Fall Bird Migration in Pennsylvania: Where To Watch

Q: Who publishes current conditions for Pennsylvania?

Pennsylvania Game Commission, linked from the note on this page and from each site above. Its pages carry the things that change: refuge road and auto tour status, seasonal closures of units, festival dates, and in several states a dated crane or goose count from the refuge staff. Those change faster than any third party page can follow, so the agency page is the one to read before you travel.

Q: Where are Pennsylvania migration counts published?

Hawk Mountain Sanctuary daily raptor count on HawkCount, published daily, July 1 to February 1. A count is a reading of one day at one place, and the totals can double or halve between one week and the next as fronts pass, so the trend across the season is the useful reading rather than any single figure. The count page is linked from this page.

Where to stand

Public viewing sites in Pennsylvania

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.

North Lookout, Hawk Mountain Sanctuary Public platformMarquee site

Rocky outcrop at 465 metres on the Kittatinny Ridge with a 240 degree view east

Broad-winged hawkSharp-shinned hawk

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec

The HawkCount profile says the sanctuary has ten lookouts and 15 km of trails, with an admission fee for access to them, and that the long-term count site, the North Lookout, sits 1.5 km from the visitor center parking lot. It attracts more than 80,000 visitors annually, as many as 3,000 on some weekend days in October. The count season runs July 1 to February 1. Broad-winged hawks average about 8,100 a season, with a record 29,519 in 1978, and sharp-shinned hawks about 4,240.

“The Sanctuary's long-term count site, the North Lookout, is a 465-m rocky outcrop with a 240 degree view to the east, 1.5 km from the Visitor Center parking lot.”

HawkCount.org, Hawk Mountain Sanctuary site profile, quoted exactly.

Run by Hawk Mountain Sanctuary

Waggoner's Gap Hawk Watch Public platformMarquee site

Gap in the Kittatinny Ridge where Pennsylvania Route 74 crosses between Cumberland and Perry counties

Broad-winged hawkSharp-shinned hawk

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec

The HawkCount profile places this watch about 40 km west of Harrisburg at the gap in the Kittatinny Ridge where Pennsylvania Route 74 crosses the mountain between Cumberland and Perry counties, with the count site on the spine a short way east of the highway. The season runs August 1 to December 31. Broad-winged hawks average about 4,160 a season, with a record 14,254 in 1987, and sharp-shinned hawks about 3,960, the highest sharp-shinned average of the three ridge counts listed here.

Run by Waggoner's Gap Hawk Watch, a volunteer count reporting to HawkCount

Militia Hill Hawk Watch, Fort Washington State Park Public platform

Wooden platform on a wooded rise in the Wissahickon valley north of Philadelphia

Broad-winged hawkSharp-shinned hawk

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec

The HawkCount profile says the hawk watch runs from September 1 through November 15 each year, with compilers on duty from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in early September and in November and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. from mid September through October 31. The platform offers easy handicapped access to the lower deck and there is plenty of free parking. Broad-winged hawks average about 8,750 a season, with a record 37,355 in 2023.

“The hawk watch platform offers easy handicapped access to the lower deck and there's lots of free parking.”

HawkCount.org, Militia Hill site profile, quoted exactly.

Run by Militia Hill Hawk Watch in Fort Washington State Park, a volunteer count reporting to HawkCount

Before you drive out to Pennsylvania

Viewing in Pennsylvania is run by Pennsylvania Game Commission, whose own page is the one to read the night before.

That page carries the current picture: whether the auto tour route or platform is open, which units are closed for the season, festival dates, and where the agency counts birds, this week’s count.

Never assume a bird. Cranes, geese and swans move with the weather, so a staging area that held thousands on Tuesday can be nearly empty on Saturday after a front passes, and a warm autumn holds birds to the north for weeks. Never assume access either: a refuge road can be gated, flooded or closed for a unit without notice. Check with the agency before you travel, and stay on the platform, road or tour route it designates when you get there.

Links verified 2026-09-19. If one has moved, search the agency by name.

The map

Pennsylvania sites, refuges and the reporting record

Viewing sites in Pennsylvania, 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.

