Birding News 1

As always, birders demonstrated that we can and do join together across borders as friends for bird count events, and during the recent Great Backyard Bird Count, birders reported 8,208 species of the world's birds during the February 13th to 16th GBBC. That total includes 130 more species than the total reported in 2025 – a new record for this long-running winter birding event! This February activity is continuing to grow in popularity, just as birding activities increase in numbers and interest across America and worldwide. 

Spring is in the air as we plan for March migrations and birding opportunities at a variety of Birding Festivals. Every festival event is different, but many of March's birding festivals are long-running annual events that have continued for decades, many providing exciting activities over an entire weekend. Most birding festivals feature speakers and workshops, guided field trips, children's activities, a birding marketplace, and photo-oriented instruction. Most of all, every birding festival creates special social occasions with exciting opportunities for novice and experienced birders in mind.

Are you ready for the Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) this President's Day Weekend – this Valentine's weekend? This Friday the 13th? As we have announced in earlier issues, this exciting annual birding event will take place this Friday, February 13th thru Monday the 16th across the United States and Canada, and around the world! It's a remarkable birding event that brings people together with the common interest in birding – people of all nations, ages, sexes, races, religions, politics, and persuasions – everyone with an interest in birds and birding, coming together in a uniting activity that contributes to the science and understanding of birds, and of ourselves.

Nearly 9,000 birders accepted last year's eBird Checklist-a-Day Challenge to produce an average of 1 birding checklist per day throughout 2025 – that's a minimum of 365 checklists submitted to eBird. In December 2024, in advance of the new year, eBird challenged birders from across North America and around the world to submit an average of one complete checklist a day throughout the year. While it's really all about birding and contributing to eBird information, as part of the incentive, the challenge sponsor Zeiss presented a Terra ED 8x42 Binocular to 3 of the participating birders. 

Calling out to all birders with cameras: The annual Audubon bird photography contest is open for entries in 8 categories, and if you take videos of birds, there is a Video category for your best production too. You have until March 4th to enter your photos or videos, which actually gives you another 5 weeks to come up with your best composition yet – Good Luck! Judges will score eligible photos and videos their technical quality, originality, and artistic merit. In addition to bragging rights, significant cash prizes are awarded for the winners in 7 categories.

Pick any week or weekend during February and there is a birding festival for you to join in quality social birding activities at a primo birding location. Enjoy a variety of events that may include guided field trips, informative workshops and presentations, children's activities, featured speakers, a birding expo or marketplace, bird art and photo exhibits and contests, and more. Each birding festival has unique opportunities for beginners and experienced birders in mind to learn more about birds and birding while connecting with others. 

Restorative Birding is a new approach that cultivates a sense of belonging and curiosity to inspire conservation action. It emphasizes noticing bird behavior, the habitat used, and the roles birds play to link those observations back to our lives and surroundings. Continuing from bird identification to observation and interpretation welcomes newcomers, improves accessibility, and opens the door for people of all ages to become more interested in birds and conservation.

Texas has long been a birding mecca throughout the year, and the economic benefits of highlighting birding and eco-tourism in San Antonio, Texas is showing that residents and businesses are seeing the positive impacts economically, ecologically, and emotionally. According to Steven Nivin, PhD, for every $1 invested in birding-related projects it is forecast that $9 will be realized in direct and indirect benefits to the people and city of San Antonio. Birding-based eco-tourism has been acknowledged as an economic opportunity, and the city, Audubon, and other interested groups are investing as a result.

As the first groups of birders rang in the season to identify and count birds for the Audubon Christmas Bird Count (CBC) last Sunday, this special birding tradition continues through January 5th. That means you can still get involved in some CBC counts. Some groups are asking for more help, although some may be filled with participants at this point – check with the local “count compiler” to see if you can help in some way. The 126th CBC is bringing people together with a common goal of documenting local information about “where the birds are” during this winter count period.

They are bearers of universal mysteries, holders of ancient wisdom, seekers of the wildest animals – they are birders. Focused, intense, devoted; they speak in reverent tones and hushed whispers and can walk with surprising silence across a bed of leaves. They wield binoculars with nonchalance and speak in a code-like vocabulary that birders use among themselves – species, plumage, nape, talons, pishing, magnification, wing bars, big days, big sits, and big years. They have lists in notebooks or online lists of birds they see and hear – they are birders.

