Festival of Hawks 2026 – Amherstburg, ON

Festival of Hawks 2026: Thousands Overhead

A weekend of raptor migration, live viewing, and hands-on nature programs at Holiday Beach

📍 Get Directions Weekend Program

Experts from the Holiday Beach Migration Observatory host live hawk viewing from the Hawk Tower, banding demonstrations, and free educational programs as thousands of birds of prey funnel overhead on their way south — a great weekend for experts and first-timers alike.

🦅 Live raptor viewing 🔬 Banding demonstrations 🗼 Historic Hawk Tower 🎟️ Programs included

💡 Your $20 is a per-vehicle admission, not a per-person ticket — it covers everyone riding along, plus every walk, talk, and activity running that day.

Why Go Weekend Program On-Site Essentials Getting There Tips FAQ

✨ Why This Is One of Ontario’s Great Wildlife Spectacles

Holiday Beach sits at the extreme southwestern tip of Ontario, exactly where Lake Erie’s shoreline funnels southbound raptors toward the narrow Detroit River crossing. Reluctant to fly over open water, thousands of hawks, eagles, falcons, and vultures pile up along the shore each September, riding thermals and updrafts in numbers rarely seen anywhere else in the province.

The Holiday Beach Migration Observatory has been counting from this exact spot since 1974, logging over 3.8 million raptors across more than 30,000 hours of observation from the 40-foot Hawk Tower — a structure donated to the site in 1988. The area’s significance for raptor migration and as a Prothonotary Warbler breeding site earned it international recognition as an Important Bird Area in 2000.

The Festival of Hawks turns that ongoing research into a public weekend: trained counters and banders are on hand to explain what’s flying overhead, show birds up close during banding demonstrations, and answer questions from total beginners and lifelong birders alike.

📅 Weekend Program

Both festival days run 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. with the same general structure: ongoing raptor viewing from the Hawk Tower, ongoing banding and educational programming, and exhibitor tables scattered around the grounds. Exact talk times are posted on site the morning of.

🌾 Around the Conservation Area

Holiday Beach is a year-round conservation area, so the festival weekend layers programming on top of the site’s regular features.

Hawk Tower (3-storey observation deck) Marsh boardwalk trail Lake Erie sandy beach Children’s playground On-site food vendor Local nature group exhibitor tables Gift shop Carolinian heritage forest trails

📋 Essentials

🚗 Getting There & Parking

Holiday Beach Conservation Area is about 25 minutes south of Windsor, near the town of Amherstburg. From Highway 401, take Howard Avenue (County Road 9) south to its end, turn west (right) on County Road 20 for about 2.6 km, then south (left) on County Road 50 for about 2 km to the entrance.

Parking: On-site parking is included with your vehicle admission — no separate parking fee once you’re through the gate.

💡 A Few Things Worth Knowing Before You Go

🔭 Bring binoculars if you have them. The Hawk Tower puts you above the treeline, but a lot of the migration passes at real distance — binoculars turn specks into identifiable birds.

🧥 Dress in layers. Mid-September mornings by the lake can be cool and breezy even when the afternoon warms up — the tower especially catches the wind.

⛅ Check the wind before you go. Migration is heaviest after a cold front pushes through with a north or northwest wind — those are the days to prioritize if your schedule is flexible.

🪑 Pack a lawn chair. Serious hawk-watchers tend to settle in near the tower base for stretches at a time — a folding chair beats standing for hours.

🥾 Save time for the boardwalk trail. Beyond the tower, the marsh boardwalk is a good stretch-your-legs break between talks, and a decent spot to look for warblers and other songbirds too.

Support the Research 🦅

The Holiday Beach Migration Observatory is a volunteer-driven, non-profit research group that’s been counting raptors at this site since 1974. Donations help fund the counters, banders, and educational programming that make the festival possible.

❓ Common Questions