ELK LAKE RESORT
Montana's Premiere Resort Experience Since 1932
Montana Birding Opportunities
abound in Centennial Valley and our guests are never left disappointed.
Open water, mud flats, aspen stands, willows, grasses, sagebrush flats and uplands, conifer forests, rocky outcroppings, and alpine settings combine to make the area prime for a wide array of birds.
For the bird watching enthusiast, the Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge is sure to please. The Refuge plays home to 70% of Montana’s bird species and is considered one of the best birding locations in North America. The Centennial Valley is a raptor lover’s paradise, boasting an outstanding concentration of the big birds, including eagles, hawks, owls, osprey, sandhill cranes, trumpeter swans and peregrine falcons.
If you aren’t up for a day trip to do some bird watching, just step out onto your front deck and take in the extensive array of birds that can be seen right at Elk Lake Resort. Or take a little walk around the resort and enjoy unparalleled bird watching.
Here is a preview of what you might see in and around Elk Lake Resort:
In the Willows
Common snipes, house wrens, yellow warbler, common yellowthroat, Lincoln’s sparrow and song sparrow.
In the Woodlands
Wood peewee, chickadees, nuthatches, kinglets, Western tanager, white crowned sparrow, tree swallows, and Cassin’s finch.
Around the Lake
American avocet, spotted sandpiper, marsh willow, yellow-headed blackbird, red-winged blackbird.
On the Lake
Ducks, lesser scaup, Canadian geese, trumpeter swans, osprey.
In the Open Areas
Mountain bluebirds, tree swallows, barn swallows, sandhill cranes, bald eagles, golden eagles, red-tail hawks, peregrine falcons, great horned owls, burrowing owls.
Rare Birds
Red Rock Lakes Wildlife Refuge offers the opportunity to see birds that are observed infrequently or birds that are considered outside their normal range. These include: great egret, whopping crane, wood duck, turkey vulture, dunlin, northern mockingbird, northern parula, black and white warbler, northern oriole, rose-breasted grosbeak, grasshopper sparrow, and rock dove.