Michigan City Harbor & Trail Creek

Michigan City Harbor and Trail Creek in northwestern Indiana offer excellent birding where Trail Creek enters Lake Michigan, creating a mix of harbor, lakefront, creek-mouth, and park habitats. The area has recorded over 250 species and is particularly productive for gulls, waterbirds, and migrants that follow the Lake Michigan shoreline.

Washington Park beach and the harbor breakwaters are top sites for wintering gulls, with Glaucous, Iceland, and Thayer's Gulls regularly found among the thousands of Herring and Ring-billed Gulls. The Trail Creek corridor and adjacent parks attract migrant songbirds in spring, while the lake itself hosts rafts of scoters, Long-tailed Ducks, and Red-breasted Mergansers during winter. The lighthouse pier provides excellent viewing for passing jaegers and waterbirds during fall.