Birding

Lake Zahl National Wildlife Refuge provides excellent opportunities to observe a wide variety of birds drawn to its mix of open water, marsh, grassland, and upland habitats. Waterfowl are especially abundant during spring and fall migration, with mallards, gadwalls, blue‑winged teal, and other prairie pothole breeders commonly using the refuge’s wetlands. During the nesting season, species such as northern pintails, American wigeons, redheads, canvasbacks, and lesser scaup may also be seen utilizing wetland basins throughout the area.

The refuge’s marshes and lake margins attract numerous colonial and marsh‑nesting birds. Common, black, and Forster’s terns can be observed coursing over open water, while ring‑billed and Franklin’s gulls are frequently seen foraging across wetland edges. Other marsh birds—including black‑crowned night herons, coots, and grebes such as pied‑billed, horned, and eared—take advantage of the refuge’s quiet, vegetated shorelines.

Shorebirds are a regular presence during migration, and species like American avocets, marbled godwits, willets, and common snipes make use of the shallow wetland margins and mudflats. Upland sandpipers are often found in nearby grasslands during the breeding season.

Sandhill cranes migrate through the area in both spring and fall, and endangered whooping cranes may occasionally pass through during April and October.

The native prairie and transitional grasslands surrounding Lake Zahl support several distinctive grassland birds, including Baird’s sparrows, grasshopper sparrows, chestnut‑collared longspurs, and bobolinks. Some of these species are notoriously elusive, and birds like Baird’s sparrows are often heard before they’re seen.

Raptors are frequently observed soaring above open terrain and include ferruginous, red‑tailed, and Swainson’s hawks, along with northern harriers. American kestrels and merlins are also present during the warmer months, and prairie falcons may be seen occasionally in the surrounding uplands.