Best Place for Birding (2016)

From November to March, a truly wild population of whooping cranes winter at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge on the gulf coast of Texas. Intertidal marsh birds and other coastal migrants, along with huge numbers of ruby-throated hummingbirds in the nearby Rockport-Fulton area, make it a must-see birding location.
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Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge and Magee Marsh on the southern shore of Lake Erie sits at the epicenter of the spring warbler migration, when large concentrations of North American songbirds head to their northern breeding grounds. During May, the peak month for warbler watching, as many as 30 species have been spotted.
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The Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in Pennsylvania has a history of raptor conservation dating back to 1934, making it the world's oldest birds of prey sanctuary. Today, birdwatchers show up in autumn for the spectacular airshow during the annual hawk migration.
Photo courtesy of Holly Cybelle Merker

Located northeast of Naples, the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary protects a swathe of Everglades ecosystem where it's possible to spot a diversity of birds, including wood stork, bald eagles, barred owl, gnatcatchers and the black-bellied whistling duck.
Photo courtesy of Gregory "Slobirdr" Smith / Flickr

The Francis Beidler Forest Audubon sanctuary in South Carolina protects a swathe of old-growth forest where 140 bird species live among the centuries old bald cypress trees. Popular sightings include Swainson’s Warblers, Carolina Chickadee, Wood Storks and Swallow-tailed Kites.
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As an important stopover in the spring migration, Nebraska's Platte River Valley is the place for witnessing hundreds of thousands of sandhill cranes on their way from the southern U.S. to Canada. Blinds at the Audubon Rowe Sanctuary make ideal spots for sunrise and sunset viewings, and lucky birders might even catch a glimpse of a whooping crane.
Photo courtesy of Larry Crist / USFWS

Thousands of migratory birds stop at Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge each year to rest, nest and forage. Endangered nēnē were reintroduced to the park in the 90s and have continued to thrive, and it's also possible to spot Laysan albatross, red-footed boobies, brown boobies, red-tailed and white-tailed tropicbirds, great frigatebirds, and wedge-tailed shearwaters.
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Cape May is all about migration, and it has a reputation as one of the best migration observation spots on the east coast for good reason. In autumn, Cape May Point becomes a prime hawk migration site where the birds are nearly always visible. Fall is also a great time to spot migrating songbirds, while the focus shifts to shorebirds in spring.
Photo courtesy of USFWS

The "Sky Islands" of southeastern Arizona are a magnet for birds. The most famous residents are the 15 species of hummingbirds - the highest diversity north of Mexico - visible from April to September and earning the region the name "Hummingbird Capital of the U.S."
Photo courtesy of Heather Paul / Flickr

Where there's something to see at New Mexico's Bosque del Apache during any season, the estuary is most famous among birders for its wintering sandhill cranes and snow geese. The morning fly out, when tens of thousands of birds take to the sky in unison right around sunrise, is well worth waking up before the sunrise.
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