Complete field guide to every bird species recorded in Manitoba. Browse by name, filter by taxonomic family or order, and tap any species for photos, range maps, songs, and identification tips.
All sighting data is sourced from eBird, the world's largest citizen science database for birds. Use this guide to discover what birds live in Manitoba, learn their calls, and plan birding trips to the best hotspots in the region.
Few jurisdictions in North America stack habitats the way Manitoba does. Tallgrass prairie and pothole marsh fill the south, boreal forest runs through the middle, and true subarctic tundra meets Hudson Bay at Churchill — a Western Meadowlark morning and a Willow Ptarmigan morning in the same province, if you are willing to travel between them.
Churchill is the draw, and it takes planning. There is no road: you fly from Winnipeg or ride the VIA Rail train up through Thompson over two nights. Mid-June through early July is the birding window, when Smith's Longspurs and Harris's Sparrows are on territory, Hudsonian Godwits and Stilt Sandpipers display over the tundra, and Ross's Gull — the bird everyone comes hoping for, and no one is promised — turns up on the ponds around town. The polar bear season in October and November is a different, more expensive trip.
What birds are common in Manitoba?
The birds you are most likely to run into in Manitoba right now are Red-winged Blackbird, Franklin's Gull, and Blue-winged Teal. Birders reported 240 species across Manitoba on eBird during August 22–28, 2026 — the 18below are the ones that turned up on the most of those days, which is as close to “common” as sightings data gets.
Work Goose Creek Road, Launch Road, and the Akudlik and Granary ponds. Ross's Gull is the prize, with Smith's Longspur on the tundra, Harris's Sparrow singing from stunted spruce, Pacific Loons on the lakes, and Willow Ptarmigan along the roadsides.
Riding Mountain National Park
Where boreal forest meets aspen parkland. Connecticut Warbler is the target species birders come for, alongside Cape May, Bay-breasted, and Black-throated Green Warblers, Great Gray Owls on the edges, and elk and moose on the meadows.
Oak Hammock Marsh
Twenty minutes north of Winnipeg: Yellow-headed Blackbirds, rails, and grebes in June, then one of the continent's great staging spectacles in October when hundreds of thousands of geese and ducks pack the cells.
Delta Marsh
One of the largest freshwater marshes in North America, on the south shore of Lake Manitoba. The bird observatory bands a heavy spring passerine migration, and the beach ridge and bays hold Western Grebes, Franklin's Gulls, and marsh nesters all summer.
Whitewater Lake
A shallow alkaline lake in the southwest that draws American White Pelicans, Franklin's Gulls, and huge fall shorebird flocks to its mudflats — and a steady supply of western strays that make it the province's best rarity lake.
Douglas Marsh
Near Brandon, and one of the most dependable Yellow Rail sites on the continent — stand at the roadside after dark in June and listen for the ticking. Le Conte's and Nelson's Sparrows and Sedge Wrens sing from the same sedge.
Manitoba Tall Grass Prairie Preserve
A rare surviving remnant of tallgrass near Tolstoi and Gardenton: Upland Sandpipers on the fenceposts, Bobolinks and Sedge Wrens in the grass, Le Conte's Sparrows in the wet swales, and orchids underfoot in July.
Whiteshell Provincial Park
All 414 bird species recorded in Manitoba
Every species on this list has been recorded in Manitoba on eBird. Tap any bird for photos, range maps, songs, and identification tips.
Birdr turns this list into a field companion: live eBird sightings around you, a life list you can log from the trail, songs and photos offline, and a nudge when something unusual is reported nearby.
How this is measured: eBird publishes, for each day, every species reported anywhere in Manitoba. We count how many of the 7 days sampled (August 22–28, 2026) each species appears on and rank by that count — nothing here is estimated or modelled. Species tied on days are ordered by the total number of individuals in those records. Rarities work the other way round: rare bird alerts tell you when a bird that is not common shows up near you.
Canadian Shield boreal on the Ontario border, with Spruce Grouse, Black-backed Woodpeckers, Boreal Chickadees, Connecticut and Cape May Warblers, and loons calling off the granite shorelines.
Netley-Libau Marsh & the Interlake
The Red River delta at the south end of Lake Winnipeg is a vast staging marsh in autumn, and the farmland and hydro lines of the surrounding Interlake are the province's prime winter owl country.
Manitoba birding by season
Spring (April–May) — Geese, grouse leks, and a fast warbler push
Snow and Ross's Geese pour north through the Interlake and Whitewater in April while Sharp-tailed Grouse dance on the leks, shorebirds work flooded fields in mid-May, and the warbler wave arrives compressed into the last week of the month.
Summer (June–July) — The province at its best
Churchill's short subarctic season peaks, Yellow Rails tick at Douglas Marsh, boreal warblers sing in Riding Mountain and the Whiteshell, and the tallgrass is full of Bobolinks. Bring serious insect protection — the mosquitoes and blackflies are not a joke.
Fall (August–November) — Mudflats, then geese by the hundred thousand
August shorebirds crowd Whitewater Lake's flats, September brings raptors and sparrows south, and October turns Oak Hammock and Netley-Libau into wall-to-wall waterfowl. The first Snowy Owls appear on the farmland in November.
Winter (December–March) — Owl country
Cold and rewarding: Great Gray and Northern Hawk Owls hunt the Interlake edges, Snowy Owls sit on the open fields south of Winnipeg, Bohemian Waxwings strip the ornamental fruit in town, and Gyrfalcon is a real if uncommon possibility. Dress for -30°C.