Bird Watching in and near Galway

Auginish Island

It is best in winter for Divers, Grebes, Brent Geese, Long-tailed Duck and a variety of other seabirds and diving duck. Scarce and rare birds here have included Ross’s Gull, Snow Bunting, Slavonian and Red-necked Grebe, Black Redstart and Forster’s Tern. ... more

With vast lakes, wetlands and rugged coasts rich with rare and beautiful birds, Ireland is a bird watcher's paradise. Any keen birdwatcher interested in wetland and coastal habitats will find dozens of locations in Ireland that are of international significance.

Seabird enthusiasts will be delighted by the variety of magnificent coastal birds on Ireland's shore and small islands around the coast, while the estuaries of Northern Island and woodlands and lakes of Kerry will also be of great interest to dedicated birders.

The lakes and wetlands of Northern Ireland around Belfast boast some of the best bird watching sites Ireland has to offer. Amazingly, you can spot some incredible bird life just 10 minutes from the city centre, as waders, ducks and terns can be spotted on Belfast's extensive tidal mud flats.

The wetlands around Lough Neagh and Lough Beg near Belfast are some of the most important bird habitats in Western Europe, as the sheltered bays and woodlands of the area provide protection for both resident species and the thousands of migratory birds which stop over in the winter. The wetlands are a designated Ramsar Site, which recognises their conservation importance, and Lough Neagh is the largest freshwater lake in the British Isles. It's the best place for keen birdwatchers to visit in mid-winter, when significant numbers of wild swans migrate from Iceland and Siberia to stay over in the fields and protected bays around the loughs. Summertime in the Lough Neagh and Lough Beg area is also spectacular, as 750 pairs of magnificent Great Crested Grebes come to the wetlands to breed. There are guided walks available in the countryparks and reserves of the area so you can really appreciate the rich birdlife of the beautiful loughs.

Twitchers (birders who search for rare birds) should also head to the wilderness of Lough Foyle, near Derry, at high tide during the early winter months, when the remote mudflats and fields are crowded with birds such as brent geese, whooper swans and wigeons.

There are several islands off Ireland's coast that provide ideal habitats for flocks of seabirds, including some very rare species which thrive in the remote reserves. Ireland's largest bird sanctuary can be found at on the Saltee Islands off the coast of Wexford. Great and Little Saltee together support an impressive diversity of birds, including gannets, gulls, puffins and Manx shearwaters. Great Saltee is especially famous for its vast colonies of cormorants, and it's also home to more than 1,000 pairs of guillemots and many migratory birds during spring and autumn. As is the case with most of Irelands' birding islands, boat trips from the mainland to the islands leave frequently to provide birdwatchers with an opportunity to see Ireland's amazing seabirds on these special sanctuaries.

In the wonderful bird watching county of Kerry, keen bird watchers should take a boat trip out to the two skelligs off the coast of the Dingle Peninsula. Little Skellig is an excellent bird watching spot for its thousands of gannet breeding pairs, while Skellig Michael is the place to see kittiwakes and the appealing puffins.

Cape Clear Island off the coast of Bantry is a prime bird watching spot, due to its remote location and situation close to the continental shelf. Seabirds such as fulmars, great black backed gulls, storm petrels, gannets and shearwaters can be seen in their numbers. The Island features a Bird Observatory, which is open every Spring and Autumn for some of the best bird watching in Ireland.

Off the coast of Dublin lies the uninhabited Lambay Island, which is internationally significant for its breeding seabirds. There are incredible numbers of some beautiful and rare birds, including guillemots, razorbills, kittiwakes, cormorants and puffins. In winter, the most numerous species on this bird haven is the greylag goose.

Top bird watching spots in Ireland are concentrated in County Kerry, which has a variety of habitats supporting incredibly diverse species. Killarney National Park is a prime bird watching spot for its woodland birds such as jays, owls and woodcock, while its beautiful lakes are ideal sites to see great-created grebes, red-breasted mergansers and ospreys. Akeragh Lough, just south of Ballyheigue, is the place to spot rare vagrant birds such as pectoral sandpipers, grey phalarope and franklinis gull, while Blennerville provides bird watchers with the chance to see large flocks of lapwings and other waders. The coastal headlands of Dunquin and Valentia Island are home to superb rare species such as red-eyed vireos, bee-eaters and yellow browed warblers, clinching Kerry's reputation as a birding hotspot.

With its warmer, moist climate, the county of Wexford in the south east of the country is a major wintering and stopping-off point for thousands of Arctic birds on their annual migration patterns. The area is especially plentiful with geese, terns and cormorants. On the top of any birdwatcher's list should be the Wexford Wildfowl Reserve, where 10,000 Greenland White-fronted Geese – a third of the global species population - winter every year.

Near Dublin, take a trip out to Newbridge Park, which boasts a historic house and animal farm as well as a wildlife area, broadleaf woods and magnificent hedgerows. The sensitively landscaped grounds support a great diversity of bird life throughout the year. In spring, you should visit the park early in the day to appreciate the glorious dawn chorus of the woods, with the cooing and twittering of birds such as greenfinches, gold finches and wood pigeons all contributing to a beautiful harmony.