Bird migration hotspots

43 bird migration hotspots along the East Atlantic Flyway, from Norway to Angola: when each one peaks, where to go on your own, what it costs and what you will hear. Wild animals only, no zoos.

Best time, place by place

Where to go, north to south

• Autumn migration at Lista, Jomfruland and UtsiraNorway · Migration · peak 20 Sep–25 OctDawn flight calls of thousands of thrushes, pipits and finches leaving the coast, waders on the Lista beaches, skuas and gannets passing the lighthouse in a westerly gale; at night, redwing and song thrush calls overhead.
• Spring crane staging: Hornborgasjön and PulkenSweden · Migration · peak 25 Mar–12 AprThousands of cranes bugling in chorus — trumpeting that carries for kilometres, rising to a roar when a flock lifts; unison calls of pairs, wing noise of landing flocks, whooper swans and lapwings in the background.
• Falsterbo: Scandinavia's autumn migration funnelSweden · Migration · peak 1 Sep–15 OctA continuous stream of flight calls at dawn — chaffinch, brambling, meadow pipit, yellow wagtail, siskin — thousands of birds an hour on a big day; cranes bugling high overhead in late Sept–Oct; the sea on both sides of the point.
• Ottenby: autumn at the southern tip of ÖlandSweden · Migration · peak 15 Sep–25 Oct and 1 Apr–20 MayOn fall mornings the Lund rustles with hundreds of goldcrests and robins ticking; eider and long-tailed duck flocks calling as they round the point; wind and surf; eagles' yelps over the meadows in October.
• Skagen: Europe's biggest spring raptor passageDenmark · Migration · peak 1 May–25 MayRaptors are quiet: the recording is the Grenen dawn — the two seas meeting, diver and scoter flocks calling offshore, tree pipits and yellow wagtails overhead by the thousand, nightjar and cuckoo in the plantations; kites mewing over Flagbakken.
• Tipperne: wader passage on Ringkøbing FjordDenmark · Migration · peak 15 Jul–10 Sep and 15 Apr–15 JunWader flocks calling over the wet meadows, godwit and lapwing display in spring, avocets, geese lifting in autumn, the fjord's chop on the western dyke; almost no traffic.
• Gedser Odde: autumn migration off Denmark's southern tipDenmark · Migration · peak 20 Sep–31 OctRivers of chaffinch and brambling calls over the car park on a big October morning, wood pigeons' wing-clatter, eider flocks crooning as they round the point, little gulls' chatter, the Fehmarn Belt surf; the station's own sound recorder (PUC) logs the night migration overhead.
• Snettisham wader spectacularUnited Kingdom · Migration · peak 1 Sep–31 OctTens of thousands of knot flying in smoky clouds with a roaring wing-rush, then a low twittering murmur as they pack onto the roost banks.
• Autumn visible & nocturnal migrationUnited Kingdom · Migration · peak 1 Oct–31 OctThin 'tseep' of redwings passing overhead all night, then a stream of finch, pipit and lark flight calls at dawn.
• Breskens: spring migration over the Westerschelde dikeNetherlands · Migration · peak 20 Apr–15 MayA river of flight calls — meadow pipit, yellow wagtail, finches, linnets — low over your head, with the Westerschelde ships behind; screaming swift flocks on a May top day; harriers silent overhead; a crowd of counters calling out species.
• Wadden Sea high-tide wader roosts: Westhoek and the Frisian coastNetherlands · Migration · peak 20 Jul–10 Sep and 1 May–25 MayThe rising murmur of tens of thousands of dunlin and curlew sandpipers packed on the roost, then the rush of wings as the flock lifts and turns; curlew and grey plover calls; brent geese in autumn; wind over the flats.
• The Zwin: wader passage, ringing season and the stork colonyBelgium · Migration · peak 20 Aug–30 Sep and 15 Mar–31 JulBill-clattering of storks greeting at the nest; dunlin and redshank flocks over the salt marsh at the top of the tide; curlews; the sea behind the dunes; in autumn a steady trickle of migrating pipits and finches over the dike.
• Wadden Sea autumn: millions of waders and geeseGermany · Migration · peak 15 Sep–20 OctKnot and dunlin flocks in the tens of thousands wheeling with a rushing wing-roar, curlew and godwit calls at the roost, brent geese growling, barnacle geese yapping; wind, surf and the tide-edge trickle.
• Crane autumn staging: Rügen-Bock, Linum, Diepholz, MüritzGermany · Migration · peak 5 Oct–31 OctWaves of trumpeting families flying in at dusk, the roost's night-long murmur over shallow water, dawn's mass departure with tens of thousands calling at once; greylag and white-fronted geese in the same flights.
