Kenilworth Park & Aquatic Gardens

Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens is the only national park devoted to water-loving plants, featuring historic ponds filled with lotus and water lilies along the Anacostia River in northeast DC. The gardens and adjacent Kenilworth Marsh create a unique birding habitat within the city.

The marsh is DC's largest remaining tidal freshwater marsh and hosts breeding Least Bitterns, Green Herons, and Wood Ducks. In spring, the willow and buttonbush thickets around the ponds attract migrant warblers, while the open marsh hosts rails and marsh wrens. The lotus ponds themselves attract unusual visitors — American Bitterns have been found lurking among the lotus stems, and the flowering plants draw hummingbirds and butterflies. The River Trail connects to the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail for extended birding.