August Birds to Look Out For (The Season Is Already Turning)

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August catches me off guard every year. It still feels like summer, the days are warm, and the light is good, and yet something is already shifting. Migration is beginning again. Birds that arrived with such fanfare in spring are quietly starting to leave, and new arrivals are drifting in from the north. August is actually one of the most dynamic months for birdwatching, precisely because of this overlap. Summer and autumn overlap, creating a wonderful, slightly melancholy richness. I’ve been researching this month’s birds and, as always, the symbolism has taken me down some unexpected paths. Let’s get into it.

1. The Bar-Tailed Godwit – The Flight That Defies Belief

I need to start with the bar-tailed godwit because the more I’ve read about it, the more astonishing it becomes. This large, long-billed wader undertakes what is widely considered the longest non-stop migratory flight of any bird. The Alaskan population flies directly to New Zealand in a single journey of around 11,000 kilometres. No stops. No feeding. Just continuous flight for up to eleven days over open ocean.

To achieve this, bar-tailed godwits essentially rebuild their bodies before departure. Their digestive organs shrink, their flight muscles and fat reserves increase massively, and they become something close to a flying fuel tank. The biology of it is mind-bending.

In August, bar-tailed godwits begin appearing on UK and European estuaries and mudflats, some moving south from Arctic breeding grounds. Watching one on a mudflat, calmly probing for invertebrates, knowing what it’s capable of, gives me a particular kind of vertigo.

Symbolically, the bar-tailed godwit represents endurance, transformation, and the extraordinary capacity of living things to exceed what seems possible. It is simply one of the most impressive animals on earth.

The RSPB’s bar-tailed godwit page covers UK sightings well. For migration science, the Cornell Lab’s godwit research pages are fascinating reading.

2. The Swallow – Gathering and Leaving

There’s a particular quality to watching swallows in August that feels different from any other month. In spring and early summer, swallows are purposeful and nesting. In August, they start gathering on wires in loose groups, young birds sitting alongside adults, and the whole mood shifts. Something is being prepared for. Something is about to change.

Swallows begin their southward migration from the UK and Europe in August, heading toward sub-Saharan Africa. Some will travel over 6,000 miles to get there. The gradual disappearance of swallows through August and into September is one of the more bittersweet experiences the natural world offers. Each time you see a group on a wire, you wonder quietly if this is the last time this year.

Symbolically, the departing swallow carries associations with farewell, change, and the acceptance of seasonal endings. In many European folk traditions, watching the last swallow leave was a melancholy marker of summer’s close. In Japanese culture, swallows are associated with loyalty and the belief that what leaves will return.

That mix of goodbye and the promise of return feels very August to me. The swallow’s departure is sad, but it also means spring will come again.

Gathering swallows are best watched in the evening, when they roost communally in reedbeds. Watching hundreds pouring into a reedbed at dusk is a genuinely spectacular experience.

The RSPB’s swallow page covers migration timing well. The BTO’s migration research tracks individual birds using satellite telemetry.

3. The Curlew Sandpiper – The Long-Distance Passer Through

The curlew sandpiper is a bird that asks you to pay attention to detail. It looks superficially similar to several other small waders, but the combination of its longer, downcurved bill, elegant proportions, and, in August, its partial rusty-red breeding plumage, marks it out as something special. Finding one among a mixed wader flock on a mudflat is a genuinely satisfying identification challenge.

Curlew sandpipers breed in the high Arctic and pass through the UK and Europe in August on their way to wintering grounds in Africa. Adults tend to pass through first, followed by juveniles in September. Seeing one feels like a message from somewhere remote and wild, the Arctic tundra briefly made visible on a grey English estuary.

Symbolically, passage migrants like the curlew sandpiper represent the bigger world beyond the familiar. They arrive briefly and move on, carrying something of the places they’ve come from and the places they’re heading toward. There’s a restlessness in that which I find compelling.

For birdwatchers, the curlew sandpiper is what’s called a good wader, meaning it’s distinctive enough to be satisfying to find but not so common that finding it feels routine. August mudflats are definitely worth a careful scan.

The RSPB’s curlew sandpiper page has identification tips. For North American shorebird migration, AllAboutBirds covers related species like the Dunlin and Western Sandpiper.

4. The Wood Sandpiper – Elegant and Easily Missed

The wood sandpiper is another passage migrant that rewards careful attention in August. It’s a medium-sized wader, elegant and long-legged, with a neat pale eyebrow stripe and spotted upperparts that give it a well-dressed appearance. It bobs as it walks, which is somehow endearing, and tends to prefer shallow, vegetated wetland edges rather than open mudflats.

Wood sandpipers breed in Scandinavia and northern Russia and pass through the UK and Europe in good numbers in late July and August. They often occur in inland wetlands, flooded fields, and reservoir margins, making them more accessible than some strictly coastal waders.

Symbolically, the wood sandpiper is associated with quiet grace and the rewards of looking carefully at what might be overlooked. It’s not the rarest or the most dramatic bird in August, but it’s consistently beautiful and consistently worth finding. Sometimes the most rewarding things aren’t the obvious ones.

