A path leads through a forested landscape of trees with green and yellow leaves. — Indiana Dunes State Park, October 14, 2022. Photo by Robyn Detterline.

by Lauren Kostas

Registration is now open for a celebration of birding and nature at Indiana Dunes

About an hour south of Chicago, the Indiana Audubon Society will be hosting the 9th annual Indiana Dunes Birding Festival (IDBF) from May 11–14 in Northwest Indiana. The IDBF is an annual event showcasing the wild variety of migratory birds in the Indiana Dunes. With hundreds of trips, programs, and workshops, there is something for every birder, of every level or interest. If you are interested in growing your birding community, checking out the latest merch, or just exploring a surprisingly diverse ecosystem, consider making a trip to the IDBF.

A Pileated Woodpecker, a large black woodpecker with a bright red crest, perches on the side of a tree, surrounded by leaves. — Pileated Woodpecker. Indiana Dunes, November 1, 2022. Photo by Dustin Weidner.

What to expect at the festival

Field trips led by local birding experts are the main attraction of the festival and occur around Northwest Indiana, within the state and national parks, as well as in preserves and natural areas across the region. There are early morning excursions to wetlands, bogs, pineries, and prairies. In the evenings, you can join owl prowls or watch the dazzling timberdoodle crepuscular performance. Learn the basics of bird banding or the joys of mothing.

Download your festival guide festival guidebook and start considering all your many options. To help you plan a trip and choose from the hundreds of sessions and events, the experiences are tagged according to birding pace, trip type (e.g., van or carpool), accessibility, and more.

The festival’s keynote speaker is internationally best-selling author Jennifer Ackerman, who will speak on the Genius of Birds. The Saturday evening event will explore the mysteries and wonder of the avian brain through stories and photos. Other featured speakers include:

Chris Haney — How We Get Haunted and Taunted By a Lost Woodpecker
Chris Bell — Columbia: Avian Adventures in the World’s Most Bird-Diverse Country
Hannah Toutonghi — Northern Hawk Owl Winter Movement Ecology

The IDBF marketplace will be filled with all things avian—from artwork to optics—and will have state and regional conservation organizations on hand to answer your questions. The marketplace is also the site of the Birds and Brews annual bird calling competition and social event.

Four days not enough? There are also pre- and post- fest trips available, including a behind the scenes visit to Field Museum, a trip to southern Indiana in search of the Black-necked Stilt, and an excursion to a Jack pine forest to find the Kirtkland’s Warbler.

Register here for the festival. All registrations include free access to afternoon presentations, headliners, the migration marketplace, youth and family birding day, and entry to the Indiana Dunes State Park. Field trips, Saturday night keynote presentation, Friday night Birds & Brews, and workshops require additional fees.

A Red-headed Woodpecker, a woodpecker with a white breast, black wings, and bright red head, perches at the top of a dead tree trunk. — Red-headed Woodpecker. Indiana Dunes State Park, July 10, 2021. Photo by Walter Marcisz.

A migrating bird hotspot

The homebase for the festival is the Indiana Dunes, an important migratory stopover habitat along the coast of Lake Michigan that also hosts numerous wetlands important for breeding marsh birds. More 350 bird species are known to visit the fens, bogs, marshes, creeks, woodlands, prairies, dunes, and beaches of the region.

Two different parks make up the Indiana Dunes: the smaller, 2,000-acre Indiana Dunes State Park, and Indiana Dunes National Park, with more than 13,000 acres along 15 miles of Lake Michigan’s coast.

The ecosystem of the area is incredibly diverse and includes dunes, wetlands, and prairies. The national park is home to a precious remnant of the vast oak savannas that used to cover about 50 million acres from Michigan to Nebraska. It is also ranked fourth in biological diversity among all national parks, with thousands of plant, insect, fungi, and animal species.

Exploring the dunes and the region

Even if you can’t join the festival, put the dunes and the region on your to-do list. The state park is accessible via the South Shore train line out of Millennium Station. At the park, visit the bird observation platform to witness the spectacle of migration flyovers. Trail 8 will offer you a peek at nesting Prothonotary Warblers at the boardwalk, and countless other migrants during your hike. If traveling by car, take a trip to Cowles Bog in the national park to explore an edge between woodland and wetlands.

COS 2023 Indiana Dunes Birding Festival Guide