Pikes Peak Birding & Nature Festival
Please help us keep this calendar up to date! If this activity is sold out, canceled, or otherwise needs alteration, email mindy@kidsoutandabout.com so we can update it immediately. If you have a question about the activity itself, please contact the organization administrator listed below.
Spring migration along Colorado’s Front Range is often full of surprises and the festival weekend is peak migration time. The Pikes Peak region has much to offer, with the short-grass prairie rising to meet the forested foothills and deep canyons of the southern Front Range, and rich, riparian forests providing for countless birds, insects, and other wildlife.
Over the course of the first eight festivals, the field trips have seen, heard, and identified an amazing 268 species of birds. To put that into perspective, during one weekend each May, festival participants have recorded just over half (actually 51%) of the 520 species of birds ever recorded in all of Colorado throughout the year! In 2024 there were 200 species recorded, 74.6% of our 268 nine-year total, and the festival checklist grew by 4 species; Marbled Godwit, Snow Goose, Clark’s Nutcracker, and Chihuahuan Raven. We have seen 31 warbler species to date!
All-time Festival rarities include White Ibis, Summer Tanager, Hepatic Tanager, Northern Saw-whet Owl, Flammulated Owl, Canada Jay, Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, and Field Sparrow. But please remember these species are rare for the Front Range and are not seen each year.
A May visit to the Pikes Peak Birding & Nature Festival can be very special for visitors and locals alike. We have recorded 10 out of 12 woodpecker species which regularly occur in Colorado. And there have been over 15 species of flycatchers and shorebirds, 20 species of sparrows, and that one lone White Ibis.
Please join us in 2025, and maybe you will be the one to spot our 269th festival species!
*Times, dates, and prices of any activity posted to our calendars are subject to change. Please be sure to click through directly to the organization’s website to verify.