Birds Hill is a community in the Canadian province of Manitoba

Manitoba

Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...

 located a few kilometers north east of Winnipeg, Manitoba, in the Rural Municipality of East Saint Paul

East St. Paul, Manitoba

East St. Paul is a rural municipality in Manitoba, Canada. It is located north-east of and adjacent to the city of Winnipeg, and is part of the Winnipeg Metropolitan Area. The municipality encompasses and is bounded by the Red River to the west; the municipality of St. Clements to the north; the...

. The town is a few kilometers east of the Red River

Red River of the North

The Red River is a North American river. Originating at the confluence of the Bois de Sioux and Otter Tail rivers in the United States, it flows northward through the Red River Valley and forms the border between the U.S. states of Minnesota and North Dakota before continuing into Manitoba, Canada...

. A large property in the area was owned by James Curtis Bird

James Curtis Bird

James Bird was a Hudson's Bay Company fur trader. He was born in England and came to Canada in 1788.Bird made steady progress within the company serving his apprenticeship in York Factory and then moving on to more westerly posts which he first visited with the HBC inland master, William Tomison...

, a retired Hudson Bay Company employee, after whom the area is named. His son, Curtis James Bird

Curtis James Bird

Curtis James Bird was a Canadian doctor, politician, and Speaker of the Manitoba Legislative Assembly from 1873 to 1874....

 inherited the property from his father.

The hills in the area were a place for settlers and native peoples to escape to when fleeing high flood waters along the Red River valley. Originally the area was settled by farmers and the gravel deposits in the area were used to build roads in Winnipeg and nearby locations. The town is growing rapidly with major subdivisions nearby increasing both population and business. Some of the most expensive real estate in Manitoba is now located in the area, especially near or along the Red River.

A portion of the town is located on top of a hill formed during the last ice age

Ice age

An ice age or, more precisely, glacial age, is a generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers...

 by a glacial sand deposit, or esker

Esker

An esker is a long winding ridge of stratified sand and gravel, examples of which occur in glaciated and formerly glaciated regions of Europe and North America...

. Birds Hill Park is located on the same ridge of sand eskers, but at the other end of them. These sand ridges are some of the highest elevations in south-central Manitoba.