At first light, a wetland at Rollins Savanna Forest Preserve (Grayslake) stirs to life. Red-winged blackbirds trumpet conk-la-REE-look-at-ME songs from swaying cattails. Wood ducks tip forward to eat plants below the water’s surface, rear ends bobbing in the air.
A great blue heron stands motionless onshore, amber-yellow eyes searching the shallows for tasty fish. The fresh smells of spring drift on a casual breeze as the landscape comes alive. Birdwatching gives you front-row seats to these compelling scenes, especially in Lake County.
With nearly 400 species documented, Lake County’s bird diversity is second only to Cook County in the Chicago region. Why do millions of birds live and visit here? Location, location, location.
The county’s position at the border between cooler, northern climates and warmer, southern climates attracts a blend of species. Lake Michigan creates unique shoreline habitats and milder microclimates.
Nearly 200 inland lakes, the Des Plaines and Fox rivers, prairies, savannas, woodlands and wetlands—such as those at Rollins Savanna—provide food and shelter for birds. Large tracts of land, like those in your forest preserves, are needed to support certain species.
Some feathered friends, like northern cardinals, stay put year-round. Resident birds eat seeds, nuts, insect larvae, mammals or other birds. Most of these food sources are available all year. Birds that eat seasonal foods—fruit, nectar or flying insects—typically head south for winter.
Many migrants pass through along the Mississippi Flyway, a major north-south flight path that brings incredible bird variety and abundance to Chicagoland each spring and fall.
Though less common, you may spot a vagrant, a bird that’s strayed far from its normal range. A Mexican violetear hummingbird, usually found in Mexican and Central American forests, visited a Mundelein home in 2021. Just one other observation of the species in Illinois was recorded in 2009.
In 2022, about 96 million Americans watched birds, according to the most recent data available from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Spending on birding-related equipment and travel surpassed $107 billion. That’s more revenue than pet stores, movie theaters and all of book publishing combined.
During the pandemic, when many people’s worlds contracted to the boundaries of their homes, birdwatching was a soothing pursuit. In 2020, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology received a record-breaking 2.1 million observations on Global Big Day, a birdwatching event held every May.
Retailers reported shortages of birdseed, feeders and baths. It’s easy to see why. Birds are active, colorful and captivating. Their variety and abundance make them more accessible than other animals.
The fact that birds aren’t constrained to the ground adds to their charm. A bird can be there one moment, gone the next. In eras defined by limits, birds represent limitlessness.
Experiencing that sense of freedom for yourself starts with simple tools.
Ready to take flight with birdwatching? Bring a notebook or mobile device to take notes; a field guide to birds of the eastern U.S.; and a pair of 7 or 8-power binoculars. These make objects appear seven or eight times closer.
Purchase or borrow them from a friend, family member or library. Binoculars are available to borrow at the Ryerson Welcome Center (Riverwoods) during your visit.
To identify birds, focus first on GISS—General Impression, Size and Shape. Some birds are round. Others are sleek. Raptors can be 2–3 feet tall, hummingbirds 2–3 inches.
Think of recognizing a friend or family member at a distance. How do you pick them out from a crowd?
Listen, too. Birds produce two kinds of sounds: songs and calls.
Songs are longer, complex vocalizations used by adult males in breeding season to attract mates or defend territory. Calls are shorter, simpler sounds used year-round by both sexes to communicate other messages.
Combining sounds and GISS can guide you to solid identifications. The great horned owl’shoo, hoo-hoo, hoo, hoo song is common, but the barred owl’swho-cooks-for-you call is distinct and heard less often.
Ear tufts are prominent on the great horned, while the barred has none.
Now, some tips to help you practice better birdwatching.
Avoid disturbing birds and their habitats. Stay on trails. Keep your distance from active nests, roosts, colonies and food sources. Use binoculars or scopes to look from afar. Be quiet, move slowly and limit flash photography. Don’t play recorded calls (playbacks) to lure birds.
Keep domestic cats indoors. Roaming cats are estimated to kill over 1 million birds per year in Chicagoland.
