The 10th Pikes Peak Birding & Nature Festival

As the Pikes Peak Birding and Nature Festival heads into 2025, birders can look forward to another amazing array of bird species. The festival motto is “prairie to peak” and it lives up to that billing.

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!

The 2025 Pikes Peak Birding & Nature Festival schedule is below. You must register for both the festival and the individual activity to attend. If you show up without registering for both, you will be turned away.

We recommend you select all of your choices on this website and then visit the registration site. We will update this page to show what is full as often as we can.

Name tags and pre-ordered T-shirts must be picked up prior to your first field trip. Pick-up this year is at either Fountain Creek Nature Center or Bear Creek Nature Center.

Schedule:

Friday, May 16
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F1      6:00a-Noon         Chico Basin Ranch, Bird Walk & Bird Banding Demo (15)
F2      6:00a-1:00p         Brett Gray Ranch, Guided Bird Hike (12)
F3      7:00a-9:30a         Rock Ledge Ranch Historic Site, Bird Walk (20)
F4      7:00a-10:00a      Big Johnson Res/Bluestem Prairie OS, Bird Hike (15)
F5      7:00a-10:00a      Fountain Valley School, Bird Walk (15)
F6      7:00a-10:00a      Adams Open Space, Bird Walk (15)
F7      7:00a-10:30a      North Cheyenne Cañon, Bird Hike (12)
F8      7:00a-11:00a      Bear Creek Regional Park – East, Bird Walk (15)
F9      7:00a-11:00a      Clear Spring Ranch, Bird Walk (15)
F10   7:30a-11:00a      Aiken Canyon Preserve, Bird Hike (12)
F11   7:30a-11:00a      Kane Ranch Open Space, Bird Walk (12)
F12   7:30a-11:00a      Mueller State Park, Bird Hike (15)
F13   8:00a-10:00a      Slow Birding, Liddell residence (12)
F14   8:00a-10:00a      Garden of the Gods, Prairie Falcon Sit (40)
F15   8:00a-10:00a      Mallard Pond, Big Sit (10)
F16   8:00a-1:00p         Pikes Peak Hwy, Birding Adventure, Pikes Peak Highway (13)
F17   9:00a-11:00a      Cheyenne Mountain State Park, Foothill Flowers Walk (15)
F18 10:00a-11:00a     Rock Ledge Ranch Historic Site, Orchard House Tour (25)
F19   10:00a-Noon      Fountain Creek Regional Park, Bug Watching Walkabout (15)
F20    5:00p-7:00p       Garden of the Gods, Bird Walk (15)
F21    5:00p-7:00p       Fountain Creek Regional Park, Bird Walk (15)
F22     8:30p-11:30p   Bear Creek Nature Center, Insect Black Lighting (15)

Sem7 11:30a-1:30p    “Prairie Ecosystems, Prairie Dogs & the Black-footed Ferret”, Fountain Creek Nature Center (20)
Sem8  1:00p-2:00p     “Feeding  is for the Birds,” Wild Birds Unlimited Store (20)
Sem9  1:00p-3:00p     “Live Birds of Prey,” Fountain Creek Nature Center (60)
Sem10 6:00p-8:00p    “Where Mountain Lions Roam,” Bear Creek Nature Center. Select Sem10 during registration for talk only (50)
Sem11 7:30p-9:30p   Bat Research Seminar & Walk, Fountain Creek Nature Center (15)

Workshop1   12:00p-2:30p       Nature Journaling, Bear Creek Nature Center (5/20)
Workshop2    5:30p-7:30p        Drawing Birds with Graphite, Bear Creek Nature Center (12)
Workshop3    3:30p-4:45p        Bird Photography, Fountain Creek Nature Center (40)

Vir2    1:00p-2:30p “Beginning Birding,” (100) – Virtual