Southeast Minnesota follows the Mississippi River Valley, where wooded bluffs rise above fertile floodplains and prairies edge the uplands. This meeting of landscapes creates habitats that support birds throughout the year. The Mississippi serves as one of North America’s greatest migration corridors, funneling vast movements of waterfowl, raptors, and songbirds through a region rich in both biodiversity and scenic grandeur. Spring migration fills the river bottoms with color and song, summer brings woodland and wetland breeders, fall features hawk flights and shorebird staging, and winter remains active with Bald Eagles and open-water flocks. What makes this region stand out is its combination of geological drama, accessible refuges, and the ever-changing flow of the river itself.