Audubon's 126th Christmas Bird Count (CBC) will be held during one day between December 14 and January 5, leaving it up to the count compiler that organizes the local count circles across the country to pick the magic day for the CBC in each location. That day birders and anyone interested can join in to help identify and count all birds with the count circle. Count locations are spread out across the Western Hemisphere, stretching from Canada and the United States to Mexico thru Panama, the Caribbean Isles, and South America from Colombia to Peru, Brazil, Paraguay, and beyond.

December had an especially short list of birding festivals, the least of any month, but now there is just one birding festival left for 2025 in the United States – the popular North Shore Birding Festival in Florida, considered one of the top annual birding festivals, will cap off the year December 11 to 15. Unfortunately, due to the historically long federal government shutdown and the subsequent effects to the national wildlife refuge system, the ever-popular Celebration of Cranes at Bosque del Apache Refuge in central New Mexico has been Canceled.

In case you are missing the hummingbirds of summer, or if you are interested in the tropical birds, you will surely be interested in viewing the dazzling color and high-speed flights provided by the Panama Hummingbird Feeder Cam, a live camera view that is focused on the nectar feeder that attracts a flurry of tropical hummingbirds at Canopy Tower in Soberania National Park in central Panama. Watch as White-necked Jacobins are joined by other colorful hummingbirds, such as Snowy-bellied Hummingbirds and Blue-chested Hummingbirds.

Join a live presentation about Northern Saw-whet Owls, Boreal Owls, and Long-eared Owls as revealed by a banding project that focuses on these owls of the boreal forest. The live presentation will be delivered next Wednesday, November 19 at 11:00am CST by Bruce Murphy, bander and educator at the Hilliardton Marsh Research and Education Center in east-central Ontario. Register free for the live Zoom presentation provided by the Hawk Migration Association to find out what has been discovered as a result of the banding project that began in 2000.

Imagine the progress of hawks and vultures migrating in the tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, and even topping a million during prime migration days when the sky fills with soaring Swainson’s Hawks, Turkey Vultures, and Broad-winged Hawks. This, as they migrate south along migration corridors stretching along the Gulf and Caribbean from Veracruz, Mexico to similar hawkwatch sites in Costa Rica and Panama on their way even farther south to wintering areas in Brazil, Argentina, and neighboring countries.

Birders from around the world collectively participated in this fall’s October Big Day, which was held Saturday October 11th. This year birders joined in this global celebration of birds and birding to report a total of 7,876 different species of birds! While American birders topped the numbers of birders participating, Colombian birders topped the number of species sighted during this single day of birding that was shared by birders in 200 nations! eBird is the global platform where everyone’s contributions were compiled into a number of interesting October Big Day lists.

The survival of the only self-sustaining population of migrating Whooping Cranes depends on the tallest birds in North America making a perilous 2,500-mile migration along the Central Flyway twice a year, during spring and fall. Now, photographer Michael Forsberg shows us what that migration is like after following Whooping Cranes by plane along the “Whooper Airway” to show the landscape as the migrating Whoopers see it. His insightful story is illustrated by a variety of impressive photographs of Whooping Crane flocks, families, and individuals in his recent book Into Whooperland, and in a newly published article in the Fall issue of The Living Bird.

Birders from around the world will join together for October Big Day on Saturday the 11th to share in the biggest birding event we all look forward to each fall season! Join the fun of birding by identifying and counting the birds you see and hear on October 11; then report your list of birds to eBird to contribute to a collective overview of the distribution of bird species during mid-fall migration - it’s that simple! You can make more than one birding list too, then report the birds you see at each location you visit. Or you can contribute by just participating for just 15 minutes from anywhere you can, including your own yard.

October is one of the best months to enjoy some social birding at a Birding Festival near you that brings birders together to share time at a birding hotspot during peak migration days. And there is so much to enjoy during events including information-packed workshops, children’s activities, featured speakers, banquets and food trucks, a birding marketplace, and guided field trips including photo-oriented outings. Every birding festival is different, but they are all created with opportunities for experienced and novice birders in mind.

It’s time to mark your calendar for the biggest day of birding this fall – the worldwide October Big Day on October 11th! Last year a record number of birders joined in this global celebration of birds and birding to report a record number of 7,994 different species of birds! Now let’s collectively break the 8,000 species mark during this single day of birding as a team formed by birders in more than 200 nations! Participating is especially easy: Wherever you are on October 11th, plan to take a few minutes or a few hours to enjoy birds and share what you find on eBird. You can participate from anywhere – including your own yard!