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Kansas City is a perfect place if you want to see birds on their migration journeys. Our city is perfectly situated along the Mississippi and Central Flyways, making us one of the most important migration corridors on the planet.
Here, you’ll be able to experience dozens, if not hundreds, of different species of birds during their spring or fall travels.
So, when exactly should you look to the skies? Spring migration occurs roughly mid-April to mid-June, with Kansas City peaking in the first week of May.
And in fall, migration time is mid-August through mid-November.
In fact, the Missouri Department of Conservation is even hosting its first-ever birding competition this May 1-15. You can work alone or in a group, depending on experience levels, and try to meet birdwatching challenges to enter into prize raffles. Find more information here!
Some great Kansas City locations for bird watching
The following recommendations come from Sherry Leonardo, a long-time member of The Greater Kansas City Chapter of the National Audubon Society, and Malcolm Gold, an officer of the Kansas Ornithological Society.
Smithville Lake northeast of Kansas City International Airport, is a generally good migration site, and one good for waterfowl almost all year except for summer (when lake activities are at their peak).
At almost 7,200 acres, there are countless spots to choose from. Visitors may see white pelicans, swans, cormorants, wood ducks, teals and even loons. Gulls can also be seen here, and even rare-to-our-region birds like scoters might be spotted in winter.
Don’t forget your binoculars, as this water body is large and birds may be quite a distance from you.
On the southeast side of the metro, Blue Springs Lake Wetland (Lake Ridge Rd.) is an Army Corps of Engineers-established nature area below the Blue Springs Lake dam.
It’s especially good in winter when there’s water (the Army Corps diverts and stores water depending on rainfall). On the waterbirds side, you may see pied-billed grebes, hooded mergansers, nesting wood ducks and belted kingfishers. During migration, there are sightings of infrequent shorebirds and waders. Look for songbirds but also predators like hawks (red-tailed, red-shouldered) and the American kestrel.
On the south side of the metro, close to the Kansas-Missouri border is Jerry Smith Park (13700 Prospect Ave.). This park contains the largest remnant prairie in the Kansas City metro area, and Leonardo is fond of it. She has been walking this park almost every week for 14 years, and conducts four bird surveys there annually at the request of Kansas City Wildlands, a local conservation group with a mission of restoring and maintaining wild areas in the Kansas City area.
It’s a good place to spy unique birds like the American woodcock as well as more common visitors like woodpeckers. You’ll find a diversity year-round, but come in winter to see yellow-bellied sapsuckers. Here one can see several sparrows, finches and flycatchers as well as vireos, summer tanagers, indigo buntings, blue grosbeaks, dickcissels and others.
Leonardo also conducts butterfly surveys at Jerry Smith Park during the summer because, after migration, birds have either moved on, or they’re nesting and shouldn’t be bothered. Because the park is home to a restored prairie, it gets burned from time to time, which helps make for very good wildflower viewing – another activity to consider when birds have gone.
Weston Bend (16600 MO 45) is a beautiful state park that seems to be a popular site for a beautiful class of birds: warblers). Warblers and other songbirds like indigo buntings, summer and scarlet tanagers and even cuckoos love ample cover in which to hide, and this park is thickly wooded and overlooks the Missouri River, which is another important birding feature.
West of Olathe, the Prairie Center (26325 W. 135th St.) is a great site to view birds preferring open spaces, e.g. scissortail flycatchers, western meadowlarks, dickcissels and others.
Another location near Olathe: Kill Creek Park (11670 Homestead Lane). This site is recommended for its diversity of habitats: a large lake, woodlands and open fields all innervated by a well-maintained trail network make this an attractive choice for viewing waterbirds, songbirds, predators and more.
One more Olathe location: Cedar Niles Park. Running north-to-south from 119th to 135th Street, Gold recommends this park for its variety of habitats. He also notes that a multi-use trail — one of the newest in the area — enhances accessibility.
If you call the Leawood area home and want to go looking for songbirds, another warbler hotspot is Tomahawk Park (3951 W. 119th St.). Be sure to go early in the morning if you can, as this is a popular spot especially on the weekends, and there are a lot of joggers, walkers, bicyclists, etc.
Unity Village Nature Trail in Lee’s Summit (1901 NW. Blue Parkway) has a well-kept and easily walkable nature trail that goes through dense woods, passes two lakes and takes walkers by rock features and over a creek. This is a great place to see the Louisiana waterthrush but also warblers and tree-hugging woodpeckers – nuthatches, downy and hairy woodpeckers, red-headed and red-bellied woodpeckers, etc.
