Baltimore City

Special Note: Traffic patterns in and around the City of Baltimore have been severely disrupted by the catastrophic collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge on March 26, 2024, when the bridge was struck by a cargo ship. Along with all of Maryland, MOS mourns with the families and friends of the six bridge workers killed in the disaster. The Key Bridge was an essential component of the Baltimore Beltway/I-695 and was heavily used by commercial traffic and private cars. It will be several years before the bridge can be re-built. Meanwhile, for up-to-date directions to birding sites throughout the Baltimore area, including adjoining counties, consult an interactive navigational aid such as Google Maps, Waze, or MapQuest. The Maryland Transportation Authority website has a helpful map showing alternate routes.

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The City of Baltimore is one of the seven jurisdictions within the Central Region. Though almost entirely surrounded by Baltimore County, from a governance perspective, the City of Baltimore is a separate jurisdiction, not part of Baltimore County. The City of Baltimore is densely urban, but with pleasant parks scattered throughout. The Inner Harbor area is the heart of the tourist district.

eBird does not provide separate listings for Baltimore County and Baltimore City, but lumps them together, with 373+ species reported for the city-county combination to date. For the combined city-county eBird checklist, eBird hotspots, and more, click here.

We have created manually maintained separate hotspot lists for Baltimore County and Baltimore City, and used those lists to generate separate species totals for the County and the City using the eBird bar charts utility. As of February 2025:

The Baltimore Bird Club was the founding chapter of the Maryland Ornithological Society, and the Baltimore City and County remain a hub of active birding in Maryland. Baltimore consistently ranks in the top 3 jurisdictions in Maryland in terms of number of eBird checklists submitted.

View a comparison of Maryland counties based on total number of species reported on eBird.

The city is surrounded by the Baltimore Beltway/I-695, most of which actually lies in Baltimore County, and which is the main transportation corridor for the area. I-95 and US Route 40 both go through the city almost due east and west. I-83 enters Baltimore from the north; I-295/Baltimore-Washington Parkway enters from the southwest; and I-895 enters from the south. Two tunnels carry traffic under the Inner Harbor: the Harbor Tunnel carries I-895 and the McHenry Tunnel carries I-95.  NOTE: as of Spring 2019, there is heavy construction in and around the Harbor Tunnel and motorists are advised to take other routes. This is a multi-year project and will continue into 2021. For updates, see https://mdta.maryland.gov/I-895BridgeProject/Home.html.

Counties adjacent to the City of Baltimore are Baltimore County to the west, north, and east; and Anne Arundel County to the south.

To view the State Highway Administration’s printable road map of Baltimore City (PDF format), please click here. A convenient map of all city parks in Baltimore is available at http://bcrp.baltimorecity.gov/sites/default/files/Parks%20map.pdf.

The local chapter of the Maryland Ornithological Society is the Baltimore Bird Club . The Baltimore Bird Club is the founding chapter of the Maryland Ornithological Society, and remains an important hub of birding activity in the state.

Explore birding sites in the City of Baltimore by choosing from the list below.  See also the separate page for birding sites in Baltimore County.