Birding Hotspots: 29 exciting tours in Saskatchewan, Canada

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Saskatchewan Birding Hotspots Tours

Where to go Birding in Saskatchewan, Canada?

Birders – Join the Saskatchewan Birding Hotspots Tour Series organized by Saskatoon Custom Bird Tours.  These day trips and multi-day tours may be easily accessed from Saskatoon, Regina, Moose Jaw, Swift Current or most other Saskatchewan communities.

This series of budget multi-day group birding hotspot tours will focus on observing both Canada’s eastern forest and western prairie birds in Saskatchewan’s best birding hotspots. Both camping and motel accommodation options exist for most tours.

Bring up to 4 people in your vehicle, the cost is usually the same so you may split the fees with your birding friends.

Saskatchewan Birding Hotspots Tours
Canada Warbler by Nick Saunders

Our April 6 – 7 Prince Albert National Park tour will look for many resident owls, woodpeckers and grouse that are found all year in this special birding hotspot. We receive rave reviews about our Dancing Grouse Photography and Viewing Tours out of Saskatoon that run from April 19 – 30.

Our early spring birding hotspot tour will visit Quill Lakes on May 16. It will be followed by a Victoria Day long weekend tour to visit hotspots for both grassland birds and shorebirds.  This May 18 – 20 tour will  view rare prairie birds at Grasslands National Park as well as observing migrating shorebirds including Piping Plovers, Red Knots and Black-necked Stilts at Reed Lake and Chaplin Important Bird Areas.

The June 2024 Saskatchewan Birding Hotspots Tour Series is a sequence of consecutive birding tours designed to show you the largest variety of Saskatchewan birds in a short span of time. It will start by visiting Saskatchewan easternmost forests in Duck Mountain Park on June 4 – 6 where numerous species of eastern warblers, vireos, flycatchers breed as well as raptors, owls and lake birds. We will also make stops at the Quill Lakes Important Bird Area to search for water birds.

On June 7 – 8, we have scheduled the Redberry Lake Bird Sanctuary Tour and the Last Mountain Lake Bird Sanctuary Tour. The latter was the first federal bird sanctuary to be created in North America.

The next tour in the Saskatchewan Birding Hotspots Series is our Cypress Hills – Grasslands Park Tour. It will visit the Great Sand Hills, the sub-alpine lodgepole pine forests of Cypress Hills plus the surrounding sagebrush flats and Grasslands National Park on June 9 – 16, 2024.  Many of Saskatchewan’s endemic prairie bird species breed here. In Cypress Hills, we should find such western species as Violet-green Swallow, Red-naped Sapsucker, Pacific Wren, Common Poorwill, Dusky Flycatcher and MacGillivray’s Warbler. Canada’s only Cordilleran Flycatcher subspecies is regularly found nesting here.

During the birding hotspot tour to Grasslands National Park and other sagebrush flats, we should find Ferruginous Hawks, Golden Eagle, Long-billed Curlew, Lark Bunting and listen for the beautiful melodies of Western Meadowlarks, Baird’s Sparrow, Brewer’s Sparrow and Lark Buntings.

The next birding hotspot tour from June 16 – 19 will visit extreme southeastern Saskatchewan in search of Orchard Orioles, Yellow-throated Vireos, Eastern Wood Pewees, Eastern Bluebirds, Chimney Swifts and other unique birds of that region.

A late June birding hotspot tour will visit Prince Albert National Park on June 24 – 25 where we will observe boreal forest birds including many species of warblers, woodpeckers, flycatchers plus Bald Eagles, Osprey, loons and other water birds.

On the Canada Day long weekend we will visit 2 secluded birding hotspots near Carrot River on June 29 – July 1 where we will search for Eastern Whip-poor-wills, Chimney Swifts, Golden-winged Warblers plus numerous other warblers, flycatchers, woodpeckers and other forest birds. On July 5 – 7, we plan a second visit to observe the special birds of the Souris River valley of southeastern Saskatchewan.

Souris River Birding Tour

On August 5- 7 we will visit the Great Sandhills and Saskatchewan Landing Park during a 3-day group tour.

Our winter hotspot tours include Snowy Owl tours from Saskatoon plus northern Forest Owl tours where you may photograph any Great Gray Owls or Northern Hawk Owls that we encounter. We are also planning a Ptarmigan Tour in 2024.

Saskatchewan Birding Hotspots Tour Options 2024

Click the name of each tour for more information and registration forms for each of the possible budget group tours you can join.

The dates for group tours are listed.
Private tours are available on other dates.

Transportation

Participants on these birding hotspot tours need to drive their own personal or rented vehicle. RVs are permitted on private tours but not on group tours. Vehicles pulling a trailer may join the tour after the trailer is parked at a campground.

Carpooling on group tours

If you would like to share the costs of a group birding hotspot tour with other interested birders, then complete the Carpooling Section of the Registration Request Form below or email the tour name, your name, phone number and email address to birdtours@sasktel.net

Multiple Tours Discount

Can’t decide which birding hotspot tour to take?

Check out our multiple tours discount described here.

Registration Information Request Form

Reservations: Complete the form below or email: birdtours@sasktel.net and provide names of clients, their addresses and requested type of tour and tour date.
Full payment due at time of booking. Payment instruction will be emailed to you after registration form is received.

Questions: Email birdtours@sasktel.net or phone 306-652-5975.

Tours are usually limited to a maximum of 5 vehicles plus the leader. Please book early because accommodation rooms are often very limited. Payment instructions will be emailed to you after form is submitted.
Please book multiple-day tours early because accommodation rooms are often very limited. Payment instructions will be emailed to you after form is submitted.
Please book 2-day tours early because accommodation rooms are often very limited. Payment instructions will be emailed to you after form is submitted.
Smoking is allowed only inside your own personal vehicle. No smoking is permitted during meals, anywhere in shared accommodations or outside during birding stops or hikes.
Least to most expensive options.

