This web page has many of my favorite northern Minnesota birding locations for watching and photographing birds. Anyone serious about birding Minnesota should also purchase Kim Ecket’s: A Birder’s Guide to Minnesota. Kim’s book reviews  Minnesota habitat county by county and provides suggestions and maps on where you should focus your birding efforts.

Northern Minnesota Birding Locations

Follow the location’s name for more information. I also maintain my own Google Maps Lists of GPS Points which pertain to many of these birding locations. You may wish to see a map I created of Boreal Forest Bog Areas I love!

Some of these birding areas are accessed by dirt roads. Any dirt road plowed free of snow in the winter may be an indication of active logging. Meeting up with a logging truck on a one lane dirt road is not my idea of fun. The truck never backs up, but you may have to drive backwards for a long ways. As a fyi, most logging operations do not work on Sunday mornings. Thus, Sundays are my favorite day to explore back roads in the winter.

• Canosia Wildlife Preserve: Just north of Duluth and reached off Midway Road near the airport is a fantastic wetlands. You may bird this area by either car or some of its great trails.
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• Crex Meadows Wildlife Area: Although in Wisconsin and a bit south of Duluth, this wetlands area has some of the premier birding in the country during Spring and Fall migrations. Ever dreamed of seeing 20,000+ Sandhill Cranes flying in from feeding at sunset? If the answer to that question is yes, then a visit to Crex Meadows should be in your future.
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• Floodwood Bog (see Wawina / Floodwood Bog on this page)
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• Forest Hill Cemetery Ponds: Located off Woodland Avenue in Duluth, this cemetery has two ponds which attract waterfowl and other birds. The resident domestic geese tend to attract other waterfowl to the ponds, particularly during the Spring and Fall migrations.
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• French River Lutheran Public Bird Feeders: Only two miles from McQuade Harbor on the North Shore of Lake Superior. These feeders attract lots of winter birds given their location near both French River and the big lake. The feeders go up a bit after Thanksgiving once the local black bears are asleep. It is 100% okay to hike the pine forest trails between the church parking lot and French River.
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• Greenwood Creek Bird Public Feeders: 34 miles north of Two Harbors, via Lake County 2, in the middle of the Boreal forest I maintain some bird feeders. I try to keep the feeders filled year round which assumes no visits from black bear.
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• Greenwood Forest Fire Area (includes the Stony River Forest Road): The  Greenwood Forest Fire in the Fall of 2021 changed this region dramatically. Lake Cty. #2 near Sand River used to be “the place” to see Spruce Grouse.  The Sand Lake area is now burned out and already attracting wildlife that loves a “post burn rebirth”. While the fire never reached Stony River Forest Road, it got mighty close and most of the route was used as a fire block. Given land was cleared for a  fire block, it is now rare that the forest ever gets tight on the western side of the road. Normally there is 100 to 125 yards of open space / land on that side. Thus, think of a 20 mile long (the length of the road) essentially never ending meadow or Boreal bog. By having all this open space next to the forest’s edge, in the years ahead this road will become an ever better wildlife magnet!
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• Hartley Nature Center: Located off Woodland Avenue in Duluth, this nature center / park has an extensive trail system for hiking. Although there is a small lake in the park, it does not tend to attract very many waterfowl. Instead the park is a good location for viewing songbirds once the leaves and wildflowers appear in the late Spring. The wildflower garden next to the nature center building is a great place to observe hummingbirds. Warblers like the thickets just downstream from the pond.
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• Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory: Raptors and songbirds do not like to migrate across large bodies of water, in this case Lake Superior. During the fall migration, the ridge located above Duluth and accessed via SkyLine Drive in east Duluth is a birders paradise. Winds out of the northwest which force migrating birds against Lake Superior will often mean lots of bird activity on the ridge. During September and October bird counters and naturalists will be present to answer questions for the general public.
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• Lake View National Golf Course: This golf course is located 20 miles north of Duluth on the northeast side of Two Harbors. Birds love the golf course’s ponds, deep forest which borders the course, and the proximity to Lake Superior. Birding is best in the spring and fall when golf is shut down for the year.
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• Lakewood Elementary: Great wetlands just north of Duluth. The trail gives great access to the birding area.