• Helgoland migration falls and grey seal winterGermany · Migration · peak 5 Oct–5 Nov and 20 Nov–10 JanNocturnal flight calls of thrushes (redwing 'seep', song thrush, blackbird) in the thousands over the island, goldcrests in every bush at dawn; on the Düne, grey seal pups wailing and bulls roaring in December.
• Spring migration counts: Col de l'Escrinet, Pointe de Grave and Le HucelFrance · Migration · peak 20 Feb–15 Apr and 10 Apr–25 MayA river of chaffinch flight calls over the col at dawn, meadow pipits, serins and linnets in the flocks, woodpigeon wing-clatter, cranes bugling northwards in March, and at Pointe de Grave the May sound of swifts screaming low over the dunes and bee-eaters calling in off the Gironde — one of the few places in France where spring migration is a sound you can stand under.
• Pyrenean passes: raptor, stork, pigeon & crane migrationFrance · Migration · peak 20 Aug–5 NovMostly visual, but woodpigeon flocks pass with a rush of wings, cranes bugle over the pass, and pre-dawn passerine flight calls stream through — with gunfire from the neighbouring hunting passes.
• Cap Gris-Nez: seabird passage through the Dover StraitFrance · Migration · peak 15 Sep–31 OctA visual passage — skuas harrying terns, gannet lines, scoter strings — above the one great sound of the place: the Channel breaking on the rocks 50 m below, with kittiwakes and the Gris-Nez foghorn in sea fog. Overland, meadow pipits and finches stream past calling on October mornings.
• Autumn falls & nocmig on Ouessant and SeinFrance · Migration · peak 1 Oct–31 OctRedwing and song thrush flight calls all night over the lighthouses, dawn passerine falls in the stone-walled fields, and shearwaters and gannets streaming past the headlands in a westerly.
• Cranes at Lac du DerFrance · Migration · peak 20 Oct–20 Nov and 10 Feb–10 MarTens of thousands of cranes bugling as they leave the lake at first light in wave after wave, then the evening return with the sky full of trumpeting skeins.
• Autumn migration over the Alpine passes: Col de BretoletSwitzerland · Migration · peak 15 Sep–20 OctDawn: flight calls of thousands of pipits, chaffinches and siskins funnelling through the pass at head height, robins ticking in the dwarf pines after a night flight; at night, thrush and robin calls overhead against absolute mountain silence.
• Waders and terns on the Sečovlje salt pansSlovenia · Migration · peak 15 Apr–20 May and 25 Jul–30 SepLittle tern colonies screaming over the pans, stilts and avocets yelping, redshank and Kentish plover, reed warblers in the Dragonja channel; salt-worker rakes and the sea beyond the dyke.
• Neretva delta: the Adriatic flyway stopoverCroatia · Migration · peak 10 Apr–15 May and 15 Aug–15 OctBittern booming from the reeds, whiskered and black terns over the lagoons, marsh frogs, great reed warblers, glossy ibis and egret flights at dusk, Cetti's warbler explosions; frog and cicada layers by June.
• Spring passage on small islandsItaly · Migration · peak 15 Apr–15 MayIsland scrub full of freshly arrived, singing migrants after 'falls', with night flight calls overhead.
• Raptor migration: Strait of MessinaItaly · Migration · peak 25 Apr–15 May and 20 Aug–15 SepMostly visual — kettles of raptors — but also bee-eater flocks overhead, and swifts and hirundines passing.
• Autumn migration over Alpine passesItaly · Migration · peak 1 Oct–31 OctStreams of flight calls funnelling through mountain passes at first light; thrush 'tseeps' in the dark.
• Strait of Gibraltar: raptor & stork passageSpain · Migration · peak 15 Aug–30 Sep and 1 Mar–30 AprMostly visual — kettles of thousands — but bee-eater flocks pour over calling all day, honey buzzards pass at head height in a levante, and the stork pre-roost at Los Lances is a bill-clattering crowd.
• Seabird passage at Estaca de BaresSpain · Migration · peak 1 Sep–31 OctMostly a scope spectacle — over a million seabirds a year round Spain's northernmost point — but the gale, the surf on the rocks and passing gannet flocks make a raw Atlantic ambience.
• Cranes at Laguna de GallocantaSpain · Migration · peak 1 Nov–30 Nov and 15 Feb–10 MarUp to 100,000 cranes lifting off the salt lagoon at first light in a continuous trumpeting roar that lasts half an hour, then skeins bugling over the steppe villages.
• Sagres: the south-west corner — raptor passage and seabirds off Cape St VincentPortugal · Migration · peak 20 Sep–25 OctMostly a sky spectacle, but the Sagres plateau has its own soundtrack: red-billed chough flocks (one of Portugal's few colonies) calling over the fields, bee-eaters passing in September, and the Atlantic swell under the Cape St Vincent cliffs. The raptors themselves are silent.
