Pacific Northwest Birding Festivals for Spring 2023
Written by Andy McCormick
Birding festivals are a booming. Several Washington State festivals have been held annually for more than 20 years. Birding publications a full of ads for festivals. Some birders love them and will travel around attending them over the course of a year. Some birders tend to avoid them. It’s a matter of taste. The festivals bring birders of all skill levels together to focus on an aspect of birding such as shrub-steppe habitat, a bird species such as the Sandhill Crane, or a migration hotspot such as the Olympic Peninsula.
Costs for festivals vary and some of the popular events have higher fees for the field trips and registering early is important. Typically, there is a registration fee and a charge for each field trip. Lodging and meals are not provided, and these add to the cost of attending a festival. Some festivals have camping facilities nearby. Most festivals offer field trips led by a local birder and limit the number of participants, so groups do not get to large. Most festivals run for a three-day weekend and may be worth a special trip to participate in them. The one-day festivals are smaller affairs and may be worth attending only if you are in the area already. The following 9 Pacific Northwest festivals are listed chronologically between March and June in 2023.
Wings Over Water Northwest Birding Festival , March 17-19, Blaine Middle School, Blaine, WA
This festival requires a registration fee and offers many free birding field trips and birding cruises for an extra charge. Guest speakers present on aspects of birding and often on seabirds. This festival is in its 20th year.
Othello Sandhill Crane Festival, March 24-26, McFarland Middle School, Othello, WA
The Sandhill Crane festival is in its 25th year. It is a large and popular festival that provides many workshops and field trips ranging in price from $20 for a half-day trip to $80 for premium photography trips. They provide bagged lunches for $20. However, general admission is only $12 and you can attend as many of the lectures as you want. Accommodations range from camping to bed and breakfast to hotels in Moses Lake, a 20-minute drive from Othello.
Tundra Swan Festival, March 25, 9:00 am to 4:00 pm, Camas Center for Community Wellness, Cusick, WA
This is a one-day event to celebrate the migration of Tundra Swans through the Pend Oreille River Valley. It is organized in conjunction with the Kalispel Tribe. If you are in the northeast Washington area at the end of March, it would make a vrey nice additional stop on your trip. You can learn about the swans and the Kalispel community.
Olympic Birdfest, April 13-16, Dungeness River Nature Center
This is another popular birding festival which attracts birders from around the country. In fact, most attendees live outside Washington. This festival is a partnership of the Olympic Peninsula Audubon Society, the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe, and the Dungeness River Nature Center. It offers many field trips around the Northern edge of the Olympic Peninsula including the Dungeness Spit and a cruise around Protection Island. Field trips run about $30 each and some classes are $40. Special full-day trips led by famed Olympic leader Bob Boekelheide are $95 per person. It’s worth it. At this writing in early February, some trips are already sold out. This is lovely area for birding, and I recommend a visit in spring even if you don’t attend the festival.
Grays Harbor Shorebird and Nature Festival, May 5-7, Grays Harbor NWR, Hoquiam, WA
This is long-running festival that uses a do-it-yourself model. Registration is only $10. There are no field trips or presentations. Festival volunteers are available on the Sandpiper Trail at the Grays Harbor National Wildlife Refuge to assist with bird viewing. Festival volunteers also provide information on best birding times based on the Aberdeen tide charts. This tide schedule can be downloaded from the festival website and functions as a guide to birding spots around Grays Harbor and Pacific Counties. This is definitely a hotspot for shorebird viewing whether you participate in the festival or not.
Yakima River Canyon Bird Fest, May 12-14, Helen McCabe Park, Ellensburg, WA
This year’s 24th festival has the theme “Get Intimate with Shrub-steppe Habitat.” There is no extra change for field trips, which focus not only on birds, but also geology, sage country habitat, and a special event to get onto the Department of Defense Yakima Training Center, an area of protected sagebrush habitat. A DOD background check is required for this event. Some events require a payment, but the amount is not available without going to the registration page. This is a special and declining habitat in Washington and the Kittitas Environmental Education Network (KEEN) of state, county, federal, and non-profit organizations is committed to preserving it. The event kicks off with a bonfire on Friday night and goes on from there!
Leavenworth Spring BirdFest, May 18-21, Wenatchee River Institute, Leavenworth, WA
This festival is in its 21rd year and it all comes together around World Migratory Bird Day. The festival offers pre-festival field trips in the $8 to $25 range and many more trips on the festival days. Art workshops run $30 to $40. Historically, the festival has involved many members and businesses in the community and the brochure has been printed in Spanish and English. A youth art program continues to be a focus of the festival.
Meadowlark Nature Festival, May 19-22, Penticton, British Columbia
Information about the 2023 festival is not available at this time. However, the 2022 schedule is available on the website. Field trips cover a wide range of habitats from valleys to high elevation locations. Prices range from $20 or $30 up to $150 for birding in South Okanagan with Richard Cannings, co-author of Birds of the Pacific Northwest: A Photographic Guide, which I reviewed for Northwest Science. He is probably the most knowledgeable person about birds in British Columbia. This festival sounds like it would be a great introduction to birding in the Okanagan Valley in BC!
Dean Hale Woodpecker Festival, June 1-4, Creekside Park, Sisters, OR
This annual event accesses U.S. Forest Service lands on the Eastern slope of the Cascades in Oregon. Habitats include Ponderosa pine forests, riparian areas and high elevation meadows and lakes. Although the focus is on woodpeckers, field trips, which range from $20 to $45, seek out bluebirds, flycatchers, owls, and shorebirds. Register through the East Cascades Audubon Society website.
OTHER BIRDING FESTIVALS TO EXPLORE
There are three other festivals in the PNW, but I could not locate any details about them. You might find better information in March.
Annual Harney County Migratory Bird Festival, April 13-16, Burns High School, Burns, OR
Annual Ladd Marsh Bird Festival, May 19-21, Ladd Marsh Wildlife Area, La Grande, OR
Tualatin River Bird Festival, May 20, Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge, Sherwood, OR
FESTIVALS IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD
If you want to go far afield you can locate birding festivals all over North America and beyond at the All About Birds website from Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Enjoy spring birding wherever you decide to go!