The Lake Apopka Northshore Restoration Area, known worldwide for bird watching, hosts two major birding festivals as well as being a sold-out field trip for several other regional birding festivals. Photo Credit: Peg Urban.
Festival of Flight and Flowers
A three-day festival generally hosted to capture the fall migration and centralized in Leesburg. The festival showcases Lake County’s enticing outdoor recreational opportunities, particularly for birders; however, “flight” also includes butterflies and dragonflies. And butterflies require flowers; which are plentiful along the byway corridor. Birds flock to Lake County, which is home to thousands of acres of preserves and passive parklands, including the Lake Apopka North Shore Restoration Area, Ferndale Preserve, Emeralda Marsh and the Hilochee Wildlife Management Area.
The festival includes field trips to birding hotspots and wildflower havens and presentations from some the nation’s top birding, wildflower and nature experts over multiple days. Photo credits: Peg Urban.
North Shore Birding Festival
Orange Audubon hosts a 4-day festival around birds wintering in Florida. The festival focuses on the North Shore but includes field trips to Atlantic Coast bird hotspots as well as other Central Florida locations. As many as 40 different field trips plus a number of presentations and dinners rounds out the activities.
