Birding Festival-Bird List - Friends of Headlands Beach State Park

Headlands Birding Festival

Headlands Area Bird List

Festival Highlights

These are some of the less common and rare birds. They still may be found during the festival, so keep your eyes (and binoculars) out for rare shorebirds such as Whimbrel and Red Knot on the beach, rare pelagic species like Sabine’s Gull and Parasitic Jaeger over the lake, and rare marsh birds such as Nelson’s Sparrow and Sedge Wren in Mentor Marsh State Nature Preserve.

Piping Plover © Will Cihula

Buff-breasted Sandpiper © Sarah Preston

Baird’s Sandpiper © Sarah Preston

Stilt Sandpiper © Sarah Preston

Sedge Wren © Sarah Preston

Whimbrel © Sarah Preston

Wilson’s Phalarope © Sarah Preston

American Avocet © Sarah Preston

American Golden Plover © Sarah Preston

Red-necked Phalarope © Sarah Preston

Red Knot © Sarah Preston

Nelson’s Sparrow © Sarah Preston

LeConte’s Sparrow © Sarah Preston

Willet © Will Cihula

Sabine’s Gull © Kari Warner

Parasitic Jaeger © Will Cihula

Dickcissel © Roger Beuck

Bird List

Here is a printable checklist to record species seen in Lake County. Below is a list of expected birds during the festival. Not all birds will be found, and others that are not on the list may be found.

Canada Goose
Wood Duck
Blue-winged Teal
Northern Shoveler
Gadwall
American Wigeon
Mallard
Northern Pintail
Green-winged Teal
Hooded Merganser
Common Merganser
Red-breasted Merganser
Ruddy Duck
Wild Turkey
Pied-billed Grebe
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Common Nighthawk
Chimney Swift
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Virginia Rail
Sora
Common Gallinule
American Coot
Black-bellied Plover
American Golden-Plover
Semipalmated Plover
Killdeer
Sanderling
Dunlin
Least Sandpiper
Pectoral Sandpiper
Semipalmated Sandpiper
Short-billed Dowitcher
American Woodcock
Wilson’s Snipe
Spotted Sandpiper
Solitary Sandpiper
Lesser Yellowlegs
Greater Yellowlegs
Pomarine Jaeger
Parasitic Jaeger
Sabine’s Gull
Bonaparte’s Gull
Ring-billed Gull
American Herring Gull
Lesser Black-backed Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Caspian Tern
Common Tern
Forster’s Tern
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Green Heron
Black-crowned Night-Heron
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Bald Eagle
Northern Harrier
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Cooper’s Hawk
Red-shouldered Hawk

Broad-winged Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Eastern Screech-Owl
Great Horned Owl
Barred Owl
Belted Kingfisher
Red-headed Woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Pileated Woodpecker
American Kestrel
Merlin
Peregrine Falcon
Olive-sided Flycatcher
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher
Acadian Flycatcher
Willow Flycatcher
Least Flycatcher
Eastern Phoebe
Great Crested Flycatcher
Eastern Kingbird
White-eyed Vireo
Yellow-throated Vireo
Blue-headed Vireo
Warbling Vireo
Philadelphia Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo
Blue Jay
American Crow
Common Raven
Horned Lark
Purple Martin
Tree Swallow
N. Rough-winged Swallow
Bank Swallow
Cliff Swallow
Barn Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
Red-breasted Nuthatch
White-breasted Nuthatch
Brown Creeper
Northern House Wren
Winter Wren
Sedge Wren
Marsh Wren
Carolina Wren
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Eastern Bluebird
Veery
Gray-cheeked Thrush
Swainson’s Thrush
Hermit Thrush
Wood Thrush
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Northern Mockingbird

Brown Thrasher
European Starling
Cedar Waxwing
House Sparrow
American Pipit
House Finch
Purple Finch
Pine Siskin
American Goldfinch
Eastern Towhee
Chipping Sparrow
Field Sparrow
Vesper Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
LeConte’s Sparrow
Nelson’s Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Lincoln’s Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Bobolink
Eastern Meadowlark
Baltimore Oriole
Red-winged Blackbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
Rusty Blackbird
Common Grackle
Ovenbird
Northern Waterthrush
Golden-winged Warbler
Blue-winged Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
Prothonotary Warbler
Tennessee Warbler
Orange-crowned Warbler
Nashville Warbler
Connecticut Warbler
Mourning Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Hooded Warbler
American Redstart
Cape May Warbler
Northern Parula
Magnolia Warbler
Bay-breasted Warbler
Blackburnian Warbler
Yellow Warbler
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Blackpoll Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Palm Warbler
Pine Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Canada Warbler
Wilson’s Warbler
Scarlet Tanager
Northern Cardinal
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Indigo Bunting
Dickcissel

Rare Birds

Lake County, Ohio, hosts the largest diversity of species seen in the state with over 350 out of the 450 species of birds observed in the state. In other words, over 75% of Ohio’s birds have been observed at one point in Lake County. Some of these can be found during the festival, others may never be seen in Lake County again, or at least not for a long time, and some are extremely rare and have only been seen in Ohio once.