When

When the passage peaks in Pennsylvania

HawkCount.org, Hawk Mountain Sanctuary site profile puts the Pennsylvania peak at The Hawk Mountain count runs July 1 to February 1 and Waggoner's Gap August 1 to December 31; the sanctuary sees as many as 3,000 visitors on some weekend days in October. 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.

Pennsylvania's autumn raptor migration runs along the Kittatinny Ridge, the long Appalachian spine that carries updrafts from the Delaware Water Gap down to the Maryland line. Hawk Mountain Sanctuary's North Lookout, a rocky outcrop with a 240 degree view east, has counted from that ridge since the 1930s and draws more than 80,000 visitors a year, as many as 3,000 on some weekend days in October. Waggoner's Gap sits where Route 74 crosses the same ridge west of Harrisburg and carries the state's highest sharp-shinned average. Nearer Philadelphia the Militia Hill platform in Fort Washington State Park counts from September 1 to November 15 and holds the largest single-season broad-winged flight of the three. On the waterfowl side, the Game Commission says the greatest numbers of snow geese pass through the state in November, though the birds gather in viewable numbers at Middle Creek in late winter rather than in autumn.

Below, one curve per species the agencies document in Pennsylvania: 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

823 research grade broad-winged hawks observations have been uploaded to iNaturalist for Pennsylvania across every year the platform holds, and 20 percent of them fall in the four shaded autumn months. The busiest month in the record is April. An autumn month carries about 0.49 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

682 research grade sharp-shinned hawks observations have been uploaded to iNaturalist for Pennsylvania across every year the platform holds, and 60 percent of them fall in the four shaded autumn months. The busiest month in the record is October. An autumn month carries about 3.05 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 Pennsylvania lately

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

Where Pennsylvania counts are published

Hawk Mountain Sanctuary daily raptor count on HawkCount daily, July 1 to February 1 | Pennsylvania

Elsewhere

Other states with agency designated migration viewing

Questions about Pennsylvania

Where can I watch fall migration in Pennsylvania?

Pennsylvania has 3 agency designated viewing sites in this inventory: North Lookout, Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, Waggoner's Gap Hawk Watch and Militia Hill Hawk Watch, Fort Washington State Park. Every one is a place Pennsylvania Game Commission or another public agency itself describes for wildlife viewing, listed above with the facility that exists there, the months the agency names and a link to the agency page. The Kittatinny Ridge is the longest single raptor corridor in the east, and the counts strung along it, Hawk Mountain, Waggoner's Gap and Militia Hill, have been tallying the broad-winged and sharp-shinned flights over it since the 1930s.

When is the fall migration peak in Pennsylvania?

HawkCount.org, Hawk Mountain Sanctuary site profile puts the Pennsylvania peak at The Hawk Mountain count runs July 1 to February 1 and Waggoner's Gap August 1 to December 31; the sanctuary sees as many as 3,000 visitors on some weekend days in October. That describes a pattern across past autumns, and 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. The months named site by site above are the agency's own for each place, and the agency page carries what it says about this season.

Which species are documented at the Pennsylvania sites?

Broad-winged hawks at 3 sites and sharp-shinned hawks at 3 sites. The species listed for each site are the ones the agency itself documents there in the fall, so a site may hold other migrants the agency page happens to leave out. The month curves further down show when people have reported each of these species in Pennsylvania, as a count of uploads to iNaturalist across every year the platform holds.

Will I definitely see broad-winged hawks in Pennsylvania?

A sighting is never certain. Migrating birds move with weather fronts, so a staging area that held thousands on Tuesday can be nearly empty on Saturday after a front passes, and a warm autumn holds birds to the north for weeks. The sites above are the places where an agency has recorded enough birds often enough to build viewing provision, which is the best odds available anywhere. Arrive at first light or in the last hour before dusk, when cranes and geese move between the fields and the water, bring more magnification than you think you need, and stay on the platform, road or tour route the agency designates.

Who publishes current conditions for Pennsylvania?

Where are Pennsylvania migration counts published?

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