Spring. Birding.
Greater Zion.
Where the beauty of the birds
is matched only by the beauty of the scenery.
Save the Date: April 25 - 27, 2024
Thank You For Making the 2023 Red Cliffs Bird Festival a Success!
We look forward to our 2024 festival and hope you can join us as we plan even more birding and nature trips! Registration for the 2024 Festival will begin on February 1, 2024. Information will be added to this site as it becomes available.
Featured Festival Tour:
Condors of the Vermillion Cliffs
This tour is always a highlight of the festival as we travel via bus to the Vermillion Cliffs viewing area and Navajo Bridge where California Condors roost. We meet with and learn from biologists from the Peregrine Fund who are leading the important restoration efforts of these critically threatened birds. Plan now to attend the 2024 festival so you have the chance to see these birds in the wild. Check out this video below of the most recent condor release, the 2nd chick hatched in Zion National Park:
A Special Thanks to our 2023 Evening Speakers
Alex Harper
Thursday Evening Speaker
A board member of the Red Rock Audubon Society, (Las Vegas), trip leader for Bird Las Vegas, and naturalist for Lindblad Expeditions. He aims to connect people to birds and the natural world through leading birding activities, nature-based mindfulness practices in urban and suburban settings, and contributive writing. He will be speaking on "Birds of the Mojave Desert: A Profile of Desert Biogeography"
James Cornett
Friday Evening Keynote
With forty-three science and natural history books to his credit, author James W. Cornett is one of the Southwest’s best-known naturalists and first desert ecologist to have visited all nine of the world’s great deserts. His presentation, "The Roadrunner: Almost Human" where he will share his 15 years of research on this chicken-sized cuckoo. His book, The Greater Roadrunner, is now in a new and expanded second edition.
Martin Tyner
Saturday Community Event
Martin Tyner is a federally licensed falconer, eagle falconer, wildlife rehabilitator, wildlife propagator, and wildlife and environmental educator. He is the founder of the Southwest Wildlife Foundation of Utah, a non-profit wildlife rescue, wildlife and environmental education organization. He has been providing wildlife and environmental programs throughout the western United States for over forty years. He will be bringing several of his live raptors for his talk, "Birds of Prey of the West"
2023 Bird of the Year
Green-tailed Towhee
Congratulations to the winners of our Bird of the Year contest! Our bird is indeed the Green-tailed Towhee. This bird is a migrant that arrives in Greater Zion in the early part of April and can be found on nearly every tour during the festival; from the low Mojave of Lytle Ranch to the high elevations of Lava Point.
Learn more about our Bird of the Year here!
Host Hotel - Hilton Garden Inn
We are excited, once again, to have the Hilton Garden Inn as our host hotel for the 2024 festival. Locating conveniently in St. George, Utah, the Hilton Garden Inn will host our registration, workshops, evening programs, and be the meeting point for the all tours requiring shuttles / buses.
As participants in the festival you can receive a discount on the hotel room by using the link below. We encourage you to book your rooms early as Spring is a very popular time in Greater Zion. Please note that you are able to edit the dates of your stay once you select the link.
Click on the link to the right to take advantage of the Red Cliffs Bird Fest rates during the festival. These reduced rates are available from Wednesday through Saturday nights. You can edit the nights of your stay by clicking the “Edit Stay” link at the top of the reservation page. And note that each room reserved through this exclusive rate receives two (2) free breakfasts.