Bird List (770 KB PDF)
Bowdoin NWR has an abundance of wildlife. The wetlands support an extensive variety of waterfowl and shorebirds. The islands in Lake Bowdoin house colonies of American white pelicans, California gulls, ring-billed gulls, double-crested cormorants, and great blue herons. Surrounding wetlands teem with Franklin's gulls, white-faced ibis, black-crowned night herons and eared grebes. The descending whinny of sora rails and the hollow croaking of American bitterns can be heard throughout the wetlands on summer evenings.
Muskrats are common refuge wetland dwellers during years with favorable water conditions; as can be seen by the many houses of mounded mud and vegetation that dot the marshes. Canada geese and some ducks often nest on these mounds.
Sharp-tailed grouse, which can be seen on their leks (dancing grounds) at daybreak in early spring, breed and nest on the Refuge.
Songsters of the prairie uplands include Baird's sparrow, Sprague's pipit, grasshopper sparrow, savannah sparrow, chestnut-collared longspur, and Montana's State bird, the western meadowlark.
