Coastal Birding in Rhode Island

Rhode Island has a long and varied coastline that provides excellent birding opportunities throughout the year.

Each season offers its own species: songbirds and shorebirds that migrate up the coast in spring, wading birds and terns that nest here in summer, hawks and swallows that funnel down the shore in fall, and waterfowl that spend winters here.

Fig: Bird Return visits to each of the birding hot spots listed below are likely to result in different species in each season. The viewing spots, all accessible by car or by a relatively short walk, range from tidal marshes and brackish ponds to rocky shorelines, barrier beaches, mud flats, and fresh water. The diverse habitats are the reason for the variety of birds.

The Audubon Society of Rhode Island (ASRI), in cooperation with the Rhode Island Ornithological Club, publishes a Checklist of Rhode Island Birds that lists 322 species that may be seen in the state at varying times through the year, along with 90 other species that have wandered here but are only rarely found. The checklist is available at ASRI’s nature shops (12 Sanderson Road, Smithfield, and 1401 Hope St., Bristol).

Birding programs are offered by ASRI, the Norman Bird Sanctuary, Save The Bay, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Narragansett Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. These interpreted walks often use coastal access points as destinations.

A good field guide and a pair of binoculars or a spotting scope are usually the only equipment needed, but also take along an updated visitors’ road map since space here does not permit detailed directions to the suggested viewing areas. Among the best bird identification guides for use in Rhode Island (also available at ASRI and other nature shops, as well as at most commercial bookstores) are the following:

Peterson’s Field Guide to the Birds East of the Rockies
The Sibley Guide to Birds
National Audubon Society Field Guide to Birds, Eastern Region
Stokes Field Guide to Birds, Eastern Region
National Geographic Society Field Guide to the Birds of North America.

Coastal Birding Hot Spots in Rhode Island:

Napatree Point, Westerly
Weekapaug Breachway, Westerly
Quonochontaug Pond and Breachway, Charlestown
Ninigret National Wildlife Refuge, Charlestown
Charlestown Breachway and Marsh, Charlestown
Green Hill Pond, South Kingstown
Trustom Pond National Wildlife Refuge and Moonstone Beach, South Kingstown
Matunuck Management Area and Succotash Marsh, South Kingstown
Galilee Bird Sanctuary, Narragansett
Point Judith and Camp Cronin, Narragansett
Pettaquamscutt Cove and Middle Bridge, Narragansett
Rome Point and Bissell Cove, North Kingstown
Apponaug Cove, Warwick
Conimicut Point, Warwick
India Point Park, Providence
Seekonk River, Providence/East Providence
East Bay Bike Path: Watchemoket Cove to Boyden Conservation Area, East Providence
Touisset Marsh Wildlife Refuge, Warren
ASRI Environmental Education Center, Bristol
Colt State Park, Bristol
Fogland Point, Tiverton
Emilie Ruecker Wildlife Refuge, Tiverton
Seapowet Marsh, Tiverton
Nannaquaket Pond, Tiverton
Sakonnet Point, Little Compton
Sachuest Point National Wildlife Refuge, Middletown
Brenton Point Park and Ocean Drive, Newport
Marsh Meadows, Fox Hill Pond, and Sheffield Cove, Jamestown
Beavertail State Park, Jamestown
Block Island National Wildlife Refuge, New Shoreham