trail through native plantings. Over 200 bird species have been recorded on and around the lagoon, among them Mallard, Pied-billed Grebe, American Coot and Black Phoebe.
Visit websiteCosumnes River Preserve
Tule marsh, valley oak riparian forest, native grassland and oak savannah along the last free-flowing river running from the Sierra Nevada into the Central Valley, where more than 250 bird species have been documented. The one-mile Lost Slough Wetlands Walk and its accessible boardwalk look out over flooded fields and managed wetlands holding Sandhill Crane, Tundra Swan and Greater White-fronted Goose, while Swainson's Hawk nests on the preserve's farmland.
Visit websiteEffie Yeaw Nature Center
Sits within a 100-acre nature study area of riparian and oak woodland, shrubland, meadow and aquatic habitat along the lower American River in Ancil Hoffman County Park. Easy interpretive trails, a replica Nisenan Maidu village and a visitor centre with nearly thirty non-releasable native animals anchor the site; Wild Turkey, woodpeckers, hawks and waterfowl are regular, with Western Screech-Owl in cavities in the oaks beside the main trail.
Visit websiteElkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve
A few miles east of Moss Landing, the reserve holds one of California's largest coastal salt marshes and is recognised as an Important Bird Area, with more than 340 resident and migratory bird species. Over five miles of trail lead through oak woodland, mud flats, salt marsh, freshwater ponds, grassland and scrub, with White-tailed Kite, Red-shouldered Hawk, Chestnut-backed Chickadee and Acorn Woodpecker among the nesting birds.
Visit websiteFriends of the Arcata Marsh
Interprets the Arcata Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary at the north end of Humboldt Bay, a 307-acre mosaic of freshwater and saltwater marsh, brackish ponds, tidal sloughs, mudflats, grassland and woodland crossed by more than five miles of surfaced trail. Over 330 bird species have been sighted here, with wintering waterfowl and shorebirds massing on Klopp Lake, broods of Cinnamon Teal and Wood Duck in the cattails, and Cedar Waxwing flocks and migrating warblers in autumn.
Visit websiteHumboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge
Almost 5,000 acres of mudflat, eelgrass meadow, salt marsh, seasonal wetland, dune and forest supporting over 316 bird species, designated a Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network Site of Hemispheric Importance. From the Richard J. Guadagno Headquarters and Visitor Center the level Shorebird Loop Trail passes wetlands and Hookton Slough with an observation gazebo and elevated platform; more than half the Pacific population of Brant refuels on the bay's eelgrass, and Marsh Wren and Virginia Rail call from the trailside.
Visit websiteLindsay Wildlife Experience
A Walnut Creek nature centre caring for over forty resident animal ambassadors, among them Bald Eagle, Golden Eagle, Great Horned Owl and Peregrine Falcon — birds in the centre's care rather than wild sightings. Its on-site rehabilitation hospital, which the centre describes as the first in the United States, treats more than 5,500 injured and orphaned wild animals a year.
Visit websiteLiving Coast Discovery Center
A nonprofit zoo and aquarium set on the San Diego Bay National Wildlife Refuge at Chula Vista, with over a mile of trail running across Sweetwater Marsh down to the bay where migrating shorebirds and raptors pass and Burrowing Owl occurs on the refuge. Its Raptor Row and Eagle Mesa exhibits hold resident ambassador owls, hawks, falcons and eagles, and the centre takes part in a propagation and reintroduction programme for the endangered Ridgway's Rail.
Visit websiteLos Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden
A 127-acre botanical garden and historical site in Arcadia that its own site describes as a wildlife sanctuary, most notably for birds, with 260 species on the garden's checklist. Free-roaming Indian Peafowl, brought to the old Rancho Santa Anita in 1879 and now naturalised here, number well over two hundred; owls, hawks and waterfowl also nest on the grounds.
Visit websitePoint Blue Conservation Science — Palomarin Field Station
One of the oldest continuously operating bird-banding stations in the United States, at the southern end of Point Reyes.
Visit websiteSea and Sage Audubon Society
Audubon House in Irvine sits within the San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary, a 300-acre freshwater marsh of ponds, riparian woodland and San Diego Creek frontage reached by walking trails. The chapter's own photographic guide records over 325 bird species using the marsh, among them Cinnamon Teal, Black-necked Stilt, American Avocet and Black-crowned Night Heron. Audubon House holds a reference library, a nature bookstore, optics for loan and a bird sightings board.