Prevent window strikes. Birds can’t distinguish between a reflection of a tree and the real thing. Window strikes often result in injury or death. Stickers, tape, poster paint or soap applied in grids or dots reduces collisions. Learn more here.
Think twice before broadcasting news about the location of a rare bird. Crowds can unintentionally stress or scare away the animal. Wait to share until after the bird has left the area.
Consider weather. On very hot or cold days, many birds rest to save energy. If disturbed, they’ll use precious calories to fly away.
Support bird conservation. Don’t collect eggs, nests and feathers; it’s against federal law. Plant native plants. Clean birdfeeders regularly. Upload notes, photos and videos to eBird or iNaturalist.
Effective birdwatching requires just a few simple tools, including binoculars.
Flock to These Resources
In time for spring bird migration, we’ve published a new Birdwatching Guide and accompanying Birdwatching Checklist. Both pieces are offered in English and Spanish and highlight hundreds of bird species seen in Lake County.
Written and designed by me over the course of two years, the in-depth, 40-page guide and the streamlined, 4-page checklist teach the basics of birdwatching techniques, equipment and etiquette. The checklist and guide come complete with original bird illustrations by a local artist.
Read both pieces at LCFPD.org/birds or pick up free copies at our facilities:
Have a question about a bird sighting? Email our educators at AskAnEducator@LCFPD.org. The same folks also teach birdwatching methods at programs. Visit LCFPD.org/birding to see the calendar.
Birdwatching in Your Preserves
You can birdwatch in every preserve from 6:30 am–sunset, daily. Timing matters. Many birds are most active around sunrise and sunset. There’s often a lull in the afternoon as birds digest morning meals. Nocturnal birds such as owls and night herons awaken after dark.
Seasons shape what you see. Breeding season and spring and fall migration are prime birdwatching windows. Winter offers less activity, but certain northern-breeding species are only visible in Lake County then, such as dark-eyed juncos and short-eared owls.
Location also matters. Learning a species’ typical habitat and geographic range improves your chances of spotting it. For example, the Lake Michigan shoreline at Fort Sheridan Forest Preserve (Lake Forest) is a magnet for migrating raptors like ospreys and hawks.
Meanwhile, wide-open grasslands at Rollins Savanna entice nesting sparrows, ducks, blackbirds and shorebirds.
For the best bang for your birding buck, start with these preserves.
And now for something related but a little different.
If you pick up the Birdwatching Guide and/or Checklist—which, of course, I recommend you do—you’ll see 20 beautiful, scientifically accurate bird illustrations gracing their pages. These aren’t stock images. No, they’re some of the first birds that Samantha Gallagher has ever drawn.
Based in Lake County, the freelance scientific illustrator usually focuses on insects and plants.
But in 2024, she accepted a commission from the Forest Preserves to venture into the avian realm. Gallagher took the opportunity to experiment with pastel pencils. These are a blend between painting and pencils. “That medium seemed like it would be great for drawing birds,” Gallagher said.
She was also ready to move beyond the staged poses typically seen in insect illustrations—think of a top-down view of a butterfly with its wings spread flat at a 90-degree angle.
“You’d almost never see that in the wild,” according to Gallagher.
Local artist Samantha Gallagher drew the birds in this post and our new Birdwatching Guide.
For the bird illustrations, we asked her to depict lifelike poses and scenes. Two blue jays watching over a clutch of eggs nestled among oak leaves. A yellow warbler eyeing some downy hawthorn flowers as if hunting for insects to eat. A pair of purple martins perching at the entrance to their human-made house.
To achieve this authenticity, Gallagher consulted various sources. Her first stop was visiting our environmental educators at Ryerson Conservation Area.
“I looked at bird specimens in person and held them. I took pictures of different angles and saw how bright the colors are. That gave me a sense of scale,” she said.
YouTube was a reliable resource to understand how birds naturally move. Gallagher watched many videos there and studied photos in public databases such as iNaturalist and eBird.
Gallagher spent 8–20 hours perfecting each piece using many artistic tools.
