When submitting eBird observations at Avon Bottoms Wildlife Area, it is most helpful to start a new checklist for each hotspot in the wildlife area. Use the general hotspot when you have a checklist that includes multiple locations or if no other hotspot or personal location is appropriate for your sightings.

If you carefully keep your bird records by county, be sure to use the specific hotspots in this wildlife area so that the birds will be assigned to the proper county. The section of the wildlife area west of Country Road T is in Greene County. Most of the wildlife area is in Rock County.

Avon Bottoms Wildlife Area features a lowland hardwood forest in the floodplain of the meandering Sugar River. Large silver maples, swamp white oaks, and green ash dominate the diverse canopy of this wet-mesic forest. Other tree species are shagbark hickory, hackberry, cottonwood, bitternut hickory, bur oak, American elm, and basswood. Sycamores, at the northern limit of their range, are occasionally present, and black willows are common along the river. Numerous sloughs and old oxbows wind among bottomland hardwoods, grassland, and agricultural cropland.

Avon Bottoms State Natural Area is embedded within this property, which is comprised of three separate units totaling 1,649 acres Avon Bottoms State Natural Area.

Two distinct units are included in Avon Bottoms SNA: Avon Bottoms floodplain forest and Swenson wet prairie. Large silver maples, swamp white oaks, and green ash dominate the diverse canopy of the floodplain forest. Other tree species are shagbark hickory, hackberry, cottonwood, bitternut hickory, bur oak, American elm, and basswood. Sycamores, at the northern limit of their range, are occasionally present, and black willows are common along the river.

The forest contains a rich herbaceous and shrub layer with many southern-ranging species found at their northern range limit here. Common shrubs are buttonbush and dogwoods and poison ivy is abundant in two forms - shrub and climbing vine. Other common lianas include wild cucumber, river grape, woodbine, and common moonseed. The composition of the understory differs from other Wisconsin floodplain forests due to the presence of rare southern-ranging plant species.

The Swenson Wet Prairie Unit lies in the low, flat floodplain of the Sugar River near its confluence with Taylor Creek. The site contains an excellent example of a wet-mesic prairie and sedge meadow with low river bottom savanna and scrub interspersed with shallow, abandoned river channels. The meadow is dominated by blue-joint grass, big and little blue-stem, Indian grass, and sedges. Numerous forbs include swamp milkweed, white wild indigo, shooting star, blue flag iris, pale-spike lobelia, cardinal flower, prairie blazing star, cup plant, Culver's root, golden alexanders, and Michigan lily.

Avon Bottoms Wildlife Area is located in the southwest corner of Rock County and the southeast corner of Green County. The property currently consists of 3,402 acres of fee-title state-owned lands and four acres of easement lands. The property follows the Sugar River bottomland forest through the Rock County town of Avon, from County Highway T on the western Rock/Green county line to the Illinois border to the southeast.

Take WI-81 west from Beloit for 10 miles, then west on Beloit-Newark Road for 3 miles. From the north, go south on County Highway T, 6 miles from WI-11 at Brodhead, turning east on Beloit-Newark Road.

Avon Bottoms Wildlife Area is a stop on the Great Wisconsin Birding and Nature Trail.