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Home / Go Outside / Birding Destinations and Resources / Portland Metro Area Birding Hotspots
Portland Metro Area Birding Hotspots
The Portland metropolitan region offers a rich array of birding opportunities in its many wildlife refuges and natural areas. With forests, wetlands, grasslands, buttes, and rivers, nature lovers can explore a great number of habitats both within the city limits, and within a forty five minute drive.
Birders can delight in seeing species like the Sandhill Crane, Bald Eagle, Pacific Wren, Northern Pygmy-Owl, Brown Creeper, Chestnut-backed Chickadee, and Acorn Woodpecker as they explore the beauty of the greater Portland metro area. See below for detailed information on 15 birding hotspots in the greater Portland metro area.
Portland Audubon Wildlife Sanctuary
At 172 acres and just ten minutes from downtown Portland, the Portland Audubon Wildlife Sanctuary is a wonderful place for birders, families, and nature enthusiasts to visit. Folks can explore four miles of trails through forest habitat, a pond, Balch Creek and Bones Creek, and even a stand of old growth trees. Tune your senses to the large variety of life all around you, from native plants to birds and other wildlife. The sanctuary is free and open from dawn until dusk every day.
We also have a Nature Store on site that sells optics, field guides, gifts and more, and a Wildlife Care Center where we treat more than 3,000 native wildlife each year.
Birds You Might See or Hear: Pacific Wren, Spotted Towhee, Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Northern-pygmy Owl, Varied Thrush, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Pileated Woodpecker, Stellerβs Jay, Black-headed Grosbeak. View our full bird species list.
Location: 5151 NW Cornell Rd. Portland, OR 97210
Public Transit: There is no direct Service within 1.5 miles; but we can be accessed by the lower MacLeay trail, which begins 6 blocks west of the bus stop on Northwest Thurman ST. and Northwest 27th Ave. The stop is served by TriMet buses 15 and 77. After you walk to Upshur ST one block north and walk the six blocks west, the hiking trail takes you up hill along Balch Creek Canyon for about 45 minutes before reaching the Portland Wildlife Wildlife Sanctuary.
Accessibility: Most of Portland Audubonβs indoor facilities are wheelchair accessible including our Interpretive Center, Nature Store, classroom space, and Wildlife Care Center. Trails are not wheelchair accessible and have steep elevation changes. See more details on accessibility here.
Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge
Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge
This 185-acre refuge protects Oaks Bottom, a floodplain wetland along the Eastern side of the Willamette in SE Portland that was once slated for landfill and industrial development. Marsh, wet woods and meadows, and open water make for excellent diversity both in the landscape and the bird lifeβthe latter includes 157 annually recorded species. This is one of the most popular sites in Portland for viewing migrating and wintering waterfowl, as well as Ospreys, and Great Blue Herons from a massive rookery on nearby Ross Island. Wetland and woodland songbirds abound. Trails can be muddy where not paved.
Birds You Might See or Hear: Northern Pintail, Great Blue Heron, American Coot, Osprey, Red-winged Blackbird, Wood Duck, Brown Creeper.
Location: SE Sellwood Blvd & SE 7th Avenue, Portland, OR 97202
Public Transit: The entrance area is β
of a mile from a stop on TriMetβs bus 70 to Milwaukee on Southeast 13th Ave and Selwood, ΒΎ of a mile from a stop on the 19 bus going to Downtown Portland at Southeast Bybee and Milwaukee, ΒΎ of a mile from the Northbound 70 stop at Southeast 17th Ave and Rex, ΒΎ of a mile from a stop on the 19 bus from downtown at Southeast Bybee and Southeast 17th Ave.
Trail Accessibility: There are extensive paved and wheelchair accessible trails, as well as dirt paths.
Lazuli Bunting by Adam Stunkel
Powell Butte Nature Park
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