A birding tour like no other...

This tour is your opportunity to explore Alberta’s incredible birdlife with Gavin McKinnon and David Scott, authors of A Field Guide to the Birds of Alberta, on a one-of-a-kind Alberta birding tour designed for birders who want to see both habitat diversity and a lot of birds! This expertly guided trip spans five major eco-regions: Parkland, Boreal Forest, Prairies, Rocky Mountains, and the Foothills, giving you a front row seat to some of the best birding locations in the province. Each region adds new species and exciting possibilities, making this an ideal trip for birders interested in ecology and species distribution. With Gavin and David sharing their knowledge from years of experience, you’ll gain deeper insight into Alberta’s birds while actively searching for them. Thanks to the province’s remarkable habitat diversity, we’re aiming to record 200+ bird species on this tour, many of them breeding along the route. Whether you’re building your life list, exploring your own province, or visiting from afar looking for a high-quality birding experience, this Alberta birding tour offers outstanding variety, expert leadership, and memorable days in the field.

Tour Information 

Dates: June 10-21, 2027
Starting City: Edmonton, AB (YEG) 
Ending City: Calgary, AB (YYC)
​Cost: $6995 CAD | $5015 USD 
Single Supplement: $1100 CAD | $795 USD
Guide/Participant ratio: 1:6 
Species expected: 200-225
Photo opportunities: Excellent
The price includes all accommodation from June 10-20, 2027, professional guiding services, park entrance fees, breakfast, field lunches, water and snacks, and ground transportation in a 15 passenger van. Does not include travel to/from Edmonton/Calgary, travel insurance, items of a personal nature, and GST. Space can be reserved with an initial deposit of $700 CAD | $500 USD.

Gavin McKinnon
Born in Saskatchewan, Gavin now lives in Calgary, Alberta. In 2022, Gavin founded Meadowlark Birding Tours, intending to share his passion for birds with others. After high school, he studied Renewable Resource Management at Lethbridge College. Gavin is the lead guide at Meadowlark Birding Tours, handling all day-to-day operations and bookings. 

David Scott
Born and raised in northern Ontario, David began venturing from home to find birds at age sixteen and has been an avid birder and naturalist ever since. After moving to southern Alberta, he came to love the birds of the prairies, badlands, foothills, and mountains as much as he did those of the boreal forest on the Canadian Shield. A librarian by trade, David works at the University of Lethbridge and serves as chair of the Alberta Bird Record Committee and as editor for the province’s Christmas Bird Counts. 

Itinerary

June 10: Arrival in Edmonton - transfer to Fort Saskatchewan
Welcome to Alberta! Day one begins with your arrival in Edmonton (YEG), where you’ll be met by your guides. From Edmonton, we’ll transfer to Fort Saskatchewan, our first base for the tour. Depending on arrival times, there may be opportunities for some light birding along the way, potentially a visit to Beaverhill Bird Observatory—an easy and relaxed start that helps everyone settle in. ​The evening will include time to unwind, review plans for the coming days, and get to know your fellow participants. This first night sets the stage for an exciting Alberta birding tour across multiple eco-regions, with many great birds still to come.

June 11: Elk Island National Park, Whitford Lake, and transfer to Cold Lake
Our first full day of birding takes us to Elk Island National Park, set in the Parkland–Boreal eco-region, where a rich mix of aspen woodland, wetlands, and open areas supports an impressive variety of birds. This is an excellent introduction to Alberta birding and a strong start to the trip list. In the park, we’ll search for species such as Great Crested Flycatcher, which reaches the western extent of its range here, and Black-and-white Warbler, while also scanning wetlands for highlights like Bonaparte’s Gull and Red-necked Grebe. The combination of forest and wetlands makes Elk Island especially productive during the breeding season. We’ll also visit nearby Whitford Lake, a key wetland site. Here, we’ll focus on waterbirds, but may encounter Sedge Wren and LeConte's Sparrow. If we are lucky, there may be some lingering migrant shorebird species, and this location is as good as any. After a productive day of birding in the parkland, we will travel to Cold Lake, where we will spend two nights. After dinner, we will have an optional outing for Owls and for secretive, marsh species such as Virginia Rail, LeConte's Sparrow, Nelson's Sparrow, Sedge Wren, Virginia Rail, and Yellow Rail. 