Visit websiteTijuana Estuary Visitor Center
Gateway to the Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve at Imperial Beach, southern California's largest coastal wetland, where 370 bird species have been recorded. Inside are a three-tiered diorama of the estuary, a painted-to-scale floor map of the watershed and binoculars that can be borrowed for the trails; birders travel from around the world for the reserve's Ridgway's Rail, and Least Tern, Snowy Plover and California Gnatcatcher also occur.
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Pacific Northwest
13 places
Bird Alliance of Oregon
A 172-acre forested wildlife sanctuary against Forest Park, ten minutes from downtown Portland, with more than four miles of trail, a pond and two creeks, plus an interpretive centre, nature store and wildlife care centre. Resident birds include Northern Pygmy-Owl, Pileated Woodpecker, Varied Thrush and Pacific Wren.
Visit websiteBloedel Reserve
150 acres of forest, meadow and formal garden on Bainbridge Island. The Buxton Bird Marsh & Meadow is a ten-acre managed wetland with a boardwalk around a protected central pond, and viewpoints and seating designed for birdwatching.
Visit websiteCascades Raptor Center
A raptor rehabilitation hospital and nature centre in the hills south of Eugene, with resident non-releasable birds of prey representing Oregon's raptor species on display along a hillside aviary trail.
Visit websiteDungeness River Nature Center
Sits in Railroad Bridge Park on the Dungeness River at Sequim, with exhibits following the watershed's habitats from alpine ridge through forested slope to estuary. Operated in partnership with the Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe and the Olympic Peninsula Audubon Society.
Visit websiteHigh Desert Museum
A Bend natural-history museum whose Donald M. Kerr Birds of Prey Center houses owls, hawks, eagles, falcons and vultures of the High Desert, with wildlife staff presenting individual birds to visitors alongside indoor and outdoor exhibits.
Visit websiteMalheur National Wildlife Refuge
A High Desert migrant trap in Oregon's Harney Basin, long known as a vagrant magnet, set in sage-grouse country.
Visit websiteNorthwest Trek Wildlife Park
A 723-acre Pacific Northwest native-species park of free-roaming forest and wetland below Mount Rainier. Its dedicated Eagle Passage habitat holds resident Bald Eagle and Golden Eagle, with Barn Owl and Snowy Owl also among the residents.
Visit websiteOregon Coast Aquarium
Home to an open-air, walk-through seabird aviary in Newport — one of the largest of its kind in North America. Tufted Puffin, Horned Puffin, Rhinoceros Auklet and Common Murre live inside, with Black Oystercatchers along the rockwork.
Visit websitePadilla Bay Reserve
A National Estuarine Research Reserve near Mount Vernon protecting an intertidal eelgrass meadow of more than 8,000 acres — the second largest on North America's Pacific coast — within over 11,000 acres of intertidal and upland habitat. Trails and an overlook give views of eagles, herons and ducks that live here year-round or pass through on migration, and binoculars and bird identification guides can be borrowed at the Breazeale Interpretive Center front desk.
Visit websiteSunriver Nature Center & Observatory
Eight acres of natural habitat around Lake Aspen in central Oregon, with a botanic garden, nature trail and resident birds of prey. Lakeside walks turn up herons, ducks and geese alongside beaver and river otter.
Visit websiteTualatin River National Wildlife Refuge
Floodplain wetland and riparian habitat on the Tualatin River inside the Portland metro area, with over 200 bird species recorded. Bald Eagle, Red-tailed Hawk, Great Blue Heron and Green Heron are regularly seen, and a visitor centre with interpretive exhibits sits above the refuge.
Visit websiteTurnbull National Wildlife Refuge
Over 23,000 acres of Channeled Scablands near Cheney where ponderosa pine, wetland, meadow steppe and riparian habitat meet, threaded with sloughs and seasonal potholes. More than 200 bird species have been recorded; the refuge was established to protect migratory waterfowl, with Redhead a focus and Trumpeter Swan a featured species.
Visit websiteWillapa National Wildlife Refuge
Over 21,000 acres of tidelands, temperate rainforest, ocean beaches and small streams around Willapa Bay, including rare remnants of old-growth coastal cedar forest. The refuge's mix of habitats supports over 200 bird species, among them Marbled Murrelet, Snowy Plover, Bald Eagle and Northern Harrier, with more than thirty species each of waterfowl and shorebirds. At Leadbetter Point the Bay Loop carries information panels on the bay's bird life and salt marsh habitat.
