Mackinac County Birding

Birding in Mackinac County, Michigan

Mackinac County sits in the Upper Peninsula, where boreal forest, hard rock, and Great Lakes coastline meet, with Lake Huron coastline. The county's birding character is shaped by Straits, Mackinac Island, mixed forest, which produces a distinctive mix of species across the spring, summer, fall, and winter seasons. This page summarizes the resident and migrant species you can expect in Mackinac County, with hotspot recommendations and links to recent eBird sightings.

Key birding hotspots in Mackinac County include Mackinac Island, Mackinaw City area, Naubinway. Each of these locations has produced multi-decade eBird records and continues to draw birders from across Michigan and the broader Great Lakes region. Local Audubon chapter field trips visit these locations regularly through the spring and fall migration windows, and many of them are easily accessible from public roads with minimal walking required.

Notable species in Mackinac County include Common Loon, Black-backed Woodpecker, Northern Goshawk. These species are not the only birds present in the county, but they represent the birds most likely to draw visiting birders to Mackinac County specifically rather than to other Michigan counties. The live sightings feed below this section pulls the most recent eBird reports from the past 14 days and is the right reference for planning a current trip.

The Upper Peninsula context matters for understanding what you will and will not see in Mackinac County. UP counties hold breeding birds that are scarce or absent in the Lower Peninsula, including Spruce Grouse, Black-backed Woodpecker, Boreal Chickadee, Connecticut Warbler, and a much higher density of breeding Common Loon. In return, the UP loses many southern species that are common downstate. Birders planning a UP trip should expect a noticeably different list than they would build in the Lower Peninsula.

The interactive map, statistics, and recent species list below this section pull live data from the eBird Application Programming Interface and refresh on each page load. Sightings posted to eBird in Mackinac County propagate to this page within 15 minutes of public release. For comprehensive historical records of birds reported in Mackinac County, eBird itself remains the authoritative reference.

Birders planning a visit to Mackinac County should also consult the Michigan Birding Predictions page for week-ahead arrival forecasts and the Migration Tracker for current statewide movement data. The Saginaw Bay overview provides additional context for birding in the heart of Michigan's most important waterfowl corridor.

Edited by Chris Izworski, Bay City, Michigan. Sightings data from eBird, updated every 15 minutes.