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Fall Bird Migration in Michigan

Michigan's hawks run out of land twice, at the bottom of the state and again at the Straits, and both bottlenecks are counted: Detroit River from September through November, Point LaBarbe from late August.

Agency viewing sites
2
Species documented
2
Mapped
2
Where to stand

Public viewing sites in Michigan

Every place below is one an agency itself describes for watching the fall passage, with the agency named and linked, the species it documents there, the months it names as the peak, and the facility that exists: a tour route, a platform, a tower, a visitor centre. Where the agency wrote a sentence worth reading, it is quoted exactly.

Detroit River Hawk Watch, Lake Erie Metropark, Brownstown Public platformMarquee site

Boat launch at the mouth of the Detroit River where it opens into Lake Erie, about 32 km south of Detroit

Broad-winged hawkSharp-shinned hawk

This is the heavyweight of the two. The count runs September 1 to November 30 from the boat launch at Lake Erie Metropark, where the river empties into the lake and southbound raptors that will not cross open water are squeezed against the shoreline. The site profile gives a season average of 54,595 broad-winged hawks, with a single season high of 195,858 in 2011, and 5,239 sharp-shinned hawks on average against a high of 14,715 in 2001.

“This count site sits at the mouth of the Detroit River as it enters Lake Erie.”
HawkCount.org site profile, Detroit River Hawk Watch, quoted exactly.

Run by A joint venture of the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge and the International Wildlife Refuge Alliance, at Lake Erie Metropark

Mackinac Straits hawk watch, Point LaBarbe, Saint Ignace Public platform

Flat open ground with a few scattered small trees at the southernmost tip of Point LaBarbe, on the Upper Peninsula side of the Straits

Broad-winged hawkSharp-shinned hawk

The fall count at the Straits works August 20 to November 10 from the middle of the open ground, along the road across from the lakeshore. It is the smaller tally of the two Michigan sites for broad-winged hawks, averaging 1,252 a season, but it is the better one for sharp-shinned hawks, averaging 3,571 with a season high of 5,374 set in 2025.

“A flat mostly open area at the southern most part of Point LaBarbe with a few scattered small trees.”
HawkCount.org site profile, Mackinac Straits Point LaBarbe, quoted exactly.

Run by Volunteer count reporting to HawkCount

The map

Michigan sites, refuges and the reporting record

Style
Records
Layers

Viewing sites in Michigan, with the national wildlife refuges in the state drawn underneath. The coloured grid is where people have uploaded a verified sandhill crane record to iNaturalist in September, October, November and December, brighter where more have been logged. It is a map of reports rather than of birds: it thickens around refuges, car parks and towns because that is where observers stand, and it shows past reports rather than birds present today. Pins are public viewing sites an agency itself describes; grey dots are US Fish and Wildlife Service refuges and hatcheries, drawn because the refuge system is where most of the staging happens.

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When

When the passage peaks in Michigan

HawkCount.org site profiles for Detroit River Hawk Watch and Mackinac Straits Point LaBarbe puts the Michigan peak at September through November at the mouth of the Detroit River, and late August to mid November at the Straits of Mackinac. That describes a pattern across past autumns. The week itself swings with the weather: a cold front to the north moves cranes and geese south in a single night, and a warm spell holds them for weeks. Dawn and the last hour before dusk are when cranes and geese move between the fields and the water, and that movement is the spectacle the platforms are built for.

Michigan is a peninsula, which is the whole explanation. Raptors drifting south down the Lower Peninsula reach Lake Erie and pile up at the mouth of the Detroit River, where the count at Lake Erie Metropark has averaged more than 54,000 broad-winged hawks a season and once recorded 195,858 in a single autumn. Birds moving down the Upper Peninsula meet the Straits of Mackinac instead and concentrate at Point LaBarbe. The state's other famous watches run the opposite way: Whitefish Point and Brockway Mountain are spring counts, and so is Port Crescent on the thumb.

Below, one curve per species the agencies document in Michigan: every research grade observation members of the public have uploaded to iNaturalist for the state, by calendar month across every year the platform holds, with September to December shaded. Counts of uploads, so they measure observers as well as birds, and the shape is worth reading where the absolute numbers are not.

Broad-winged hawk

577 research grade broad-winged hawks observations have been uploaded to iNaturalist for Michigan across every year the platform holds, and 16 percent of them fall in the four shaded autumn months. The busiest month in the record is May. An autumn month carries about 0.37 times as many uploads as an average month outside autumn. People upload most of everything in July, so a bar that rises after that is the stronger signal. Counts of what people reported, measuring observers as well as birds. See the autumn records.

Sharp-shinned hawk

404 research grade sharp-shinned hawks observations have been uploaded to iNaturalist for Michigan across every year the platform holds, and 29 percent of them fall in the four shaded autumn months. The busiest month in the record is April. An autumn month carries about 0.84 times as many uploads as an average month outside autumn. People upload most of everything in July, so a bar that rises after that is the stronger signal. Counts of what people reported, measuring observers as well as birds. See the autumn records.

Sandhill cranes flying in a loose line across a pale open sky, necks held straight out in front and long legs trailing behind them
Sandhill cranes crossing a refuge on the morning flight. The movement is watched from the designated pullout or platform: the birds settle on shallow water for the night, and the roost itself is the one place a viewing site is never placed. “Sandhill cranes flying over Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge (24542820818)” by USFWS Midwest Region from United States, CC BY 2.0
Latest reports

What people have reported in Michigan lately

The most recent research grade autumn observation of each species that anyone has uploaded to iNaturalist for Michigan, as a date and the platform’s own coarse locality. Evidence that people do find broad-winged hawk and sharp-shinned hawk here. Each is one bird on one past day: the flocks move with the weather, so where they are this week is what the agency page and its counts answer.

Checking the most recent autumn uploads for Michigan on iNaturalist...

Where Michigan counts are published

Elsewhere

Other states with agency designated migration viewing

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Questions about Michigan

Inventory compiled 2026-09-19 from the agency pages linked above. Agency text is quoted exactly with its source named and linked; the observation curves and latest reports are counts and dates from public uploads to iNaturalist.

Winter eagle watchingThe same refuges and rivers three months later, when the ice concentrates the eagles.Michigan waterfowl seasonThe hunting calendar on the same marshes, worth knowing before standing on a dike in October.Michigan daylight hoursThe dawn and dusk flights are the spectacle, and the clock change moves them.