NPS Photo

There are many different types of birds along the canal.

Numerous bird species can be observed throughout the year at C&O Canal NHP. Some live in or near the park year-round. Others are seasonal visitors to the park. May and June are prime birding months at C&O Canal National Historical Park.

Male birds sing to attract females for mating. Migratory birds are returning then from their non-breeding grounds in South and Central America, Mexico, the Caribbean, and the southern U.S., to their North American nesting habitats. Some species of migratory birds are declining in numbers due primarily to habitat loss in their breeding and non-breeding grounds. Scientists have found that certain migratory birds that utilize much of the habitat type found at C&O for breeding are declining worldwide. However, the Potomac River floodplain provides habitat for many migrating and breeding birds and is becoming increasingly important as natural areas are lost or fragmented in Maryland and all over the U.S. In fact the American Bird Conservancy and National Audubon Society have designated C&O Canal as an Important Bird Area (IBA) in the United States. IBAs are small sites that are critical to rare species or that support large concentrations of a species.

Volunteers have conducted three parkwide breeding birds counts between 1995 and 2001. From this data, 108 bird species have been documented using the park for breeding, out of 113 bird species expected to breed here. Several species of concern in Maryland that can be found in C&O Canal are Golden-winged Warbler, Cerulean Warbler, and Wood Thrush. Another popular season for bird-watching is in the winter. What better way to get out and stretch your legs for a walk in the snow than to watch birds! Some common species of winter birds seen during annual winter bird counts conducted by DC Audubon are woodpeckers – Red-bellied, Downy, and Pileated, and Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers; chickadees; kinglets; bluebirds; and waterfowl – Canada Goose, Common and Hooded Mergansers, Mallards, Ring-Necked Duck.

Bird-watching occurs year-round and some of the species observed are: Great Blue Heron, Turkey Vultures and Black Vultures, Belted Kingfisher, Red-tailed and Red-shouldered Hawks, Barred and Great Horned Owls, Blue Jay, Northern Cardinal, and Carolina and Black-capped Chickadees. Bald Eagle Bald eagles have nested on Conn Island in the Potomac River, near Great Falls Visitor Center, Potomac, Maryland, since 1986.This nest is one of the few eagle nests in Maryland located on non-tidal water. Most are located on tidal water where their main food supply, fish, is more stable. Conn Island is also one of the furthest west of all documented active bald eagle nest sites in Maryland. The nest and the eagles can be viewed with relative ease and little disturbance from the Observation Deck at the Great Falls Tavern Visitor Center. Use a spotting scope to view inside the nest and basic binoculars to view the birds at a distance. Sometimes the birds fly right overhead! The bald eagle, once listed for nearly 30 years as a federally endangered species by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, is now listed as threatened.

A federally endangered species is determined by the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) as a species in danger of extinction, a threatened species is a species likely to become endangered in the foreseeable future throughout its range. Bald eagle populations plummeted in the 1960s and ‘70s due to effects of the pesticide DDT, habitat destruction, and lead poisoning from eating hunter-shot waterfowl containing lead shot. DDT was banned in the US in 1972 and the use of lead shot was finally phased out in 1991. Since then, the species has steadily recovered to the point it could be reclassified by the USFWS. Reclassifying a species from endangered to threatened status means the species has not fully recovered, but is no longer in immediate danger of extinction.