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Alaska
1 place
Creamer's Field Migratory Waterfowl Refuge
A historic dairy farm at Fairbanks where Sandhill Cranes and geese stage on spring migration. Run by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the 2,200-acre refuge combines forest, wetland and open fields with miles of nature trails and viewing platforms, and Friends of Creamer's Field staff the Farmhouse Visitor Center.
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🇨🇦Canada
35 places
British Columbia
5 places
Boundary Bay
An internationally significant stop on the Pacific Flyway south of Vancouver, where thousands of birds feed and rest on the marine, wetland and upland habitats. The Savannah and Raptor trails are the ones to walk for owls and hawks over old field habitat.
Visit websiteGeorge C. Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary
A sanctuary on the Fraser River delta at Westham Island, where wintering Snow Goose flocks are the spectacle.
Visit websiteRocky Point Bird Observatory
A banding station on southern Vancouver Island covering fall migration. Its passerine monitoring runs at Pedder Bay, alongside nocturnal owl, hummingbird and seawatch programmes.
Visit websiteVanDusen Botanical Garden
An urban botanical garden in Vancouver. The 22-hectare garden publishes a downloadable bird checklist, with habitats from open lawns and ponds to sheltered underbrush.
Visit websiteWild Bird Trust of BC (Maplewood Flats)
Tidal-flat birding on Burrard Inlet, minutes from central Vancouver. Five kilometres of accessible trail link 96 hectares of intertidal mudflat and salt marsh with 30 hectares of upland forest and freshwater marsh, where over 250 species have been recorded.
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Prairies
6 places
Beaverhill Bird Observatory
A banding station at Beaverhill Lake in Alberta, covering songbirds and Northern Saw-whet Owls. Beaverhill Lake is a shallow Ramsar-listed wetland near Tofield, staging tens of thousands of waterfowl and shorebirds.
Visit websiteGrasslands National Park
Native prairie in southern Saskatchewan holding Sprague's Pipit, Baird's Sparrow and Burrowing Owl. A land of rolling hills, coulees and ravines - the West Block centred on the Frenchman River Valley, the East Block on the Killdeer Badlands.
Visit websiteInglewood Bird Sanctuary
A 36-hectare urban sanctuary on the Bow River that has given migratory birds somewhere to rest since 1929, with 270 bird species recorded.
Visit websiteLast Mountain Bird Observatory
Nature Saskatchewan's banding station at Last Mountain Lake, run through spring and fall migration. Part of the Canadian Migration Monitoring Network, it has banded over 100,000 birds of 126 species since 1990.
Visit websiteLast Mountain Lake National Wildlife Area
North America's first federal bird sanctuary, with more than 300 species recorded on migration and peak counts running to tens of thousands of cranes and hundreds of thousands of geese and ducks.
Visit websiteOak Hammock Marsh (Harry J. Enns Wetland Discovery Centre)
A Manitoba marsh with an interpretive centre, known for its autumn blackbird and waterfowl staging. A Ramsar Wetland of International Importance with aspen-oak bluffs, artesian springs, remnant tallgrass prairie and 30 kilometres of trails.
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Ontario
14 places
Algonquin Provincial Park Visitor Centre
The gateway to Algonquin's boreal specialties — Spruce Grouse, Canada Jay and Black-backed Woodpecker.
Visit websiteBird Kingdom
The world's largest free-flying indoor aviary, at Niagara Falls. Pathways climb through a multi-level indoor rainforest, taking in Lorikeet Landing and the Night Jungle.
Visit websiteHoliday Beach Conservation Area
An autumn hawk migration hotspot on the Lake Erie shore. Trails, a boardwalk and a three-storey observation tower serve this Important Bird Area, which is also a breeding area for the endangered Prothonotary Warbler.
Visit websiteJack Miner Migratory Bird Sanctuary
The Jack Miner Migratory Bird Foundation's sanctuary at Kingsville, where Canada Geese have been drawn in and banded since Jack Miner's first plantings. The grounds hold a public viewing pond, the trails of Kennedy Woods, a museum in a converted horse barn and a nature stadium built for watching banding.
Visit websiteLong Point Bird Observatory
Birds Canada's founding programme and the longest-running programme of its kind in the Americas, monitoring migration on the Lake Erie shore. Three stations - Old Cut, Breakwater and The Tip - work a peninsula reaching 32 kilometres into Lake Erie, where more than 400 species have been recorded.
