A Fulvous Whistling Duck is featured in the logo of the North Shore Birding Festival in central Florida (photo by Paul Konrad).

Climaxing the 2025 Birding Festival season are 7 super birding events that include 2 of the absolute best annual birding celebrations for people of all ages – the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival in south Texas and the Celebration of Cranes at Bosque del Apache Refuge in New Mexico. Cranes are also emphasized during the Great Midwest Crane Festival in Wisconsin and the Celebration of Cranes in Kansas. The Central Valley Birding Symposium takes place in California, as does the California Swan Festival – and there is the popular North Shore Birding Festival in Florida to cap off the year.

Each of these exciting birding festivals will provide opportunities to meet other birders and share time during guided field trips and at a variety of indoor activities including featured speakers, informative workshops, and children’s activities, while some fests will include a birding marketplace, a banquet or brews and food trucks, and art or photo contests. Every birding festival is unique, but they are all planned to take place during a peak birding period that provides activities that mix all levels of birders together to help everyone learn from one another.

To get more information about each of the birding festivals being held during November and December, you can refer to the links provided below:

November 5 to 9 – Texas – Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival, Harlingen, Texas; see Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival - 2025 FESTIVAL INFORMATION (rgvbf.org)

November 7 and 8 – Kansas – Celebration of Cranes, Audubon of Kansas; Sterling, Kansas; see Celebration of Cranes | Audubon of Kansas

November 7 to 9 – California – California Swan Festival, Sutter Buttes Regional Land Trust, Marysville, California; see California Swan Festival (caswanfestival.org)

November 15 and 16 – Wisconsin – Great Midwest Crane Festival, International Crane Foundation, Baraboo, Wisconsin; see Great Midwest Crane Fest 2025 – Celebrating Community and Conservation

November 20 to 23 – California – Central Valley Birding Symposium, Central Valley Bird Club, Stockton, California; see 29th Central Valley Birding Symposium: Nov. 20-23, 2025 (regfox.com)

December 3 to 7 – New Mexico – Festival of the Cranes, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, Socorro, New Mexico; see festival of the cranes • Friends of Bosque del Apache

December 11 to 15 – Florida – North Shore Birding Festival, Orange Audubon Society, Mount Dora, Florida; see North Shore Birding Festival