Bird Watching in the Yukon

Whether its Northern Wheatears, Trumpeter Swans or Gyrfalcons, Yukon has a lot of special northern bird species not commonly found in southern Canada.

If it's winter birds at your feeder you're interested in, or bird box building, many resources on birding are available from Environment Yukon or downloadable from the Wildlife Brochures page.

Bird Checklists

The Yukon Bird Club maintains a current bird checklist for Yukon. Regional checklists and viewing lists exist for Whitehorse, Swan Haven Interpretation Centre (2.94 MB PDF), Faro (1.4 MB PDF), and Herschel Island and can be found in Visitor Information Centres, Environment Yukon offices, or at the Canadian Wildlife Service or or by request from any of these places.

Yearly Birding Festivals

• Celebration of Swans (mid- to late- April)
  A Yukon spring tradition that just gets better every year! And the swans keep coming back! Free walks, talks, viewing and family fun and games throughout Southern Yukon. Swan Haven Interpretation Centre staff offer tours and school activities.

• Faro's Crane and Sheep Viewing festival (mid-May)
  Behold the migration of ¼ million Sandhill Cranes over the Tintina Trench and view unique Fannin Sheep, a colour phase of Dall (Thinhorn) Sheep. This yearly festival includes free bird, plant and sheep viewing tours, presentations, a community barbeque, entertainment and much more!

• Weekend on the Wing (mid-June)
  Welcome the return of northern and alpine bird specialties by joining free interpreted walks and talks at Tombstone Park Interpretive Centre on the Dempster Highway. This is also an excellent time to view a plethora of alpine flowers, some unique to this region.
  Contact Yukon Parks at (867) 667-8299.

Each year the Christmas Bird count takes place in many Yukon communities including Whitehorse, Mayo, Marsh Lake, Haines Junction and Watson Lake. The annual Bird-a-thon is hosted by the Yukon Bird Club. Many bird watching trips and bird identification workshops take place every year. For a current list of these events visit the Yukon Bird Club events site and check wildlife talks and events page frequently.