Also, look for yellow-throated warblers here. They sometimes move about in small groups, which can make spotting them exciting. This trail is also a very good birding spot in colder months and can offer sightings of winter wrens.
For the urban birder, a good lake to see waterfowl — and one that remains open when other lakes may freeze over — is Wyandotte County Lake (91st Street and Leavenworth Road). This forest-surrounded waterway is wrapped with trials and may offer sightings of many of the water-and-woods-loving species listed above.
Gold says the trails are “amazing” for birding but notes there are car pull-offs for the birder who wants to drive. He says it’s a great area for spring migration, summer woodland birds and winter birds – primarily ducks and swans.
A low-key gem for waterbird and songbird viewing is Wilderness Wetlands near the corner junction of 167th Street and Nall Avenue. The Blue River Streamway Trail departs south from the junction of these roads and is an easy, 2.5 mile one-way trip. You may think you’re trespassing as you go looking for the area, as it’s bounded on the north side by a housing development and on the northeast side by Blue River Elementary School / Blue Valley Middle School.
Come here in April and May for good warbler and songbird viewing. You’ll also see water birds like herons and egrets, though you’ll see more of them as summer comes on and minnows and frogs are more plentiful. Also: Just behind the schools is an environmental education area with its own trails that pass by ponds and a creek, though that area is only accessible on weekends when school is in session. Leonardo also notes that this area is a great summertime site for dragonfly viewing.
For year-round bird watching, you might also have luck at the nature preserves and wildlife conservation areas in the Kansas City area, including:
- Jackass Bend National Wildlife Refuge
- Martha Lafite Thompson Nature Sanctuary
- Loess Bluffs National Wildlife Refuge
- Perry Wildlife Area
- Haskell-Baker Wetlands
- Marais des Cygnes National Wildlife Refuge
Gear for your bird searching adventures
It can be tempting, when you’re new to birding, to want to zip out to the nearest park, but pause for a sec. Before anything else, you should consider at least one essential piece of equipment: binoculars.
While numerous birds can be spotted, enjoyed and IDed via the naked eye, countless smaller, flittier and more camouflaged birds will elude you without magnification.
The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) maintains a birding equipment quick-start page with some great recommendations, but here are some binocular basics:
- Consider them an investment – equipment you’ll buy, ideally have forever and maybe even hand down someday. Reputable brands often offer a refurbishing service. For a fee, they’ll clean and repair just about every part of a good pair of binos.
- Choose a pair with at least a magnification power of 8x, although 10x is better.
- And, don’t go too cheap. Inexpensive binoculars are likely to strain your eyes. Expect to pay at least $100 but more likely $200 to $300 for a high-end consumer-grade set of optics.
The same MDC page also gives advice on birding guides. But you can get a great one for free: The Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Merlin Bird ID has a powerful ID Wizard that guides the unsure birder through a series of questions that can help zero in on just what it was they saw. Also included is:
- An audio feature that reviews birdsong that you record and helps you ID what you might be hearing.
- A picture feature that does the same thing but which uses images you capture.
- A “Save My Bird” tool that allows you to log your sightings over time.
Another top choice of many is the Audubon Bird Guide App. It too offers a bird ID feature and also lets you log geolocated sightings over time so you can keep track of your adventures.
Other apps can help birdwatchers track movement into and out of their area. BirdCast.info is a great option that uses radar and predicts where birds might travel next. It has an interactive, color-coded map and allows users to sign up for alerts notifying of large bird movements in the area.
Lastly, MDC offers a free publication for all birders titled “Enjoying Missouri’s Birds.” Printed copies are available at the Anita P. Gorman Discovery Center (4750 Troost Ave.) next to the Kaufman Foundation and Gardens, as well as the MDC regional office at James A. Reed Memorial Wildlife Area (12405 SE Ranson Rd.).
The book covers topics such as the importance of birds, what to notice about them, specific bird features to note, important habitat descriptions, a linear chart of the most common and expected birds and what months to expect them.
Really, birds are everywhere, including your backyard
There truly are so many great birding areas, and just about any natural area will offer you a sighting of something special.
The best two bits of advice out there:
First, don’t just seek out rare species. Even common birds have their charms, and spending time viewing their behaviors and quirks will bring joy and foster as good memories as any unusual sighting will offer.
Second, join an organized bird walk. These may seem a little intimidating, but the vast majority of birders are kind nature lovers who want to see you enjoy their favorite pastime. You’ll be amazed at how much you learn, and how quickly, when you explore birding with others.
