The Biggest Week birding spots

The boardwalk at Magee Marsh Wildlife Area outside Oak Harbor is a birder favorite and one of the best places in the world to see migrating birds, especially colorful warblers, each spring.

The birds land so close that it is as if one could reach out and touch them.

“It’s such a magical experience,” says Kimberly Kaufman, executive director of Black Swamp Bird Observatory, which puts on the Biggest Week in American Birding with Shores and Islands Ohio and Destination Toledo. “Everyone should go there.”

The boardwalk, however, can get very crowded during the Biggest Week. The festival encourages attendees and birders to visit some of the many other birding hotspots in Northwest Ohio, which also offer great viewing. 

Here are some of them:

Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge, Oak Harbor
The wildlife refuge has a wildlife drive that will be open throughout the Biggest Week.  Along the dikes, shorebirds, eagles, hawks and sandhill cranes can be spotted. In the more wooded areas, a variety of warblers, as well as flycatchers and tanagers can be seen. 

Meadowbrook Marsh, Marblehead
This Danbury Township park is a great spot to see woodpeckers, warblers, Indigo buntings and wrens. It also has paved trails.

Sheldon Marsh State Nature Preserve, Huron
This preserve has a paved road for walking. It’s a good spot to see a large variety of birds, including warblers, woodpeckers, wood ducks, green herons and eagles.

Old Woman Creek National Estuarine Research Reserve, Huron 
Spot migrating raptors, see bald eagles, shorebirds and warblers and wrens at this preserve.