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• Minnesota Point (Park Point / Wisconsin Point):  Drive to Sky Harbor Airport at the end of Minnesota Point / Park Point. A hiking trail starts just to the left of the airport gate. This trail allows one to walk all they way to the Wisconsin harbor entry. During the spring and fall migrations it is quite often possible to see hundreds, if not thousands of ducks in the bay. Once leaves and wildflowers appear, other birds will also make their presence known. Don’t forget to check out the lake side during your hike for ducks. If the smelt and herring are staging for their spring spawn, the ducks will know it!
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• Old Vermilion Trail: This dirt road is about 14 miles north of Duluth (see link for location). Yours truly maintains some feeder stations in this forest area which has great bird habitat including pine and deciduous forest, wetlands, meadows and streams.
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• Pagami Creek Wildfire Region: Forest fires generate great birding areas. A wildfire actually brings a region back to life, and ultimately betters both the animal and birding habitat. Certain kinds of birds, often rare otherwise, preferred burned out regions. The Pagami Creek Wildfire Region may be accessed via Tomahawk Road off state highway #1 a bit west of Isabella, Minnesota. The road is not plowed in the winter.
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• Pine Island State Forest (Just west of Big Falls on US71 / Hwy 6 … use the Toomey Williams Forest Road for access): This great birding spot will have more information added soon. Here is one of my favorite routes leaving from Big Falls … Toomey-Williams Forest Road to Pine Island Forest Road to Fiero Truck Trail to Trapper Jim’s Corner: Learn more.
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• Sax-Zim Bog: This region has the best boreal winter birding in the lower fourty-eight. If your desire is to see Great Grey Owls, Northern Hawk Owls, Snowy Owls, Grey Jays and Pine Grosbeaks … just to name a few birds, this region which is about 40 miles north of Duluth off US Hwy #53 near Cotton, Minnesota should be on your bucket list.
  • Birding Sax-Zim Bog (a quick overview … PDF download)
  • My June / early summer Sax-Zim birding map (at bottom of linked page)
  • Wilderness Birding Route from Duluth to the Bog
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• Stony River Forest Road (see Greenwood Forest Fire Region on this page)
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• Superior, Wisconsin (winter Snowy Owls): From early December through February, Snowy Owls winter in the Duluth / Superior region. Here is a downloadable PDF which I created as a guide for “Finding Superior Snowies“!
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• Wawina / Floodwood Boreal Forest Bog: The region is remote, and almost impossible to access, but one road provides extremely good access … the Hedbom State Forest Road (just west of Floodwood). The biggest section of the Wawina Bog is actually on the southern side of US Hwy. 2. My impression of the habitat seen from Hedbom State Forest Road is it is truly magical … with lots of Bog with open spaces interspaced into the forest yet also including a large number of deadheads for use as raptor hunting perches!
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• Western Waterfront Trail: This natural gravel / dirt hiking trail in west Duluth is a great place for viewing waterfowl, and songbirds. The trail routes next to the St. Louis River channel and wetlands which makes for great bird habitat.
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• Willowsippi Wildlife Management Area: Before Sax-Zim Bog became extremely popular, the Willowsippi WMA was where folks searched for Great Gray Owls. This region is just south of Hill City, and has a combination for Boreal Forest Bogs, Wetlands, and Fields. The region is near the Mississippi River which means during migration in particular there can be some nice action. Read these two posts to learn more: Post1 | Post2

• Wisconsin Wetlands: Lake Superior keeps northeastern Minnesota cold during the early Spring. Winds that blow from the south do not have to cross over the cold waters (38F in March / April) of Lake Superior; thus in northwestern Wisconsin within 20 miles of Duluth there are two wetlands area that turn on “way before” the North Shore of Lake Superior. In addition to migrating waterfowl, these two areas hold grassland birds almost never seen in the boreal forests of Northeastern Minnesota.
  • Blog post with map
  • Cloverland: Roy Johnson Wetlands blog posts
  • MacQuarrie Wetlands (somewhat near Wrenshall, Minnesota)

Birding Facebook birding groups which often have a northern Minnesota Focus:

• Duluth Audubon Society
• Boreal Forest Birds & Wildlife
• Crex Meadows Wildlife Area
• Friends of Sax-Zim Bog
• Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory
• Minnesota Birding
• Owl About Minnesota

Minnesota Rare Bird Alerts:

• Minnesota Ornithologist Union: Daily Reports / Bi-Monthly Consolidated Reports

View my bird photographs: Photo Albums & Bird Image Index

Learn more about this web site and its content: 365DaysOfBirds.com