If you do not hear back from us within 24 hours, then
please email: birdtours@sasktel.net or
phone 306-652-5975.

 

Monthly Newsletter

Learn about special offers and new birding and bird photography tours.
CLICK HERE to sign up for the monthly electronic Newsletter from Saskatoon Custom Bird Tours.

Can I bring my pet dog on these birding hotspot tours?

Dogs are permitted on private tours provided they are kept on a leash. Dogs should not be let out of the vehicle at birding stops. Dogs are not permitted on group tours.

How to get to Saskatoon

Air: Saskatoon International Airport (YXE) is served by Flair, Air Canada, Westjet and their U.S. partners United and Delta.

Air Canada Star Alliance partners also include Aegean, Air China, Air India, Air New Zealand, ANA, Asiana, Austrian, Avianca, Brussels, Copa, Croatia, EgyptAir, Ethiopian, EVA, Lot, Lufthansa, SAS, Shenzhen, Singapore, South African, Swiss, TAP, Thai, Turkish, United.

Westjet international partners include AeroMexico, Air France, Air Transat, Azores, Cathay Pacific, China, China Eastern, China Southern, Delta, Emirates, Hainan, Hong Kong, Japan, KLM, Korean, LATAM, Philippine, Quantas, Virgin Atlantic, Xiamen.

Train: Saskatoon’s  Train Station is served by Via Rail’s Canadian train serving Toronto, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Edmonton, Jasper and Vancouver.

Bus: Saskatoon – Edmonton and Saskatoon – Regina bus service

Car: Saskatoon is located on Canada’s Yellowhead cross-country highway plus 6 other major highways connecting with all cities in Canada and USA. If you drive, you do not need to rent a car for our tours.

Entering Canada

CLICK HERE for government regulations for entering Canada.
My recent fully vaccinated international clients tell me there are no significant delays at the border provided they have fully completed the ArriveCan app in advance.

Where to stay in Saskatoon?

Contact Tourism Saskatoon to help plan your visit when joining the Saskatchewan Birding Hotspots Tours offered by Saskatoon Custom Bird Tours.

Other Birding Hotspot Tour Options

Saskatchewan, Canada offers many great birding adventures.

Dancing Grouse Tour – Sharp-tailed Grouse Close-up
by Brian Henderson

Watch video of dancing Sharp-tailed Grouse. Our Dancing Grouse Tour is offered in April and May.

Click Here for information about the many other tours with Saskatoon Custom Bird Tours.

List of Potential Bird Species on Saskatchewan Birding Hotspot Tours

Some of the special birds that we might encounter on our birding hotspot tours include:

  • Trumpeter Swan
  • Wood Duck
  • Cinnamon Teal
  • Gray Partridge
  • Ruffed Grouse
  • Greater Sage-Grouse (rare)
  • Sharp-tailed Grouse
  • Clark’s Grebe
  • American White Pelican
  • Great Egret
  • Black-crowned Night Heron
  • White-faced Ibis
  • Bald Eagle
  • Golden Eagle
  • Broad-winged Hawk
  • Ferruginous Hawk
  • Merlin
  • Prairie Falcon
  • Eurasian Collared-Dove
  • Piping Plover
  • American Avocet
  • Black-necked Stilt
  • Upland Sandpiper
  • Long-billed Curlew
  • Marbled Godwit
  • Red Knot
  • Baird’s Sandpiper
  • White-rumped Sandpiper
  • Wilson’s Phalarope
  • Franklin’s Gull
  • Forster’s Tern
  • Common Poorwill
  • Eastern Whip-poor-will
  • Chimney Swift
  • Burrowing Owl
  • Short-eared Owl
  • Red-naped Sapsucker
  • Red-headed Woodpecker
  • American 3-toed Woodpecker
  • Black-backed Woodpecker
  • Pileated Woodpecker
  • Eastern Wood-Pewee
  • Western Wood-Pewee
  • Willow Flycatcher
  • Dusky Flycatcher
  • Great Crested Flycatcher
  • Say’s Phoebe
  • Western Kingbird
  • Yellow-throated Vireo
  • Violet-Green Swallow
  • Loggerhead Shrike
  • Canada Jay
  • Blue Jay
  • Black-billed Magpie
  • Common Raven
  • Boreal Chickadee
  • Rock Wren
  • Winter Wren
  • Pacific Wren
  • Sedge Wren
  • Mountain Bluebird
  • Eastern Bluebird
  • Sprague’s Pipit
  • Thick-billed Longspur
  • Chestnut-collared Longspur
  • Chestnut-sided Warbler
  • Magnolia Warbler
  • Cape May Warbler
  • Black-throated Green Warbler
  • Blackburnian Warbler
  • Audubon’s Warbler subspecies
  • Ovenbird
  • Northern Waterthrush
  • Canada Warbler
  • Spotted Towhee
  • Brewer’s Sparrow
  • Field Sparrow
  • Lark Sparrow
  • Lark Bunting
  • Grasshopper Sparrow
  • Baird’s Sparrow
  • Nelson’s Sparrow
  • White-crowned Sparrow
  • Pink-sided Junco subspecies
  • Western Tanager
  • Black-headed Grosbeak
  • Orchard Oriole
  • Red Crossbill
  • White-winged Crossbill

Duck Mountain Park Birding Tour

Beaver Creek Tour

Cypress Hills Tour

SE Saskatchewan Birding Tour

 

Last Mountain Lake Tour

Chaplin Shorebirds Tour