Bird Links

Check out these sites for links about birds, birding, and the environment in the DC area and elsewhere. If you have any suggestions for other good sites, send your ideas to John Beetham.

Conservation Organizations

Local

• Audubon Maryland-DC (our parent chapter)
  
• Fairfax Audubon Society in Northern Virginia
• Maryland Ornithological Society. They have a Section on DC birding and maintain the MD/DC Records Committee.
• Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center
  
• Audubon Naturalist Society
• Montgomery County Birding on the Web

National

• National Audubon Society and the Maryland/DC Office
• Cornell Lab of Ornithology
• American Birding Conservancy works to conserve wild birds and their habitats.
• Natural Resources Defense Council
• American Birding Association publishes a Code of Birding Ethics
  
• Earthspan conducts wildlife tracking studies
• Partners in Flight sponsors International Migratory Bird Day.
• Information on light pollution and what you can do about it.

Birding and Ornithology

Identification and Taxonomy

• CLO All About Birds and Birds of North America
  
• Patuxent Bird Identification InfoCenter
• Avibase - find species name variants in multiple languages
• World Bird Names
  
• Bird checklists of the U.S.
  
• N.Y. State Bird Songs
• North American Bird Sounds
• The Feather Atlas - images of wing and tail feathers of many species
  

Avian Natural History

• Bird (Wikipedia) - follow links or search for individual species
  
• John James Audubon's Birds of America
• Bird Life Histories by A.C. Bent
  
• Steve Lonker's Birds of the Mid-Atlantic
• The Owl Pages
• Trochilids (Winter Hummingbirds)
• Internet Bird Collection - videos of many bird species
• Giff Beaton's Bird Topics
• Birds of New England

Citizen Science Programs

• eBird collects bird sightings data from across North America.
• Christmas Bird Count - information about upcoming counts and historical results
  
• The Great Backyard Bird Count occurs each February on Presidents Day Weekend.
• Cornell runs multiple projects, including Urban Bird Studies, Pigeon Watch, Birdhouse Network, and Project Feeder Watch. See also their Educator's Guide to Bird Study (for parents and teachers).
  

Backyard Birds

• NWF has a program to certify Backyard Wildlife Habitats.
• Audubon at Home recommends ways to make your backyard friendly to birds.
• CLO has resources for bird feeding and for providing nest boxes.
• What to do with injured birds. Try also these local organizations: Raptor Conservancy of Virginia, Second Chance Wildlife Center, Wildlife Rescue League, and All Creatures Great and Small.
  

Other Resources

• Birding Pal is a way to find birding partners.
• Birding the Americas (trip reports)
  

Birding and Ecology Blogs

Many birders are now writing about their sightings on personal weblogs. The list below represents a small sampling of the hundreds of active birding and nature blogs.

• 10,000 Birds
• Aimophila Adventures
• Bell Tower Birding
  
• Betsy's Bird Journal
  
• The Birdchaser
  
• BirdCouple
• Birding Virginia
  
• Birds and Climate Change
  
• Birds Etcetera
• bootstrap analysis
• Burning Silo
  
• Coffee and Conservation
  
• A DC Birding Blog
• Fairfax Birding
• FieldMarking
• Introduced Birds Weblog
  
• Invasive Species Weblog
• Mike's Birding & Digiscoping Blog
  
• The Origin of Species
• Snail's Tales
  
• woodcreeper
  

Alerts and Newsletters

Want to know how you can keep informed about birds and help conserve their habitats? Sign up for one of these email lists!

• Audubon Action
• Natural Resources Defense Council Action Center
• Birdlife International: Action / News Alerts
• National Wildlife Federation
• Refugenet: Action Network / Birding Community E-Bulletin
• Audubon Naturalist Society Issues & Actions
• American Bird Conservancy BirdWire
• CLO's Birdscope newsletter

Mailing Lists

• Maryland Osprey is an active mailing list about birding in the Maryland and DC areas. Many participants post trip reports and rare bird sightings. Recent archives are available online for browsing.
• Birders in Virginia discuss their sightings on va-bird.
  
• BIRDCHAT is the national birding discussion list. Subscribe or browse the archives.
• ID-Frontiers is for discussion of tricky identification problems.
• Links to dozens of regional birding email lists and their archives can be found at Birding on the Net
• The Raptor Repertoire is for those specifically interested in Raptors. Archives

Trivia and Games

• Virtual Birder contains frequently updated information on well-known nearby locations such as Chincoteague, Hawk Mountain, and Cape May. It also has Birding Breaks, a Spring Warbler Tune-up, and a Bird Song Matching Game.
• Bird Stamps from the United States.