Places to Bird

The Southwest Loop of the Washington Birding Trail features 270 of Washington’s 346 annually recorded bird species.

View accounts of Washington's bird species, with photographs, identification tips, range maps, and discussion of their life histories, habitats, distribution, seasonal abundance, and conservation status. Explore Washington's ten distinctive ecoregions and visit favorite birding sites in each, with descriptions of topography, climate, habitats, birdlife, and directions for getting there.

Ridgefield NWR has a total of 5,150 acres of marshes, grasslands and woodlands. Preservation of the natural Columbia River floodplain is the management objective of the Carty (2-mile self guided hiking trail) Roth and Ridgeport Dairy units. The River 'S' (4.2 mile auto tour route and 1.2 mile seasonal hiking trail) and Bachelor Island units are managed to maximize habitat for waterfowl and other wetland wildlife.

Julia Butler Hansen Refuge for the Columbian White-Tailed Deer Located in southwestern Washington and northwestern Oregon, the Julia Butler Hansen Refuge was established in 1972 specifically to protect and manage the endangered Columbian white-tailed deer. The refuge contains over 5,600 acres of pastures, forested tidal swamps, brushy woodlots, marshes, and sloughs along the Columbia River in both Washington and Oregon.

Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge, on the Nisqually River Delta in southern Puget Sound, was established in 1974 for the protection of migratory birds. Three thousand acres of salt and freshwater marshes, grasslands, riparian, and mixed forest habitats provide resting and nesting areas for migratory waterfowl, songbirds, raptors, and wading birds.

The 926-acre Scatter Creek Wildlife Area is located in Thurston County and is managed as three units. It lies in the Puget Sound Trough lowlands with the Cascade Mountain Range to the east, the Willapa Hills to the southwest, and the Black Hills to the northwest. Scatter Creek Wildlife Area lies on a glacial outwash plain, rimmed by low-lying hills formed by the last continental ice sheet 12,000 years ago.

Located on the Columbia River, near the town of Washougal, Washington, the 1,049-acre Steigerwald Lake National Wildlife Refuge consists of historic riverine floodplain habitat, semi-permanent wetlands, cottonwood-dominated riparian corridors, pastures, and remnant stands of Oregon white oak.