Despite the freezing temps, winter offers some of the most exciting and rewarding birding of the year, bringing together hardy residents, northern visitors, and Great Lakes specialties. Our winter tours focus on open fields, wetlands, reservoirs, woodlots, and the Lake Michigan shoreline, each offering a unique and often dynamic mix of species!
What will you see this Winter?
Sparrows are a major highlight of the season, with opportunities to encounter Snow Buntings, and Lapland Longspurs on snow covered fields. Sparrows are also bountiful in the winter with the possibility of Fox, Harris’s, White-crowned, White-throated, American Tree Sparrow, and more tucked into brushy fields and weedy edges!
Winter also delivers an impressive diversity of waterfowl, including all 24 duck species Great Lakes and cold-weather specialties such as all 3 Scoters (Black, White-winged, Surf), Harlequin Duck, and Long-tailed Duck. Mixed flocks of Canada, Ross's, Snow, Greater-white fronted, and Cackling Geese, along with Trumpeter and Tundra Swans, are a regular and often dramatic sight!
Rounding out the season are winter finches, which vary from year to year but may include Pine Siskin, Purple Finch, Evening Grosbeak, Redpolls, and both Crossbill (Red and White-winged) during irruption winters. We also target easier to find winter songbirds such as Brown Creeper, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, and Winter Wren. Winter tours are ideal for birders who enjoy quieter landscapes, dramatic light, and the challenge and reward of northern birds at the edge of their range.
Northern Indiana’s Lake Michigan shoreline becomes a true winter hotspot for gulls especially after freezing temps create a barrier of ice on part of the lake. This creates excellent opportunities to study both common and uncommon species of gull! Winter tours emphasize careful gull identification, with chances to encounter Iceland Gulls, Glaucous Gulls, Great and Lesser black-backed Gulls, as well as rarer Great Lakes species and unusual individuals that attract birders from across the Midwest.
Raptors are another winter focal point. We target species such as Golden Eagle, Rough-legged Hawk, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Merlin, and others found across the state in mostly rural and riparian environments.
Pick your tour & schedule today!
All bird photos were taken by Aidan Rominger, 2026. All rights reserved ©
