Where to Look for Birds on the North Olympic Peninsula
The North Olympic Peninsula offers exceptional year-round bird watching. Our mild winter supports large numbers of ocean birds, including waterfowl. Spring and fall are migration times and offer great diversity in species. Due to diverse habitat, from rainforest to tidelands, many species remain as summer residents.
Clickable location map
Note: The numbers (1-12) on the map refer to the site
descriptions below.
Click on a number to go directly to the description.
Subsequently, click on the word Map in a title line to return to the map above.
Also please note that some of these sites are adjacent
to private property, so please respect our privilege of viewing birds
in these locations and be a quiet, polite birder. Pets are not allowed
at most sites. The birds named below are only a partial list of those present.
Enjoy your birding experience on the Olympic Peninsula.
* Important Bird Areas are identified by Audubon-Washington and National
Audubon Society.
| 1. Discovery Bay and Protection Island | Map |
| 2. South Sequim Bay | Map |
The tidal flats near the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribal headquarters attract a variety of shorebirds, gulls, and ducks. Look for flocks of Common Terns and attending Parasitic Jaegers in fall. Spring and fall shorebirds include plovers, dowitchers, yellowlegs, several sandpipers, Whimbrels, and godwits. Dunlins and Black-bellied Plovers dominate in winter. This area has attracted a number of vagrant shorebirds, egrets, and waterbirds.
| 3. West and Northwest Sequim Bay | Map |
At John Wayne Marina, scope the bay for alcids, loons, grebes, and waterfowl. This is a reliable spot in winter to see Marbled Murrelets, Long-tailed Ducks, Barrow’s Goldeneyes, and Hooded Mergansers. All three typical loon species plus Yellow-billed are possible here. Several gull species can be observed roosting on the marina breakwater and on the mudflat to the south. Black Oystercatchers may roost here, also. At the north end of Sequim Bay is Washington Harbor, an expansive mudflat that attracts a variety of shorebirds and waterfowl; and Port Williams, with a good view towards Protection Island and deeper water. Schmuck Road, which connects Washington Harbor with Port Williams through agricultural lands, is an excellent site for swans, geese, blackbirds, and possibly Sandhill Cranes.
| 4. Dungeness Bay, with #6, an “Important Bird Area”* | Map |
At Three Crabs Rd., Eurasian Wigeons are reliable in fall and winter amongst thousands of their American cousins. Look closely for a variety of gull and shorebird species roosting onshore and feeding in the intertidal zone. Cormorants, gulls, and eagles roost on the offshore pilings. Scope the bay for ducks and geese, including Long-tailed Ducks and Brants. From fall to spring, a series of small ponds and wetlands to the east on Three Crabs Rd. offers shelter for dabbling ducks such as Pintails, Gadwalls, and teals, plus many shorebirds. This is an area for vagrants – Sharp-tailed Sandpipers, Ruffs, Wilson’s Phalaropes, Stilt Sandpipers, Red-shouldered Hawks, and others have been seen here. The wetlands contain blackbirds, rails, and American Bitterns. Visit the Dungeness Landing County Park on the west side of the river for a splendid view of the tidelands and the tip of Graveyard Spit of the NWR, where shorebirds, ducks, gulls, Bald Eagles, and Peregrine Falcons can be seen.
| 5. Dungeness Recreation Area (Clallam County Park) | Map |
The open, dry grasslands, freshwater wetlands, and shrub- and tree-covered hills make ideal habitat for sparrows, California Quail, Mourning Doves, and a variety of raptors. Great-horned, Western Screech, and Short-eared Owls frequent the forests and marshes of the area. Songbirds such as warblers, vireos, chickadees, kinglets, Bushtits, wrens, finches, and sparrows are abundant. Along Kitchen-Dick Road, toward Hwy 101 from Dungeness, examine roadside ponds for Wood Ducks, Ring-necked Ducks, Lesser Scaups, Shovelers, and occasional Canvasbacks and Redheads.
