North Carolina's Special Birds - Page 4

North Carolina has a wide variety of birding opportunities. In the west, Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Blue Ridge Parkway are home to species typically found further north like Black-capped Chickadee and Red Crossbill, plus many nesting migratory songbirds. In the Piedmont, sandhills and pinewoods shelter endangered Red-cockaded Woodpecker and other Southern specialties. The coast has nesting terns and waders at various locations, and hosts thousands of wintering waterfowl, including Tundra Swans at Mattamuskett National Wildlife Refuge. Finally, the Outer Banks and Cape Hatteras provide access, via regularly scheduled boat trips, out into the Gulf Stream to seek pelagic birds like Black-capped Petrel, shearwaters and storm-petrels.