Broad-winged Hawk Kettle Migration — Veracruz River of Raptors

About this spectacle

Each autumn, the skies above Veracruz become a living river of raptors — one of the most staggering bird migration spectacles on Earth. Broad-winged Hawks, Swainson's Hawks, and dozens of other raptor species funnel through this narrow coastal corridor between the Sierra Madre mountains and the Gulf of Mexico. At peak moments, kettles of hawks spiral upward on thermal columns, merging into rivers of birds that can stretch across the entire visible sky. The sound is the wind and the collective rush of thousands of wings. Observers stand at open watch sites as birds stream directly overhead, sometimes so low and dense that individual wingbeats are audible. The late afternoon light catches updrafting birds, turning ordinary sky-watching into something genuinely overwhelming for even experienced birders.

When to go

Sep — Nov, peak Oct — Nov

Getting there

Nearest airport: VER. Nearest city: Veracruz.

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