McCormick Bird Sanctuary (in Burnham Park)

Built in 2003, the McCormick Place Bird Sanctuary is one of the Chicago Park District's four bird sanctuaries along the Chicago lakefront. The 6-acre bird sanctuary contains prairie, shrub and woodland habitat, and a freshwater stone birdbath. Together, these habitats provide food, resting places and shelter for some of the millions of birds that migrate along Chicago's lakefront every spring and fall.

The prairie at the north end of the sanctuary sits on top of an underground parking garage that services the McCormick Place Conference Center. The wildflowers and grasses selected for the roof are ones with fibrous spreading roots that can adapt to the shallow soil of this rooftop prairie. A platform with interpretive signage on the east side provides viewing and birding opportunities into this prairie habitat. To the south, a wood chipped walking path transverses a prairie and shrubland habitat and small stone birdbath ringed with wetland plantings, allowing the visitor to get an up close and personal view of McCormick Place’s flora and fauna.