For the Birds

Several hundred species of birds call the valley’s skies home.

// By Jim Mahaffie  

A seasonal rite of passage for Jacksonites every spring is swapping out their seed feeders for hummingbird feeders. Every year, the hummers quickly find these new feeders—zooming around decks—while the winter bird crowd has flown off to find what nature is offering elsewhere. 

More than 340 species of birds have been identified in Jackson Hole. Most are migratory, spending only three to six months in the valley each year. They flock to the Tetons because the diverse habitats include sagebrush flats, spruce fir forests, alpine meadows, lakes, and streams—all of which offer birds food, water, shelter, and safe places to nest.

“When weather is bad, birding can be really good. Migratory birds don’t move a lot in bad weather,” says Hilary Turner, a local research biologist with the Teton Raptor Center and the Jackson Hole Wildlife Foundation, and a devout birder. “There are a lot of special birds to find in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Lots of veteran birdwatchers come to the Tetons just to see species like great gray owls, American goshawks, black rosy finches, and pine grosbeaks. Birders go nuts for these sightings.” Here are some prime places to bird watch.

A short distance from the Moran Junction entrance to Grand Teton National Park, Oxbow Bend overlooks a crescent-shaped section of the Snake River. Here you might find waterfowl like pelicans and great blue herons along with muskrats, otters, moose, and bear. It’s a beautiful spot for photos, both sunrises and sunsets, with distant Mt. Moran reflected on the surface of the water.

Jackson Lake is a 400-foot-deep natural lake made deeper and larger by Jackson Lake Dam. Birds to watch for around the dam include swans, pelicans, cormorants, killdeer, herons, eagles, ospreys, and merganser and goldeneye ducks. Sandhill cranes can often be found in the flats to the north, as well. There are parking areas at either end of the dam, and birds hang out in and around the lake and in the river below the outflow. 

The packed gravel paths along both sides of the Snake River are great for birdwatching. At the junction of Highway 22 and the Village Road by the Wilson Bridge are Emily Stevens Park and R Park. Dog walkers, bike riders, and birders stroll around the ponds and along either side of the river to spot many different ducks like mergansers, grebes, and mallards, as well as other waterfowl. Eagles nest to the north, great blue herons can be seen hunting a meal along the water, and dippers flit in and around the pedestrian bridge over the river.

At the Flat Creek Observation Deck off U.S. Highway 89 just north of Jackson and the National Museum of Wildlife Art, you can look into the National Elk Refuge, where migratory waterfowl gather in the water and raptors fly overhead. The refuge was created in 1912 to protect habitat and provide sanctuary for elk and other wildlife. Over 140 bird species have been documented here, and abundant bird life includes many different species of ducks, red-winged blackbirds, magpies, crows, ravens, and trumpeter swans. Elsewhere on the refuge are mountain bluebirds, warblers, finches, wrens, nutcrackers, various species of woodpeckers, and many more. Bring binoculars and spotting scopes.

In early spring, sage-grouse start looking for love, and they return every year to open clearings and sagebrush flats around the valley, called leks, where the males perform elaborate courtship displays using tail feathers and expandable air sacs under their throats to compete with other males for female attention. Viewing sites are not well publicized as the greater sage-grouse is an imperiled population, but the strutting, preening, and displays are fascinating. Luckily, the National Park Service invites people on early morning ranger-led sage-grouse strut viewings through spotting scopes at sites in Grand Teton National Park. The Park Service has special viewing regulations to minimize human disturbance in these rare and charming birdwatching moments. 

Located at the historic Hardeman Barns in Wilson, the Teton Raptor Center was founded in 1991 by Grand Teton National Park biologists Roger Smith and Margaret Creel, who had begun caring for injured hawks, eagles, and owls out of their home. Today, the center manages several education and conservation programs as well as care and rehabilitation for numbers of injured, ill, and orphaned raptors. Reservations are recommended and required for changing public programs at the center, and the birds being cared for are not viewable. If you can’t make it to the Raptor Center, it does outreach at the People’s Market, Jackson Hole Airport, the Village Commons, and other events and locations. “We want to enhance people’s wild encounters,” says executive director Amy McCarthy. “When they’ve had an opportunity to be close to these birds, they can look closely for them on the river and in their own backyards and see them in a new light. There are 25 to 30 raptor species in the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem. So, get outside and look up!” JH