Visit websiteMountsberg Raptor Centre
A Conservation Halton park with live raptor ambassadors and a spring hawk watch. Its trail network includes the Wildlife Walkway and the Lakeshore Lookout Trail beside the Mountsberg Reservoir.
Visit websitePoint Pelee National Park Visitor Centre
The tip of Point Pelee, the most famous spring warbler migration site in Canada.
Visit websitePresqu'ile Provincial Park
A Lake Ontario peninsula with 338 bird species recorded and 130 breeding, and a kilometre of boardwalk into the largest protected marsh on the lake's north shore.
Visit websitePrince Edward Point Bird Observatory
A banding station on the Lake Ontario shore covering both spring and fall migration. Sited at the south-eastern tip of Prince Edward County within two migratory flyways, the area was designated an Important Bird and Biodiversity Area in 1998.
Visit websiteRondeau Provincial Park
Old-growth Carolinian forest and extensive coastal wetland on Lake Erie. The park calls itself a world-renowned birdwatching destination, and Prothonotary Warbler is the bird people come for.
Visit websiteRoyal Botanical Gardens
Gardens and the Cootes Paradise marsh at Burlington, where spring warbler migration funnels through.
Visit websiteTommy Thompson Park
The Leslie Street Spit reaching out into Lake Ontario from Toronto, and a spring songbird magnet. An Environmentally Significant Area with more than 300 recorded bird species and its own bird research station.
Visit websiteToronto Botanical Garden
Gardens running down into the Wilket Creek ravine, in mid-city Toronto. Its themed spaces include Nature's Garden, which recreates Carolinian and Great Lakes-St. Lawrence forest habitats.
Visit websiteWye Marsh Wildlife Centre
A Georgian Bay wetland centre with resident Trumpeter Swans. More than 25 kilometres of trails cross the wetlands and woodlands of this Key Biodiversity Area, which also holds a waterfowl monitoring station.
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Quebec
3 places
Cap Tourmente National Wildlife Area
Bulrush marsh downriver from Quebec City and the main staging habitat for Snow Geese, which gather by the tens of thousands. More than 180 bird species recorded, and a Ramsar wetland of international importance — the first designated in North America.
Visit websiteMontreal Botanical Garden (Space for Life)
An arboretum in the middle of Montreal that acts as a trap for migrant songbirds each spring. The 40-hectare Arboretum holds roughly 6,000 trees and shrubs, and some 200 bird species have been recorded in the garden.
Visit websiteObservatoire d'oiseaux de Tadoussac
An observatory on the north shore of the St Lawrence, long known for its boreal owl and raptor migration.
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Atlantic Canada
7 places
Brier Island
An island at the mouth of the Bay of Fundy and a globally significant Important Bird Area. The Nature Conservancy of Canada protects over 400 hectares of it, including Big Meadow Bog, which holds migrating birds on the Atlantic Flyway, with a coastal trail through the reserve.
Visit websiteCape Jourimain Nature Centre
A nature centre by the Confederation Bridge, on the Northumberland Strait fall migration route. Trails within a National Wildlife Area cross salt, brackish and freshwater marsh, with Willet and Nelson's Sparrow among the signature birds.
Visit websiteCape St. Mary's Ecological Reserve
Tens of thousands of nesting seabirds on the cliffs of Newfoundland's Avalon Peninsula, reached by a 1.4-kilometre trail. Northern Gannets pack the Bird Rock sea stack, with Black-legged Kittiwakes, Common Murres and Razorbills on the ledges alongside.
Visit websiteKejimkujik National Park
Inland Nova Scotia forest and lakes with Barred Owls and Common Loons, and a dark-sky preserve. Around 178 bird species occur across the park and its separate Seaside section at Port Joli, where Piping Plovers nest on the beaches.
Visit websiteMary's Point (Shepody National Wildlife Area)
Upper Bay of Fundy mudflats, a Ramsar site and a Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network site of hemispheric importance. Semipalmated Sandpiper is the dominant shorebird, and thousands roost on the beach at Mary's Point on peak passage.
Visit websiteSackville Waterfowl Park
A 55-acre wetland sanctuary in the middle of Sackville with 3.5 kilometres of accessible trails and boardwalks, and 160 bird species recorded, 26 of them breeding.
Visit websiteWitless Bay Ecological Reserve
Island seabird colonies off the Avalon Peninsula, and the Atlantic Puffin capital of North America. Over 620,000 pairs of Leach's Storm-Petrel also nest here; landing is by permit only, so the islands are watched from licensed tour boats.
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