Where to Go Birding in BC This Fall: NTBC's Guide

Where to Go Birding in BC This Fall: NTBC’s Guide

24 September 2026

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Dominique Bowden

A quick warning about birding: it starts innocently.

One nice chickadee, then six months later you’ve downloaded a birding app and own a vest with more pockets than you need.

Fall on the BC coast is one of the best times of year for birding and we’re here to help you make the most of the season.

Here are NTBC’s top picks for where to go birding in BC this fall — plus tips from our crew members who work hard to protect the places these birds depend on.

Bennett Whitnell

Expert birding tips

Go where habitats converge. Where forest, marsh and shore meet, so do the species. An overlap like this can yield forest birds, shorebirds, and seabirds all in a single morning.
Time it to the migration. Fall is prime season. As birds head south, estuaries become their rest-and-refuel stops — which means that for a few weeks, there are far more birds around than at any other time of year.
Don’t skip the easy spots. Some of the best birding is close and low-effort. A great sighting doesn’t always require a backcountry expedition.
Go early, move slowly, give space. Most birds are found by standing still, and remember, the bird would really rather you kept your distance — it’ll stick around longer that way!

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Dominique Bowden

Bill Murdock

5 best places to go birding this fall

Kw’a’luxw (Englishman) River Estuary — Vancouver Island

A top pick of the NTBC team due to its great mix of habitats — mature forest, river, saltmarsh, mudflats and the Salish Sea — with shorebirds the major draw during the spring and fall migration. It’s also where one of our crew caught a fallout of Mountain Bluebirds in late winter, with big groups full of males in their brightest blue. Visit our new public park Wilson Nature Park for a prime view.
Cowichan Estuary — Vancouver Island

Our team loves the action here: Killdeer chicks popping up everywhere, American Kestrels on the hunt, goldfinches lined up on the fencelines, and California Quail families with the cutest chicks taking refuge in the plant nursery. It’s also where NTBC recorded the Cowichan Valley’s first-ever Hudsonian Godwit in 2024, a rare sighting!
Skaha Lake Complex — Okanagan
A team favourite in the Okanagan, and the spot for a hard-won Mountain Chickadee — one of just seven chickadee species in North America. You’ll also find Pygmy Nuthatches and White-throated Swifts, plus steady action over the water, from swallows to the occasional osprey.
Buttertubs Marsh — Nanaimo
The team’s pick for pure accessibility. You can’t beat the quick, kid-friendly walk that still turns up waterfowl, passerines and shorebirds. It makes for a great morning that doesn’t require a backcountry expedition.
Quatse River Estuary — North Island
This North Island favourite is all about the numbers. Large flocks of migrating shorebirds are the highlight here, so come for the spectacle!

Bennett Whitnell

Why does conservation matter for birds?

Great birding doesn’t just happen. Every spot on this list is a protected conservation area — and that protection is part of the reason why the birds can come back year after year.

Many bird species migrate thousands of kilometres. And what they need most are safe places to stop, rest, refuel and breed. But as construction and development spread, their habitats continue to disappear.

That’s why conservation matters. No two of these habitats are alike; a forest needs different care than an estuary. So when we listen to the research and let nature lead, we can protect, restore and steward these places with unique approaches.

A recent UBC study conducted on NTBC lands found that threatened Western screech-owls seek out protected riparian habitat during extreme heat, and feed their chicks less when temperatures climb too high. It’s early evidence that the land we protect isn’t just preserving habitat — it’s helping species cope with a changing climate.

Across 56 NTBC conservation areas, the land we protect has been identified as critical habitat for seven of Canada’s most at-risk bird species, such as the Spotted Owl, Marbled Murrelet, and Williamson’s Sapsucker. Without protected land, they lose the habitat they need to survive.

Conservation is also bringing species back. In 2026, Burrowing Owls were reintroduced to NTBC’s White Lake Basin Biodiversity Ranch-Park Rill, joining a single male that overwintered on his own the year before.

These are the places worth protecting — for the birds that depend on them, and for the birders who come flocking for their next great sighting this fall.

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We gratefully acknowledge that our Vancouver office is located on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations, who have been stewarding this land since time immemorial. Our work and conservation areas encompass many lands throughout the province, and we humbly acknowledge the First Nations communities who live on and steward these lands.