Bird Conservancy of the Rockies, the bird research and education nonprofit based next to Barr Lake State Park in Brighton, runs hands-on field trips at its Environmental Learning Center. Three programs are offered year-round: Bird Structure and Function (grades 1-5), where students compare raptors, songbirds and waterfowl and sort birds by their adaptations; Shortgrass Prairie (grades 2-6), a look at prairie habitat and what its animals need to survive; and Healthy Water, Healthy Ecosystems (grades 3-6), which explores Barr Lake and then has students play stakeholders in an imaginary town to work out who dirtied the water. Each runs two to three hours, takes up to 90 students, and the group recommends mornings.
The posted price is $8 per student, plus the $10 state park fee for each vehicle. In fall, the group also books field trips to its Barr Lake bird banding station, where students watch a wildlife biologist band migrating birds caught in mist nets, at the same $8 rate. One caution: the field trip dates on the page for the banding stations at Barr Lake and at Pineridge Natural Area in Fort Collins (which is listed as free) are labeled 2025, so confirm the current season before you plan around them.
If the drive to Brighton does not work, the “reverse field trip” programs come to you for $6 per student, year-round, in sessions of up to 35 students that run 45 minutes to an hour. Topics include Demo Bird Banding (grades 4-12), Migration Mapping (grades 3-9), Feathers and Flight (grades 1-5) and Nests and Eggs (pre-K to grade 2). A mileage fee of 73 cents a mile applies when the round trip is 75 miles or more. Custom programs for grade 1 through adult can be designed for “your students or group,” and need-based scholarships are available on request, first come, first served.
A note for homeschool families: the school programs page is addressed to educators and does not mention homeschool groups. Bird Conservancy has run its own homeschool sessions, including a Homeschool Bird Banding Program at Barr Lake State Park on Aug. 28, 2026, listed on its registration site. No upcoming homeschool date was on its events calendar for October or November when we checked.
Know before you go
- Where: Bird Conservancy’s Environmental Learning Center, 14500 Lark Bunting Lane, Brighton, CO 80603. Banding station field trips meet at Barr Lake State Park, 13401 Picadilly Road, Brighton.
- Cost: $8 per student plus a $10 state park fee per vehicle for field trips; $6 per student for programs at your site; custom program costs vary
- Grades: 1-6 for the year-round field trips, depending on the topic; pre-K through 12 across the programs that travel
- When: year-round by reservation, two to three hours, mornings recommended
- How to book: reservations are required. Submit a request through Bird Conservancy’s registration site.
- Homeschool groups: not mentioned on the school programs page. Ask when you request a date.
- Details: school programs page
More like this: Denver Metro · Homeschool · Denver Audubon’s Habitats for Homeschoolers · Rocky Mountain Arsenal free field trips · South Platte Park and Carson Nature Center