That gentle bobbing walk, that precise feeding behaviour, and that habit of appearing in unexpected inland locations give the wood sandpiper a quality of pleasant surprise. It turns up where you least expect it, and somehow that feels appropriate for August.

The RSPB’s wood sandpiper page covers identification and habitat. For similar yellowlegs species in North America, AllAboutBirds has excellent profiles.

5. The Common Tern – Grace Before Departure

The common tern is one of those birds that I never quite take for granted, even though the name suggests I should. Long-winged, elegant, and impossibly graceful in flight, it hovers over water with that slight forward lean before plunging for fish. In August, common terns are still present at coastal and inland breeding sites across the UK, Europe, and North America, but numbers begin to decline as birds start to move south.

Watching a common tern hunt is a pure pleasure. It covers water with those long, easy wingbeats, pauses, hangs in the air for a moment, then drops with complete commitment. The whole sequence takes seconds and always looks effortless.

Symbolically, terns are connected to freedom, lightness, and the idea of living close to elemental forces. Wind, water, and sky are the common tern’s environment, and it moves through all three with equal ease. In coastal folklore across Europe, terns were considered good signs for fishermen, indicating fish below the surface.

August also brings juvenile common terns alongside adults, and the young birds with their scaly backs and orange-based bills are worth looking for in their own right. Learning to separate juvenile terns is one of the enjoyable identification challenges of late summer.

The RSPB’s common tern page is well worth reading. For North American readers, the Audubon Society’s tern guides cover all the relevant species.

6. The Wheatear – The White Flash on Open Ground

The wheatear announces itself through movement. That distinctive white rump, flashing as it flies low ahead of you across open ground, is usually the first thing you notice. Then it lands on a rock or a clod of earth, bobs a couple of times, and stares back at you with that upright, alert posture that all the chats share. The male is particularly smart in breeding plumage: grey above, peachy-orange below, with a bold black mask.

Wheatears breed across upland areas of the UK, Iceland, Greenland, and Arctic regions, and many birds are already moving south through lowland areas in August. They appear on coastal headlands, short grassland, and open farmland, often in small, loose groups. In North America, the same species arrives in Alaska to breed and returns through similar open habitats.

Symbolically, the wheatear is connected to journeys, open horizons, and the willingness to cover ground. Its name, incidentally, comes from a polite 18th century adaptation of a rather more direct Old English phrase referring to its white rump, which I find delightful. Sometimes the origin of a name is better than the name itself.

August wheatear-watching, particularly on a coastal headland on a clear morning, is one of those experiences that remind you why birdwatching is worth doing.

The RSPB’s wheatear page covers identification and migration timing. For North American sightings, AllAboutBirds has a detailed profile.

7. The Willow Warbler – A Gentle Farewell to Summer

The willow warbler is the bird that closes August for me more than any other. Through spring and early summer, its descending, liquid song is one of the constants of woodland and scrub across the UK and Europe. Then, in August, the singing stops. The birds are still there, moving quietly through foliage, but that lovely cascading song is heard no more until the following April.

Willow warblers are one of the most numerous summer migrants in the UK, and their departure is a genuinely significant seasonal marker. Adults begin leaving in July, and juveniles follow through August. By the end of the month, the willow warbler is largely gone, heading toward sub-Saharan Africa on a journey that seems extraordinary for such a tiny, delicate bird.

Symbolically, the willow warbler is connected to transience, gentle change, and the quiet endings that precede new beginnings. Its song in spring feels like pure optimism. Its silent departure in August feels like acceptance. Between those two things, it has covered an important aspect of the shape of a year.

Watching a willow warbler in August, moving silently through willow scrub or birch woodland, knowing it will shortly vanish for six months, gives me the same complicated feeling the gathering swallows do. Grateful for the year, and already looking forward to next spring.

For identification and migration information, the RSPB’s willow warbler page is excellent. The BTO’s migration pages track departure timing and routes in detail.

Resources for August Birdwatching

August moves quickly, and the migrants don’t hang around. These resources help you stay ahead of what’s passing through:

Wader Quest — brilliant specialist resource for shorebird conservation worldwide

eBird by Cornell Lab — real-time global sightings and migration maps

The RSPB — species guides and reserve information across the UK

BirdGuides — rare bird alerts and wader sighting news

BTO BirdTrack — log your sightings and contribute to migration data

Audubon Society — essential North American shorebird and warbler resources

Merlin Bird ID App — invaluable for quick wader identification in the field

Over to You

August has that particular quality of abundance and loss happening at the same time, and I think that’s what makes it one of the most emotionally interesting months for birdwatching. Have you been scanning mudflats for waders and found a curlew sandpiper mixed in among the dunlin? Maybe you’ve watched the swallows gathering on the wires and felt that familiar end-of-summer feeling settling in. Perhaps you’ve caught a wheatear’s white rump flashing across a headland, or followed a willow warbler silently through scrub, aware that it’s almost time to say goodbye. And if you’re in North America watching shorebirds pile through on their way south, I want to hear about that too. Share it all in the comments below. August is short, and it moves fast. Get outside while it’s still here.