• The Rock: soaring birds crossing the Strait over GibraltarGibraltar · Migration · peak 1 Mar–15 May and 25 Aug–10 SepA sight more than a sound: kettles of honey buzzards sliding off the Rock towards Africa, black kites in lines, storks clattering overhead in spring; the soundscape is the Levanter wind, the foghorn at Europa Point, yellow-legged gulls and the port. Barbary partridge calls at dawn on the Upper Rock.
• Spring raptor & stork passage over the Strait — Jbel MoussaMorocco · Migration · peak 10 Mar–30 AprMostly a visual event: kettles of hundreds of kites and storks spilling off the Spanish side and gaining height over Belyounech. Sound is the wind, bill-clattering storks on the ground, griffons' rasping wing-noise overhead and the reintroduced griffon colony's grunts on the cliffs.
• Spring passage and desert night birds around MerzougaMorocco · Migration · peak 20 Mar–25 AprThe desert's two great night voices — the endless churring of Egyptian nightjar and the deep hoot of pharaoh eagle-owl — over a noise floor close to nothing; by day, the surprise of a full Palearctic passerine chorus grounded in a dune-edge tamarisk oasis, sandgrouse arriving to drink, and flamingo and shelduck on the salt lake in a wet year.
• Autumn seabird passage off Cap Rhir, north of AgadirMorocco · Migration · peak 15 Sep–31 Oct and 1 Mar–30 AprA visual event: hundreds of Scopoli's shearwaters shearing past the lighthouse point, skuas chasing terns, and now and then the park's bald ibis flapping by at eye level. Surf on the rocks, wind, and fishermen on the ledges below.
• Autumn seabird passage off Ras NouadhibouMauritania · Migration · peak 10 Sep–20 OctA visual seawatch over the Cap Blanc upwelling — the same seabird river that Ngor (Dakar) and the Banc d'Arguin islands see; gannets and skuas within the surf line on windy mornings. Sound value is low unless you deploy a hydrophone for the fish-and-dolphin activity of the upwelling.
• Autumn seabird passage off Ngor, DakarSenegal · Migration · peak 1 Sep–15 OctA visual event over Africa's westernmost point: streams of shearwaters and Sabine's gulls within a few hundred metres of the rocks. Surf, pirogue outboards and Ngor village are the soundtrack; humpback whales pass Sept–Nov and a hydrophone off the rocks is worth a try.
• Azagny: manatees, Palearctic waders and the lagoon canalCôte d'Ivoire · Migration · peak 1 Nov–28 FebA quiet lagoon soundscape: whimbrel and greenshank calls across the flats, herons and darters from the mangroves, kingfishers along the canal and, if you are lucky, the soft blow of a manatee surfacing at dusk.
• Tern roosts and Palearctic waders on the Keta and Songor lagoonsGhana · Migration · peak 1 Sep–31 OctThe rasping, screaming mass of a tern roost settling at dusk, spotted redshank 'chu-it' and godwit chatter across the pans, and whistling ducks passing overhead at night.
• Palearctic waders and terns on Lake Togo and the Aného lagoonsTogo · Migration · peak 1 Oct–28 FebTerns screaming over the sandbars at Aného where the lagoon meets the sea, whimbrel and greenshank from the flats, egrets settling in the mangroves at Togoville, and the pirogues of the fishing villages.
• Bouche du Roy: mangroves, manatees and the Mono estuaryBenin · Migration · peak 15 Nov–28 FebA mangrove soundscape: kingfishers and herons, mudskippers popping at low water, whimbrel and terns on the sand at the river mouth, and, rarely, the blow of a manatee in a still channel.
• Akanda and the Mondah bay flats: Gabon's wader wintering ground on Libreville's doorstepGabon · Migration · peak 1 Nov–15 MarThe massed calls of stints and sandpipers lifting off the flats as the tide comes in, whimbrel and godwit over the mangroves, tern colonies shrieking on the sandbank; behind it the drip and click of the mangrove at low water and mangabeys crashing in the Rhizophora.
• Iona and the Namib coast: desert dawn, flamingos and the Cunene mouthAngola · Migration · peak 1 Aug–15 NovRüppell's korhaan and larks in the absolute silence of the Namib at dawn, flamingo flocks on the Baía dos Tigres shallows, Cape cormorant colonies, the surf and fog of the Skeleton Coast's northern end, and jackals at night.
• Flamingos and Palearctic waders on the Mussulo lagoonAngola · Migration · peak 15 Oct–28 FebFlamingo flocks honking and murmuring on the shallows of the inner lagoon, whimbrel and grey plover across the flats at low tide, terns over the channel and, on the city side, Luanda's traffic and the port.

More: every animal and kind · what is on in October