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Come to Skagen: it is the best place in Northern Europe to see bird migration

Skagen is northern Europe’s best place to watch migrating birds, especially when big birds of prey migrate from winter sites in Africa and southern Europe to their breeding grounds in northern Scandinavia.

Birds of prey fly preferably over land and they follow east and west Jutland coasts north, until they all reach Skagen. Here they gather in hundreds waiting for the right winds to cross the sea. Raptors hang over the landscape, seek buoyancy and rise farther up flying in circles before finally sliding away over the sea to the north.

The migration of raptors in spring is unique to Skagen, but many other species pass by Skagen on their routes. Some come to breed in summer, and in autumn it is possible to observe sea birds, which drag south. Each season its birds.

Source: Environment Ministry, Forest and Nature Agency (press release 4/28/2010)

We have chosen to use bird motifs to decorate the hotel’s public areas: on the walls you will see some works by Jens Tomas Larsen (1967-living), a Danish bird illustrator living in the U.S. who has visited Skagen several times and the painted some beautiful watercolors here, and the canvas “Skagen migratory birds” painted by Marc Osman Curtis (1879-1959), a Scot who moved to Denmark just before the First World War and who is best known under the pseudonym Koefod Hansen. Some of Jens Tomas Larsen’s watercolors are available for sale at reception.