A woman with a braid in her hair looking through binoculars at a scrubby landscape

Birding is a primary use at Currituck NWR, primarily because of the more than 200 species of birds found on the refuge, including both migratory and residential species. Depending on the season, birders may see snow geese, tundra swan, mallards, wood duck, black duck, blue-winged teal and green-winged teal in refuge wetlands and the sound; least tern, American oystercatcher, and black-bellied plover along the beach; and prairie warblers, yellow-rumped warblers, and other migratory songbirds in the dune shrubs and maritime forest.