LeConte's Sparrow - Gavin McKinnon

Connecticut Warbler - Gavin McKinnon

June 12: Primrose Lake Road
Today we’ll spend the day birding the western shores of Cold Lake, one of the best places in Alberta for breeding passerines. Our main target today is the elusive Connecticut Warbler. This area’s mix of boreal forest, boggy wetlands, and understory provides ideal breeding habitat, giving us excellent chances to hear and, with some luck and persistence, see this sought-after species. Cold Lake is also a warbler hotspot, and we can expect up to 20 warbler species throughout the day. Likely species include Nashville Warbler, Palm Warbler, and Black-throated Green Warbler, many of them actively singing and defending territories. Beyond warblers, this boreal region supports a suite of northern specialties. We’ll be watching for Blue-headed Vireo, Canada Jay, Boreal Chickadee, and the striking Black-backed Woodpecker, among others. With high species diversity and excellent habitat, today promises to be a standout day for boreal birding and a key highlight of the tour. In the afternoon, we will return to our hotel for s siesta after the early morning before spending the late afternoon at some wetlands near Bonnyville in search of shorebirds. 
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June 13: Cold Lake Provincial Park 
Today will take us to Cold Lake Provincial Park, one of Alberta’s top birding locations and a site known for producing some of the highest single-location species totals in the province. While there will be some overlap with birds seen along the Primrose Lake Road, this area offers excellent chances to see several species that are often easier to find here. In the mixed boreal forest, we’ll focus on sought-after songbirds such as Blackburnian Warbler, Canada Warbler, and Bay-breasted Warbler, many of them active and vocal during the morning hours. The park’s wetlands are equally productive, with breeding Red-necked Grebes, Sora, and Swamp Sparrows regularly encountered. We’ll also spend time scanning Cold Lake itself, where possibilities include Western Grebes, Common Loons, and American White Pelicans. With such a wide range of habitats, we’ll plan to spend multiple hours birding the park. Later in the day, once songbird activity slows in the afternoon, we’ll venture out to nearby wetlands to round out the day with additional waterbirds and marsh species.

Canada Warbler - Gavin McKinnon

Piping Plover - Gavin McKinnon

June 14: Boreal to Prairies
Today is primarily a travel day and marks our longest drive of the tour, taking us from the boreal forest, through the parkland, and into the heart of Alberta’s prairie region to Brooks. Along the way, we’ll make several birding stops to break up the drive that highlight the dramatic shift in habitats and species as we move south. Our first stop will be Kehewin Lake, where we’ll have another chance to find Great Crested Flycatcher, Veery, and Philadelphia Vireo, a species that looks much like a warbling vireo but delivers a song reminiscent of a Red-eyed Vireo. As we continue south, we’ll stop at alkali lakes, inland saline habitats where we may be lucky enough to find the endangered Piping Plover, which breeds here, along with other migrant shorebirds. We also plan to visit Badlands habitat, where cliffs and eroded valleys support species such as Spotted Towhee, Yellow-breasted Chat, and Rock Wren. After a full day of travel and productive birding stops, we’ll arrive in Brooks, where we’ll settle in for the night and prepare for the prairie birding adventures ahead. Time permitting in the evening, we will visit a local marsh where Clark's Grebe and American Bittern are regular. 

June 15 – Dinosaur Provincial Park and transfer to Elkwater
We’ll start Day 6 with a morning visit to Dinosaur Provincial Park, another outstanding badlands location. We will arrive here early for the best chances to see Yellow-breasted Chat and watch the local Violet-green Swallows effortlessly cut through the skies.  We’ll spend part of the morning birding among the hoodoos, cliffs, and coulees before moving on and shifting our focus fully to prairie birding. As we head out onto the open grasslands, we’ll be searching for key prairie specialties, including Chestnut-collared Longspur, Thick-billed Longspur, Baird’s Sparrow, and Brewer’s Sparrow. With luck, we may also encounter the iconic Burrowing Owl, a highlight for any Alberta birder, as their numbers are dwindling. Later in the day, we’ll pass through Medicine Hat, where a stop in the river valley could produce Lazuli Bunting, and we could very lucky could see an Eastern Screech-Owl. We will then continue on to Elkwater, situated in the Cypress Hills, where we will spend the next two nights.

Yellow-breasted Chat - Michelle Schreder

Common Poorwill - Gavin McKinnon

June 16: Cypress Hills
Today, we will explore the Alberta side of the Cypress Hills, a truly unique region where prairie and mountain ecosystems collide. Rising dramatically above the surrounding plains, the Cypress Hills are an uplifted plateau formed through complex geological processes that left them higher and cooler than the surrounding landscape. This “island” effect creates a mix of habitats not found elsewhere on the prairies, supporting a remarkable blend of southern prairie and boreal/montane species. We’ll spend the day exploring a variety of habitats within Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park, including mixed forests, open meadows, and wetlands. Target species include Red-naped Sapsucker, MacGillivary's Warbler, Dusky Flycatcher, and, alongside more widespread prairie and woodland birds. Today is designed to be a little more relaxed than previous days, with minimal driving and plenty of opportunities to enjoy the surroundings around our lodge. It’s the perfect chance to soak in the unique ecology of the Cypress Hills while continuing to add species to our Alberta checklist. After sunset, we will head out on another nocturnal birding outing where we hope to find Common Poorwills. 