| 6. Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge, an “Important Bird Area”* | Map |
Walking Dungeness Spit enables one to see a spectacular array of sea birds and shorebirds. In appropriate season, large numbers of Brants and sea ducks, such as scoters, goldeneyes, Buffleheads, and Long-tailed Ducks, are visible from shore. Look offshore for alcids, gulls, and jaegers, plus an occasional phalarope, shearwater, or storm-petrel. Black-bellied Plovers, Dunlins, and Sanderlings feed in abundance on the inside shoreline during winter. This is the place for Snowy Owls during invasion years, and Merlins, Peregrine Falcons, and Gyrfalcons during winter.
| 7. Sequim’s Railroad Bridge Park, site of the DUNGENESS RIVER AUDUBON CENTER. An “Important Bird Area”* | Map |
This riparian habitat includes an interpretive center, the historic bridge, and trails along the river and woods. Lowland birds such as woodpeckers, chickadees, kinglets, sparrows, warblers, finches, wrens, and towhees are prevalent here. Observe wintering American Dippers on the river. Listen for Swainson’s Thrushes, Pacific-slope Flycatchers, tanagers, and warblers during the breeding season. Red-eyed Vireos have nested here; look and listen for them in June and July near big cottonwoods. Visit the Audubon Center for daily sightings.
| 8. Olympic National Forest; upper waters of Dungeness and Gray Wolf Rivers | Map |
Mountain species are here – dippers in the rivers, Hermit Thrushes in the thickets, and American Pipets, Horned Larks, and Gray-crowned Rosy Finches near the high peaks. Areas near the Upper Dungeness Trailhead and Tubal Cain Mine trail are good for Hermit Warblers and Hermit/Townsend’s hybrids. Listen at night for Saw-whet, Screech, and Barred Owls, plus Pygmy Owls at dawn and dusk. Look overhead for Vaux’s Swifts, Evening Grosbeaks, Red Crossbills, and soaring raptors.
| 9. Olympic National Park at Hurricane Ridge | Map |
In addition to the above mountain birds are Ravens, Steller’s and Gray Jays, Townsend’s Solitaire’s, and Golden Eagles. Camping out at Heart-O-The-Hills campground during summer enables one to hear flight-calls of Marbled Murrelets, as they circle over the old-growth forest at dawn.
| 10. Ediz Hook and Port Angeles Harbor | Map |
Floating log rafts in the harbor provide roosting sites for many shorebirds, gulls, and others. Rocky shorebirds predominate in the harbor. Besides turnstones and Black-bellied Plovers, look for Surfbirds, Rock Sandpipers, Wandering Tattlers, golden plovers, and Whimbrels. Fall and winter gull flocks include Heermann’s and Thayer’s Gulls. This is an excellent wintering site for Barrow’s Goldeneyes and Harlequin Ducks. Look offshore for Common Murres, Rhinocerous Auklets, and other sea birds.
| 11. Elwha River | Map |
The Elwha River mouth, accessible from Place Road off Hwy 112, has excellent gull roosts in winter, including reliable Thayer’s Gulls. Check for breeding Barrow’s Goldeneyes and Lesser Scaups in the spring on Lake Aldwell and Lake Mills. Harlequin Ducks, American Dippers, and Rough-winged Swallows nest along the river. Surrounding mixed forests have breeding Hammond’s Flycatchers, Warbling and Cassin’s Vireos, several warbler species, and many other forest birds.
| 12. Salt Creek County Park, Highway 112 to Neah Bay | Map |
This is an excellent site to see Marbled Murrelets from shore, near the offshore kelp beds. Harlequin Ducks and Black Oystercatchers occupy the rocky intertidal zone. Look for scoters, grebes, and gulls near shore. This is the site of the annual Turkey Vulture count in Sept.-Oct., as the vultures fly south from Vancouver Island. As you go further west, check all bays and estuaries for waterfowl, gulls, and shorebirds. Alcids, gulls, and sea ducks predominate offshore, with occasional phalaropes and shearwaters. Cape Flattery, within the Makah reservation, overlooks Tatoosh Island, which is home to nesting murres, gulls, puffins, and storm-petrels. Thousands of hawks migrate over Cape Flattery in the spring, along with squadrons of noisy Sandhill Cranes.