Soon, it was time to draw. Each species demanded a careful strategy to avoid smudging the art.
For example, a rose-breasted grosbeak drawing—showing the bird perched with an elderberry in its beak—required something called frisket. Frisket is a stenciling material artists use to protect finished parts of a piece.
“It’s like a sticky note in that it doesn’t leave residue. I used watercolor for the berries and branches, then laid frisket on top and drew the bird. It was simple to peel the frisket off at the end.”
Feathers were another fork in the road. Smaller birds often have closely packed feathers that can be depicted as blended patches of plumage. However, individual feathers tend to be visible on larger birds. “Wings are not just random feathers,” said Gallagher. “They’re very specific.”
“Drawing these birds increased my awareness. It connected me to the sense of place and Lake County’s uniqueness.”
Samantha gallagher, artist
It’s tempting for many artists to endlessly tweak their work. But natural stopping points appeared here. Pastel pencils pair best with pastel paper, “which is like sandpaper. It wears down the pencils, and you can build up layers. Eventually, it gets to a point where the paper physically can’t take more pastel.”
Representing several bird families, creating the illustrations brought Gallagher closer to Lake County’s wildlife. “Drawing these birds gave me more awareness. ‘Oh, I didn’t know we had that here. I’ve never seen one of those.’ It made me feel more connected to the sense of place and how unique Lake County really is.”
She hopes readers of the guide will feel inspired to look for birds—and support them. “If I see a bird on an elderberry shrub, maybe I can plant elderberries and see it at home, too.”
The finished ruby-throated hummingbird illustration, resting on the drawing board.
March is the demarcation of spring. This new season is brewing now as snowmelt percolates through the thick mats of leaves on the forest floor into swollen creeks. Sap is rising in the sugar maples (Acer saccharum), with its promise of sweetness after a harsh winter. The purple, mottled crowns of skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) peek out of the thawing mud, surging toward the sun. And the quiet of winter is replaced with the cacophony of western chorus frogs (Pseudacris triseriata) accompanied by the “peent” and “whir” of American woodcocks (Scolopax minor) in the Lake County Forest Preserves in northern Illinois.
The American woodcock (Scolopax minor) is a curious species to study. Stock photo.Continue reading →
Fall bird migration is happening now at the Lake County Forest Preserves in northern Illinois, and each day (and night) brings tens of thousands of newly arrived birds. Yet finding fall migrants can be challenging. Their subdued palettes of brown, tan, and olive feathers hide in sharp contrast to their resplendent springtime colors.
Unlike spring migration, most birds travel quietly in the fall, barely whispering a note to indicate their presence. In Lake County, fall migration starts in July, when our forests and prairies are green and full of blooming flowers. It’s a five-month-long period involving more than 200 species that rest and feed in our nearly 31,000 acres of preserves.
Spotting a bird can be difficult when vegetation conceals fleeting glimpses, making observations tricky and identification nearly impossible. Besides, who’s thinking of fall migration in July’s summer vacation mindset?
Either way, here are some of my favorite fall birding observations by month, over my past five decades of birdwatching.
July brings our first fall migrants: shorebirds. A visit to the Lake Michigan shoreline at Fort Sheridan in Lake Forest finds sanderlings (Calidris alba), sandpipers (Scolopacidae family), and yellowlegs (Tringa spp.) avoiding people and surf while searching for food. Many migrating shorebirds have just finished raising young in the tundra’s perpetual daylight and have embarked on a 6,000-mile round trip journey.
In May the natural world of Lake County, Illinois clamors for attention. Frogs peep, toads trill, insects buzz and chirp, but the all-stars of the show are birds. Perching songbirds, referred to scientifically as oscine passerines, are known for their amazing and extremely varied sounds. For many small and secretive species, their calls and songs are often the only way to identify individual birds within the chorus.
