NORTH DAKOTA OUTDOORS MAGAZINE

Birding Beyond Your Back Yard

Ron Wilson

While the bulk of us wouldn’t know a Say’s phoebe from a dickcissel, the cool thing is we can venture outside with a little guidance and a touch of dumb luck and maybe see for ourselves.

Birding has long been an activity enjoyed by oodles of people in the United States and beyond, yet those in the know have seen a positive shift in participation in an activity that gets people outdoors.

“The last couple of years we’ve really seen an increase in the number of younger birders,” said Sandra Johnson, North Dakota Game and Fish Department conservation biologist. “A lot of that can be attributed to the pandemic when many of us were home wondering what to do. We’d go outside in our back yards and started noticing nature and birds more.”

Because of its prairie potholes and grasslands, North Dakota is a special place in the birding world, as the state attracts a large array of birds dependent on the habitat available for nesting and rearing young.

Even better, in the spring and summer months when these birds are here courting the opposite sex, they are at their showiest, touting their prime breeding plumage.

According to the checklist of North Dakota birds on the Department’s website (gf.nd.gov), it’s possible to see 376 species of birds in the state. Of these, 216 species nest or have nested in the state.

To get started birding, Johnson said you really don’t need much.

“A pair of binoculars would really help, as would a good bird book. But recently we’ve really seen an increase in the number of online resources, apps on your phone that can help you identify birds, find out places to go,” she said. “Social media has really taken off. There are some great social media sites on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and people are taking fantastic pictures of birds, which could help identify some of the birds you’re seeing.”

Pair out bird watching

One of Johnson’s favorite apps is Merlin Bird ID that provides a guide to the different birds in your area, and a tool that allows the user to punch in how big the bird is and its color to help determine what you’re looking at through binoculars.

“There are also a couple cool features where you can take a photo of a bird or even use a sound recording and it will tell you what the bird is, which is really fun,” she said.

If people are interested in venturing outside their own back yards, which Johnson encourages, the public lands options to view birds in North Dakota is seemingly unmatched.

PECTORAL SANDPIPER – Standing at only 8 inches, this champion shorebird flies 19,000 miles annually from its wintering range in southern South America to breed in the tundra in northern Alaska and Canada. The trip would be near impossible without refueling in our prairie potholes during both spring and fall migration.

“North Dakota has the most national wildlife refuges of any state, which are great places to go as they are scattered around the state,” she said. “If you’re in Bismarck, for example, you could go to Long Lake National Wildlife Refuge. If you’re in Grand Forks, there’s Kelly Slough National Wildlife Refuge. There are some great maps out there showing where these refuges are. Some of them also have birding drives where you can drive an auto route and it’ll tell you what birds you might see at different spots.”

Not to mention, the Game and Fish Department also manages more than 400,000 wildlife management acres open to the public.

“We’ve got some great WMAs like Lonetree WMA in the middle of the state. That’s a beautiful place. Some great ones along Sakakawea,” Johnson said. “Those are all places you could check out on our website, use the same tools that hunters use to find public land and those are places you could go.”

FRANKLIN’S GULL – This handsome gull features a distinct black head and pinkish cast on its chest and abdomen when they first arrive in North Dakota after wintering along the coasts of Chile and Peru. The pink fades during the breeding season, where they nest in colonies of hundreds or thousands of birds in large cattail wetland/lake complexes, such as J Clark Salyer National Wildlife Refuge.

While North Dakota is a birding hotspot for certain species, it’s also underutilized, which isn’t a bad thing if you’re looking for some elbowroom when out exploring.

“In other states way more heavily populated than North Dakota, birding is a bigger deal simply because more people mean more people are doing it,” Johnson said. “Here, you can often have the entire WMA, for example, to yourself.”

Visit our Conservation Corner to learn more about North Dakota's birds and other wildlife.

Lead Photo: DICKCISSEL – This sparrow-like bird is more closely related to cardinals and grosbeaks than other typical grassland birds such as the Western meadowlark. Dickcissels are nomadic and fluctuate in number. Some years you might not find one and other years, like 2023, their loud dickdick-see-see-see song is frequent in tall, thick grasslands and alfalfa fields.

Return to North Dakota Outdoors July 2023 Edition