Bond Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, National wildlife refuge near Macon, United States

Bond Swamp National Wildlife Refuge is a protected area made up of wooded swamps, pine forests, and oxbow lakes along the Ocmulgee River floodplain in Georgia. Walking trails and observation platforms let visitors explore the landscape and watch wildlife in their natural habitat.

The area was established as a protected refuge in 1989 by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to safeguard the natural forest and swamp ecosystem along the Ocmulgee River. This creation reflected growing efforts to conserve Georgia's wetland systems.

The refuge's name comes from Bond Swamp, the wetland it protects along the Ocmulgee River. Its bottomland hardwoods shelter neotropical songbirds of concern, among them Swainson's warbler, wood thrush, prothonotary warbler and yellow-billed cuckoo, which visitors may hear or spot in season. Warm weather and wet ground also favour many reptiles and amphibians.

The refuge lies about 6 miles (10 km) south of Macon along the Ocmulgee River floodplain, and it opened to the public in 2000. Access is limited because the Fish and Wildlife Service has acquired little of the 17,000-acre acquisition boundary set in 1999, so check the official refuge website for current entry points and conditions before setting out.

Bond Swamp holds a nesting pair of bald eagles, noted in refuge surveys alongside alligators, black bears and wild turkeys. The Ocmulgee floodplain also shelters Swainson's warbler, wood thrush, prothonotary warbler and yellow-billed cuckoo, neotropical songbirds of concern that depend on the bottomland hardwoods.