Tens of thousands of ducks and geese inhabit the Refuge during the spring and fall migrations. Canada and snow geese can fill the sky, while black duck and mallards can be found throughout the Refuge pools.

A tour around the refuge's shallow pools may reveal several species of wading and other water birds, some of which nest here.  The shallow waters, fringed by cattail and other emergent vegetation, attract an abundance of great blue heron, green-backed heron, great egret, black-crowned night-heron, Virginia rail, sora, bitterns, common moorhen and pied-billed grebes.

Montezuma is extremely important to migrating shorebirds as a stopover point along their interior route of southward migration in the late summer/early fall.  The mix of species found here certainly differs from that along the Atlantic Coast. 

Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge played an integral role in reintroducing the once-endangered bald eagle to New York State.  Here is an account of this innovative restoration program, and a little history on Montezuma's bald eagles.

Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge is rich in wildlife. The refuge provides habitats for an abundance of wildlife species. Sixteen species of amphibians, fifteen species of reptiles, forty-three species of mammals, and two hundred forty-two species of birds have either been recorded or can reasonably be expected to be present on the refuge for at least a portion of the year.

Native to Asia, carp were introduced to the United States during the 1880s by the U.S. Fish Commission as a food fish.  Carp proved to be detrimental to native fish populations and never became as popular for game or food in North America as they are in Europe and Asia.