7 Best Winter Birding Trails Around The South

Winter is for the birds. Check out these trails around the South to see birds this season.

Ask any die-hard birder, and they’ll tell you that birding is a four-season affair. We're lucky in the South that some of our region’s most pleasant temperatures during the winter months also intersect with the best time of year to be outside doing some birding.

"Wintertime birding in the South is a great time to be birding," says avid Alabama birder, Greg Harber. "The birds are an entirely different suite than one might expect in a 'spring or fall migration hotspot, but there are many places that offer excellent birding opportunities.

Wintertime birding tends to focus on water birds and waterfowl, he says, as these are the species on the move south, with the neotropical migrants having already left for geographical locations south of the mainland United States (in Central and South America).

When it comes to where to find the best winter birding spots in the South, says Harber, the options are many.

"Several of our national wildlife refuges have wildlife habitat drives where one can view the birds," he says, pointing to places like Florida’s Everglades National Park and Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, off Florida’s east coast near Cape Canaveral.

"Another option for winter birding, bizarre as it may sound, is municipal water treatment plants," Harber said. “Some have boardwalks or established walking trails that offer great viewing opportunities."

From Alabama and Florida to North Carolina, Mississippi, and Georgia, set your sights on these locales, break out your binoculars, and get ready to bask in the sight of some beautiful winged things. Below are just a few of the places to spark your passion for birding this winter.

Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge, Alabama

About an hour north of Birmingham, near Decatur in Northern Alabama, Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge is ​well-known for the thousands of Sandhill Cranes that descend upon the area during the winter months, from mid-December to around mid-February, says Harber. The cranes are best observed from trails and photo blinds surrounding the refuge’s visitor center.

"There are usually about a dozen or so critically endangered Whooping Cranes that winter there, too," Harber says, adding to mark your calendar for the refuge’s Festival of the Cranes, held every January.

Lake Guntersville State Park, Alabama

Right along the Tennessee River in Northeast Alabama, this gorgeous park on 6,000 acres of woodlands is a great spot to see bald eagles that arrive here during the colder months of the year to nest and mate. You can scout for their nests along Sunset Drive and near the Guntersville Dam. Every winter, the park hosts Eagle Awareness Weekends at Lake Guntersville State Park that Harber says have been instrumental in kicking off other birding-related festivals around Alabama.

When the program started, he said, bald eagles were a pretty rare sight in Alabama. But thanks to many years of hack-and-release programs (the term refers to raising and releasing bald eagles from artificial nesting towers) their numbers have dramatically increased. "Seeing one isn't an uncommon occurrence anymore," he says.

Hans & Pat Suter Wildlife Refuge, Texas

The mile-long nature trail near Oso Bay is a good bet for spotting coastal and migratory birds like pelicans, roseate spoonbills, and egrets during Corpus Christi’s mild winter months. The trail at Hans & Pat Suter Wildlife Refuge includes an 800-foot-long boardwalk that leads you on a  stroll above the mudflats and grassy marshes, with viewing platforms where you can survey the scenery and spot interesting species. The boardwalk ends at a lookout over the bay where you might see gulls, terns, and waterfowl in calm waters considered some of the best in the region for observing sea birds.

Jekyll Island, Georgia

One of Georgia's gorgeous Golden Isles, Jekyll Island has an important position along the Atlantic Migratory Flyway and is a prime spot to enjoy winter birding in the South.

There are many parks and trails where you can observe birds throughout the island where bicycling is one of the most popular pastimes and a great way to venture from birding spot to birding spot.

For something particularly scenic, set your sights on Horton Pond and the 0.7-mile-long Tupelo Trail that winds through maritime plant environments where you might see black-and-white warblers, painted buntings, and orchard orioles.

Waterfowl, shorebirds, and wading birds are all commonly sighted around the island during the winter months. Make your way to Saint Andrews Beach on the island’s southern tip to look for American oystercatchers that sometimes number into the hundreds. They gather along the beach in flocks at high tide.

Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge, Mississippi

With bright red hues coloring their crowns, Sandhill Cranes are a sight to behold. Mississippi gets a good dose of these beauties during the fall and winter months when you’re likely to spot them at the Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge near Gautier along the state’s Gulf Coast. Established in 1975 to protect Sandhill Cranes in particular, the refuge is also a great spot to see other species birders love to check off their lists, including the Henslow’s sparrow (Centronyx henslowii) and Bachman’s sparrow (Peucaea aestivalis), which are most likely to be seen during the winter months.

Audubon Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, Florida

A winter stroll along the famous 2.25-mile-long boardwalk through Audubon Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, spanning some 13,000 acres, brings you into the wilderness of a true Everglades ecosystem and one of the largest old-growth bald cypress forests in all of North America.

Sanctuary Director Keith Laakkonen says wintertime visitors love to spot painted buntings, an exceptionally colorful species of which two populations migrate to and through southern Florida each winter from as far north as North Carolina and as far south as Cuba and other parts of the Caribbean.

Bird feeders behind the Blair Visitor Center here are a good place to look for them, he says, and you can recognize males by their bright blue, green, and red plumage and females by their olive-green feathers.

Other birds to scout for during the winter months along the sanctuary’s boardwalk include common yellowthroats, gray catbirds, and American redstarts, as well as ruby-throated hummingbirds and black-and-white warblers.

Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, Florida

Florida’s Space Coast, which includes Cape Canaveral and Titusville, among other towns, sits right along the Atlantic Flyway and is a haven for winter birding, with roughly 40 great Florida Birding and Wildlife Trail sites to explore (more than any other county in Florida can claim).

Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge and Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge here support more threatened and endangered species than any other refuges in the continental U.S. and are home to such species as bald eagles, wood storks, warblers, songbirds, roseate spoonbills, and so much more.

To date, 358 bird species have been identified at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, where the 7-mile-long, self-drive Black Point Wildlife Drive makes it easy to journey deep into the refuge. Stop and get out of your car at lookout points along the way to see birds, alligators, and other wildlife, or wander along one of six hiking trails popular with winter birders.

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