June 17: Wild Horse to Pincher Creek
Another day brings another early morning. Today, we head to the extreme southeast corner of Alberta, near the borders of Montana and Saskatchewan, to the small hamlet of Wild Horse, which is home to just a few border officers but offers some of the best birding in the province. This region’s open grasslands make it ideal for prairie specialists, and we’ll be on the lookout for Thick-billed Longspur, Lark Bunting, and Grasshopper Sparrow, all of which can be found here in impressive numbers. Much of the morning will be spent birding along Range Road 20, one of Alberta’s most famous birding roads, historically known to host rare species such as Sage Thrasher. From there, we’ll continue to Manyberries, a town near the last remaining Greater Sage-Grouse in Alberta, though sightings are infrequent and we are extremely unlikely to find one. Around isolated tree stands here, we’ll search for Bullock’s Oriole. We’ll visit Pakowki Lake before stopping for a late lunch in Foremost. After a day packed with southeast prairie birding, we’ll continue on to Pincher Creek to settle in for the night, ready for the final leg of our tour in the mountains. 

Thick-billed Longspur - Gavin McKinnon

Calliope Hummingbird - Gavin McKinnon

June 18: Waterton Lakes National Park
Today, we explore Waterton Lakes National Park, often the least visited of Alberta’s three mountain national parks—but arguably the birdiest. The park’s mix of rivers, lakes, forests, and alpine habitats provides excellent opportunities to add many new species to our tour list. We’ll begin along the river, where we’ll search for the iconic American Dipper and, if we’re lucky, the striking Harlequin Duck. From there, we’ll head down the Red Rock Parkway, surrounded by the songs of Fox Sparrows, Lazuli Buntings, and Black-headed Grosbeaks.  At Cameron Lake, we’ll walk the trails along the lakeshore, keeping an eye out for American Three-toed Woodpecker and the secretive Pacific Wren. Closer to Waterton (the town), we’ll look for two hummingbird species: Calliope and Rufous. In the park’s wetlands, Sandhill Cranes are a highlight, often more challenging to locate elsewhere on our tour. After a full and rewarding day of birding, we’ll return to Pincher Creek in the afternoon, with a long list of memorable sightings to reflect on.

June 19: Castle Provincial Park and Frank Lake en route to Calgary
On Day 10, we return to the Rockies, this time visiting Castle Provincial Park, a stunning area of montane and subalpine forest with excellent birding opportunities. Some species are easier to find here than in Waterton, including Hammond’s Flycatcher, Western Flycatcher, Cassin’s Vireo, and Steller’s Jay, giving us a chance to round out our mountain specialties. We’ll spend the morning exploring Castle, enjoying both the scenery and the rich birdlife, before beginning our drive north toward Calgary. Along the way, we’ll make strategic stops in the foothills, including a visit to a Prairie Falcon nest. Later, we’ll stop at Frank Lake, one of the most popular birding spots near Calgary. Here, wetlands teem with breeding birds, and we’ll search for Ruddy Ducks, Eared Grebes, Franklin’s Gulls, and White-faced Ibis, among others. After a full day of montane, foothill, and prairie pothole birding, we’ll arrive in Calgary after dinner. 

Franklin's Gulls - Gavin McKinnon

Great Gray Owl - Gavin McKinnon

June 20: Foothills birding northwest  of Calgary 
Our final full day of the tour takes us to the Calgary area, beginning with a morning trip northwest of the city in search of the majestic Great Gray Owl, an iconic species which is on the bucket list of any birder. This region is an interesting transition zone between the boreal forest and foothills, offering a rich mix of species. While searching for the owl, we may also encounter Cape May Warbler, Blue-headed Vireo, Tennessee Warbler, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, and Western Tanager. We’ll also visit a local feeding station, where Clark’s Nutcrackers and Purple Finches are regular visitors, providing excellent opportunities for photography and observation. In the afternoon, we’ll focus on tracking down any species that have eluded us so far, giving everyone a chance to complete their tour checklist before the journey ends. It’s a rewarding day of birding, reflection, and celebration of the incredible species diversity we’ve experienced across Alberta.

June 21: Departure from Calgary
Today marks the end of our Alberta birding adventure. After an incredible tour across mountains, prairies, parkland, and boreal forests, participants are free to depart from Calgary at any time.