Niagara’s lure as a natural wonder does not end with the falls. Just ask the growing number of people who visit the Niagara River each year to see one of the world’s greatest gatherings of gulls and other migrating birds.

In 1996, the entire Niagara River corridor – stretching 56 kilometres from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario – became the first site in North America to receive international recognition as a “Globally Significant Important Bird Area” by major conservation groups in both Canada and the United States. Starting mid-November, the river comes alive with the aerobatics of more than 100,000 gulls on migratory flights from as far north as Greenland and the Canadian Arctic to as far south as Florida.