Shorter, non-musical bird calls are heard year-round. Calls are used in social interactions and as alarms. They are considered innate. However, scientists have determined that birds’ longer, melodic songs are learned in the first year of life. Birds use these spring songs, some containing several melodies, primarily in establishing territory and breeding. Continue reading →
Many years ago, while running along the Lake Michigan shoreline late on an evening in January, a feathered ghost appeared on top of a flag pole. It was the first time I had ever seen a snowy owl (Bubo scandiacus) and it stopped me in my tracks. This was the spark on that frozen night that lighted my fire of curiosity about birds. This winter, snowy owls have left their Arctic homes in record numbers, causing one of the largest irruptions (sudden increase) in northern Illinois in decades.
Although it seems natural to correlate the arrival of these boreal birds with the extremely cold, snowy winter northern Illinois is having, experts say the motivator is more likely linked to food. On their Arctic breeding grounds, snowy owls feast under 24-hour sunshine. Their food of choice is lemmings, small mammals with an extremely cyclical population. Bird expert Kenn Kaufman explains in a recent Audubon magazine article, that when the lemming population explodes, like it did last summer in northern Quebec, snowy owls have great breeding success, producing large broods of up to 11 chicks. As these chicks quickly grow into juvenile birds, the competition grows for the now dwindling numbers of lemmings. Thus, the young birds get nudged further and further away to find a meal, resulting in them moving to areas that mimic their treeless tundra home, such as the Lake Michigan shoreline. Continue reading →
This past weekend I had the pleasure of hearing Kenn Kaufman, a naturalist and bird expert, speak at the Smith Nature Symposium. He is somewhat of a “rock star” in the birding world. His novel, Kingbird Highway, chronicles a personal adventure hitchhiking around the country at the age of 16 on a quest to find birds—a story that has reached the status of folklore. Many years later, and surely a much longer “life list,” his keynote address at Ryerson Conservation Area focused on warbler migration: the phenomenon of these teeny tiny birds in every hue of the rainbow that travel thousands of miles across entire continents each spring and fall. He presented complicated doppler maps and in-depth scientific research on these migratory dynamos, but by the end of the discussion the focus had shifted to something more simple: the children from his young birders club.
Late that evening, as I settled down with one of his many guide books, Field Guide to Advanced Birding, I was struck by this same theme of simplicity. Kaufman urges folks to slow down and focus not on looking for the birds, but instead to spend time looking at the birds. He stresses getting to know the common birds of an area very well. By doing so, we are well on our way to knowing when a rare bird may enter the scene. This concept brought to mind one of the best places to take a long look at one common bird of Lake County, Illinois: a great blue heron rookery.
Birding fever hit a high this past weekend in natural areas throughout northern Illinois. Birders flocked in throngs with binoculars strung on their necks like potential Olympic medals and a hope of spotting some of the most coveted migratory birds— wood-warblers. Members of the family Parulidae, wood-warblers are the colorful jewels of migration from the sapphire blue of a cerulean warbler (Setophaga cerulea) to the amber orange of a Blackburnian warbler (Setophaga fusca). Yet, as these birds flit about in the treetops, no color is as visually striking as the lemony-yellow citrine that adorns so many warblers as they pass through our area on a flyway. Once these impish birds reach their destinations (as far as northern Canada for some species) and breed, they will molt their flamboyant plumage and become far less conspicuous, which is why seeing them in the spring is considered such a prize for birders. Continue reading →
Like most of you reading this, my life is busy. Even though I work outdoors in the forest preserves, not all of my nature experiences occur there. Many days I have to take the glimpses of nature where I can get them. On my drive home from work last week, glancing at the “not-so-glamorous” retention pond next to the tollway, I spotted my first hooded merganser of the year. I knew the gang was back, although some of them not for long. This “gang” I’m referring to is the group of migratory waterfowl that show up here in the early spring during migration en route to their final destinations further north. With names like horned grebe, American wigeon, northern shoveler, and gadwall (just a few of the species seen in the past few days at Independence Grove Forest Preserve, here is the complete list), who wouldn’t want to meet this cast of characters?
This time of year is the perfect opportunity to take a peek at some fascinating birds close to home. Continue reading →
Late that evening, as I settled down with one of his many 
Lake County Nature 