Bird Watching
West Yellowstone, and the surrounding country, offers great birding "hot spots” just minutes away. Birding varies with the season. Spring brings nesting osprey and eagles, along with migrating waterfowl. Summer nights are filled with the sound and sights of birds scooping up the newest hatches along streams and lakes. Ducklings and goslings float in single-file formation while passing long-legged cranes and an occasional diving osprey. Migration flocks fill the fall skies, while even winter brings beauty in the form of white trumpeter swans in stark contrast to darkened streams.
Hebgen Lake, just north of West Yellowstone, has several access sites along the northern shoreline. Look for American white pelicans, western, Clark's and eared grebes, Canada geese, dabbling and diving ducks. Peregrine falcons, red-tailed and Swainson's hawks, Bald eagles, ospreys’ fish and hunt throughout the area. Check grassy meadows for savannah and vesper sparrows, Sandhill cranes, and common snipe, while nearby willows hide yellow warblers, black-headed grosbeaks and Lincoln sparrows.
Stop by the West Yellowstone Chamber for a printed copy of the “West Yellowstone Birding Trail” brochure featuring 14 near-by birding sites (including map and descriptions).
To the west, Yellowstone Park offers other unique birding opportunities. Contrary to popular belief, Yellowstone National Park is not one of the hotspots in North America for watching a great diversity of birdlife. What it does offer is an array of birds unique to this area of North America. Three hundred and eighteen species of birds have been documented to date in Yellowstone, since it was established in 1872. This is quite remarkable, especially when one considers the harsh environmental conditions that characterize the area. Yellowstone National Park has a unique array of temperate zone fauna
Don’t miss the annual Christmas Bird Count held each December in conjunction with the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center and the Sacagawea Audubon Society. Enjoy a day of birding in the West Yellowstone and Hebgen Lake area. Click here for more information.
