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Bird Island, Minnesota

10 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Bird Island Township. It lies in ZIP code area 55310. The Survey maps it on the Olivia quadrangle. 1,005 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,089 feet above sea level.

Bird Island within Renville County

On record in Bird Island

Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.

On the National Register 1 record

Population over time

2 figures

Bird Island fell from 1,042 to 1,005 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.

YearPeople Change
20101,042
20201,005-37 (-4%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

7 surveys from 10 printed sheets

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

In the county-history sources

8,051 words on this township

The History of Renville County, Minnesota, published 1916 names this settlement in its chapter on Bird Island Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

Bird Island township embraces township 115-34. It is bounded on the north by Kingman township, on the east by Melville township, mi the south by Norfolk township and on the west by Troy township. The villages of Bird Island and Olivia are within its boundaries.

Passage source: The History of Renville County, Minnesota, published 1916.

A typical pioneer letter, written more than forty years ago by Joseph S. Bowler, gives a splendid picture of Bird Island life in the early days. The letter was written by Joseph S. Bowler, at Bird Island, July 6, 1S73. to his sister. Georgetta, then living at Lee, Maine.

Passage source: The History of Renville County, Minnesota, published 1916.

Joseph S. Bowler was one of the early settlers of Bird Island and was widely known throughout the county at the time of his death in 1SS7. He was popular and held in high esteem by Renville county people. The letter follows:

Passage source: The History of Renville County, Minnesota, published 1916.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Bird Island Township - it names this place 16 more 16 times.

Storms near this place

25 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Bird Island in 25 storm reports between 1996 and 2025: 11 thunderstorm wind, 8 hail, 4 heavy rain, 1 tornado. The reports record 1 injury. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
June 2003Thunderstorm WindBird Island1 hurtA children's playhouse was lifted and blown some distance, where it landed on a truck being driven along Highway 212. One man was slightly injured when some of the smashed glass landed in his eye.
June 2013Thunderstorm WindBird Island$100,000A Bird Island grain elevator sustained damage, along with several trees blown down around Bird Island.
August 2016Thunderstorm WindBird Island$2,000Several trees and large tree branches were blown down in Bird Island. One of the branches landed on a home and damaged it.
June 2025Thunderstorm WindBird Island-Thunderstorm winds downed powerlines on Hwy 5 south of Bird Island.
July 2024Thunderstorm WindBird Island-Trees were down in Melville Township, near the intersection of Co Rd 3/Hwy 212.
July 2024Thunderstorm WindBird Island-A power pole was snapped.
June 2020Heavy RainBird Island-A trained spotter measured 7.56 inches of rainfall south of Bird Island, in less than 12 hours.
July 2020HailBird Island-There was a swath of large hail, up to 2 inches in diameter, including wind driven hail, that occurred along the Kandiyohi/Renville County line, southwest to the Renville/Sibley County line between Buffalo Lake and Stewart. Local farmers had major damage to their corn and soybean fields.
July 2019Heavy RainBird Island-There was a measured rainfall report of 4.14 inches south of Bird Island.
August 2016Heavy RainBird Island-A trained spotter measured 5.12 inches of rain south of Bird Island.
August 2016Heavy RainBird Island-A trained spotter measured 7.12 inches of rain northeast of Bird Island.
June 2013Thunderstorm WindBird Island-Several trees were blown down in Bird Island.
August 2009HailBird Island-A local storm chaser and a trained spotter reported golf ball to baseball size hail covering the ground.
July 2006Thunderstorm WindBird Island-A few trees down.
September 2006Thunderstorm WindBird Island-Trees and power lines downed.
June 2005Thunderstorm WindBird Island-Power lines were downed.
October 1997HailBird Island-Large branches also blown down. Roof taken off out building.
October 1997Thunderstorm WindBird Island-Barn collapse killed over 100 pigs.
July 2020HailBird Island-no account filed
July 2016HailBird Island-no account filed
April 2002HailBird Island-no account filed
May 2002HailBird Island-no account filed
July 2000Funnel CloudBird Island-no account filed
June 1998HailBird Island-no account filed
May 1996Tornado (F0)Bird Island-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Renville County

Nearest settlements

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Map PlaceDistance Sheets
Olivia5.0 miles10
Hector9.7 miles9
Danube10.8 miles9
Churchill12.4 miles9
Bechyn12.5 miles11
Buffalo Lake14.9 miles9
Beaver Falls15.1 miles13
Morton15.6 miles12

Elsewhere

Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.

Wikipedia article on Bird IslandAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1823177The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0).

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 640191. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.