Great Bear River Bird Festival

Bird Festival

Each year, around the middle of May, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife staff and the Friends of the Bear River Bird Refuge join with various corporate sponsors to give visitors a diverse view of the Refuge.

Each spring, with migration and bird diversity in its full glory, the U.S Fish and Wildlife staff and the Friends of the Bear River Bird Refuge open up the Refuge to thousands of visitors for a diverse and wonderful Saturday of birding, learning and fun. Over 2,000 people visit the Refuge during the Bird Festival.

  • Kids Corner   One of the most popular displays at the Bird Festival is the Kids Corner. Volunteers man this booth which is a great hands-on learning opportunity for kids of all ages. The kids will use cattails and bulrushes to build nest. They also have materials to experience how a birds beak or bill works in gathering food. The kids, and their parents, are offered a chance to establish a lifetime interest in nature.
  • Retriever Demonstration   Another one of the popular demosnstrations at the Bird Festival involves the skills of retrievers and their trainers. These well trained dogs put on a delightful show of the role dogs play in the hunters success.
  • Decoy Display   Look carefully. These are not real geese but just decoys. You may not have been fooled, but it does work for migrating geese. Visitors at the Bird Festival enjoy being able to see the decoys up close and also in use.
  • Friends of the Refuge   A very important part of the success of not only the Bird Festival, but of the expansion and restoration of the Refuge is a local (and sometimes not so local) volnuteer group known as the Friends of the Bear River Bird Refuge. This tireless group conducts various fundraising efforts to enhance the Refuge's educational and recreational use.
  • Hunting Display   Another of the popular displays is the hunting display. This booth has various types of shot guns and ammo on display, as well as decoys. They also have information about hunting regulations, benefits, and successful hints and techniques.
  • Air Boat   Certainly one of the most attractive displays was this air boat. The air boat is a very unique and essential water craft built for skimming over the shallow waters of the Refuge wetlands.
  • Nature Photography Display   The Nature Photography Display was a great place for amateurs and professionals to get a few pointers on capturing those successful pictures. As part of the display they had cameras set up with a variety of zoom lenses, all focused at the same object. This gave visitors the opportunity to see first hand the differnece that zoom lenses can make.
  • Refuge Activities Highlights   The Friends of the Refuge had also put together a very nice display board highlighting the variety of opportunities, actvitives and contributions made by the Refuge.
  • Lectures and Demonstrations   Under the main pavillion of the Refuge, various lectures and demonstrations were offered througout the day. Lectures included this one on Wetlands. There were also lectures and demonstrations on the Archeology of the Refuge, Botulism, and Bird Banding.