Mississippi River Flyway - Lake Onalaska, Wisconsin, USA

Every spring and fall, millions of birds follow the Mississippi River on their long journey across North America, and Lake Onalaska, on the Wisconsin side of the river near La Crosse, is one of their favorite places to stop.

The lake sits inside the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge, in the hilly Driftless Area of Wisconsin, and bald eagles, American white pelicans and sandhill cranes all pass through.

Huge rafts of ducks bob on the water, and in late fall tundra swans arrive by the thousand on their way from the Arctic to the Atlantic coast.

Did You Know? Lake Onalaska didn’t exist until the 1930s. It formed when a lock and dam was built on the Mississippi, flooding the river valley and creating a wetland that birds now rely on.

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