Skip to content

Fall Bird Migration in New Jersey

The Cape May peninsula funnels the eastern raptor migration into a few square miles every autumn, and three more counts work the ridges behind it, from a state wildlife management area on Wildcat Ridge to a stone platform on the basalt above Montclair.

Agency viewing sites
4
Species documented
2
Mapped
4
Where to stand

Public viewing sites in New Jersey

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.

Cape May Hawk Watch, Cape May Point State Park Public platformMarquee site

Dune and pond edge at the southern tip of the Cape May peninsula

Broad-winged hawkSharp-shinned hawk

The HawkCount profile says the peninsular geography and prevailing westerly winds create a migrant trap unmatched in eastern North America, that sixteen regularly occurring species of diurnal raptors move through each fall, and that the site has been staffed every autumn since 1976 by the Cape May Bird Observatory's official counter, from September 1 to November 30, with peak diversity from late September through mid October. Sharp-shinned hawks average close to 21,900 a season here, with a record 61,167 in 1984.

“The peninsular geography and prevailing westerly winds create a migrant trap unmatched in eastern North America.”
HawkCount.org, Cape May site profile, quoted exactly.

Run by Cape May Bird Observatory, New Jersey Audubon; the platform stands in Cape May Point State Park

Montclair Hawk Lookout Public platformMarquee site

Basalt ledge at 500 feet on the First Watchung Mountain

Broad-winged hawkSharp-shinned hawk

The HawkCount profile describes a well constructed, stone-filled platform nestled atop a 500-foot basalt ledge on the ridge known as the First Watchung Mountain, a sanctuary of the New Jersey Audubon Society. The count runs September 1 to November 30. Broad-winged hawks average about 10,600 a season, with a record 43,416 in 1986, the largest single-season flight of any site listed for this state.

“nestled atop a 500-foot basalt ledge on a ridge known as the First Watchung Mountain”
HawkCount.org, Montclair Hawk Lookout site profile, quoted exactly.

Run by New Jersey Audubon Society sanctuary

Wildcat Ridge Hawk Watch, Wildcat Ridge Wildlife Management Area State

South-facing rock outcrop at 1,025 feet in the New Jersey Highlands

Broad-winged hawkSharp-shinned hawk

The HawkCount profile places this watch inside the division's own Wildcat Ridge Wildlife Management Area in northwestern New Jersey, about six miles northeast of exit 37 of Interstate 80, at 1,025 feet, facing south with a 190 degree vista that takes in the Manhattan skyline to the east southeast. The fall count runs August 15 to November 15. Broad-winged hawks average about 3,700 a season, with a record 11,841 in 2001.

“It is at 1,025 feet, facing south, with a 190 degree vista including the Manhattan skyline to the ESE.”
HawkCount.org, Wildcat Ridge site profile, quoted exactly.

Run by New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife, Wildcat Ridge Wildlife Management Area

Sunrise Mountain Hawk Watch, Stokes State Forest Public platform

Kittatinny ridge crest with a stone pavilion at the summit

Broad-winged hawkSharp-shinned hawk

The HawkCount profile calls the hawk watch at Stokes State Forest one of the best spots in the state for fall hawk watching, says the season runs between August and December with peak activity in September and October, and that a pavilion at the top of Sunrise Mountain provides the best viewpoint. The count season on file runs September 1 to December 1.

“A pavilion at the top of Sunrise Mountain provides the best viewpoint.”
HawkCount.org, Sunrise Mountain site profile, quoted exactly.

Run by Stokes State Forest, New Jersey State Park Service; the count is volunteer run and reports to HawkCount

The map

New Jersey sites, refuges and the reporting record

Style
Records
Layers

Viewing sites in New Jersey, 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.

Advertisement
When

When the passage peaks in New Jersey

HawkCount.org, Cape May site profile puts the New Jersey peak at The Cape May count runs September 1 to November 30 with peak raptor diversity from late September through mid October; the ridge counts open in mid August. 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.

New Jersey's autumn raptor migration is the best known in the east, and the reason is geography. Birds working south down the coast and along the Kittatinny ridge reach Delaware Bay, hesitate at the open water, and pile up on the Cape May peninsula until conditions suit a crossing. The count at Cape May Point has been staffed every fall since 1976, records sixteen regularly occurring species of diurnal raptors, and reaches its widest diversity from late September through mid October. North of there the flights ride the ridges: the division's own watch on Wildcat Ridge, a stone platform on the First Watchung basalt above Montclair, and a pavilion on Sunrise Mountain in Stokes State Forest. No agency page read for this record names a goose, swan or crane staging site in the state.

Below, one curve per species the agencies document in New Jersey: 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

250 research grade broad-winged hawks observations have been uploaded to iNaturalist for New Jersey across every year the platform holds, and 35 percent of them fall in the four shaded autumn months. The busiest month in the record is September. An autumn month carries about 1.07 times as many uploads as an average month outside autumn. People upload most of everything in May, 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

471 research grade sharp-shinned hawks observations have been uploaded to iNaturalist for New Jersey across every year the platform holds, and 71 percent of them fall in the four shaded autumn months. The busiest month in the record is October. An autumn month carries about 4.88 times as many uploads as an average month outside autumn. People upload most of everything in May, 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 New Jersey lately

The most recent research grade autumn observation of each species that anyone has uploaded to iNaturalist for New Jersey, 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 New Jersey on iNaturalist...

Where New Jersey counts are published

Elsewhere

Other states with agency designated migration viewing

Advertisement

Questions about New Jersey

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.New Jersey waterfowl seasonThe hunting calendar on the same marshes, worth knowing before standing on a dike in October.New Jersey daylight hoursThe dawn and dusk flights are the spectacle, and the clock change moves them.