A study of enhanced field emission on broad area niobium cathodes is presented. Emitting sites have been investigated by field emission scans, scanning electron microscopy and scanning tunneling microscopy. All except one of 14 studied emitters are of micron or submicron size. A trend is observed for the emitting structures to be smaller than predicted from the protrusion model as is also demonstrated with the aid of a specific example of a field emitting site.