Originally published April 2009; most recent update August 2024.

Putting up bird feeders in a yard or outdoor space is a great first step to brightening up the view from your window. A well-tended set of feeders can attract throngs of regular visitors, and may also host unusual birds that visit with the seasons, such as Pine Siskins, Redpolls, Evening Grosbeaks, and more.

But there’s a tremendous variety of bird feeders to choose from—so where do you start? It helps to recognize that most seed feeders are variations on just a few basic designs: trays, hoppers, tubes, window mounts, and suet feeders.

To attract the greatest variety of birds, provide several different feeder types and offer a variety of foods. It’s best to start out with black-oil sunflower seed; it’s the most widely used seed, and it attracts the largest range of species. Hanging a tube feeder from a tree branch or shepherd’s crook is an easy way to get started—just be sure to use a squirrel baffle if you don’t want squirrels crashing the party.

Once you’ve chosen a feeder type, selecting a specific model comes down to construction, squirrel-proofing, and of course aesthetics. The ideal bird feeder is sturdy enough to withstand winter weather and squirrels, tight enough to keep seeds dry, easy to assemble and, most important of all, easy to keep clean.

Tray or Platform Feeders

In Brief: Platform feeders attract the widest variety of seed-eating feeder birds, although they are the most susceptible to raids by squirrels and other possibly unwanted guests.

Pros:

• Good for attracting grosbeaks, sparrows, juncos, towhees, jays, blackbirds, doves, quail, and more
• With no structure to block sight lines, the birds remain in full view while feeding
• Can offer lots of seed over a wide area, allowing many birds to visit at once
• Versatile: can be mounted on deck railings, posts, stumps, or can be suspended

Cons:

• Attracts birds such as pigeons, starlings, House Sparrows, and grackles, which can sometimes overwhelm other species
• Doesn’t protect against rain or snow; seeds can get wet and sprout, mold, or spoil
• Bird droppings can quickly soil the seeds
• Can invite squirrels, chipmunks, deer, raccoons, and more

Tips:

• Look for a tray with a screened rather than solid bottom for better drainage
• Offer enough seed for a couple of days at a time, then clean and restock
• When cleaning, shake out the old seeds and hose down the bottom. Wash with a dilute bleach solution every couple of weeks
• Use an effective squirrel baffle on the feeder support

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Hopper or “House” Feeders

In Brief: Hopper feeders look nice, hold lots of seed, and provide a roof to keep the seed dry and fresh. But they can be hard to clean, and they usually offer easy access to squirrels.

Pros:

• Attractive to most feeder birds including finches, jays, cardinals, buntings, grosbeaks, sparrows, chickadees, and titmice
• Holds enough seed to last several days
• Roof helps keep seed dry
• Birds are less likely to soil the food with droppings

Cons:

• Most designs offer easy access to squirrels
• Seeds can spoil if they get wet and stay wet without regular cleaning/changing
• Harder to clean than a tray feeder

Tips:

• Mount on a pole or hang from a tree branch
• Use a baffle on the pole or rope to deter squirrels

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Tube Feeders

In Brief: These versatile feeders are easy to hang from a line or a shepherd’s crook. Different types allow you to target different species, sizes, and numbers of birds.

Pros:

• Helps keep the seeds out of the elements, helping guard against spoiling
• With no platform, birds can’t foul the seeds with their droppings
• Can be sized to offer a range of seeds, from tiny nyjer seeds to large unshelled peanuts
• Tube sizes and perch configurations give you the option to target smaller, larger, or more agile birds

Cons:

• Multiple birds often visit the same perches repeatedly and can pass diseases, so cleaning tube feeders regularly with dilute bleach solution is important
• With plastic tube feeders, squirrels can cause considerable damage by gnawing to widen the openings. Metal tube feeders are more resistant

Tips:

• When adding new seed to tube feeders, always empty the old seed out first
• Tube feeders usually have some seed sitting below the level of the lowest feeding ports, where birds will never reach it. Block up this part of the tube so you don’t have to worry about that unused seed getting moldy
• Squirrels can usually get at most types of tube feeders. Use a squirrel baffle to keep them away, or look for a feeder design with an outer cage that keeps squirrels from reaching in to get at the seeds

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Window Feeders

In Brief: A busy window feeder offers breathtaking, up-close views of feeder visitors and helps keep birds safe from window collisions. Designs include clear plastic hoppers that affix to windows with suction cups; or sturdy platform feeders that hook into window frames.

Pros:

• Good for small birds such as finches, chickadees, titmice, nuthatches, sparrows, and more
• Wonderful, close-up views
• Birds see the feeder before they reach the window, helping keep them safe from window collisions
• Easy access for refilling

Cons:

• Birds can soil the feeding tray with their droppings
• Attaching suction cups can be fiddly

Tips:

• Be patient when you first put up a window feeder. Birds may take several days or more before they’re ready to come so close to your house

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Nyjer Feeders

In Brief: Nyjer (also called thistle) feeders attract species such as goldfinches, Pine Siskins, Redpolls, Indigo Buntings, giving these small songbirds their own spot away from larger species that may dominate sunflower feeders. They typically come in two designs: a tube feeder with very small openings; or a fine mesh bag (or “thistle sock”).

Pros:

• Great for attracting some small, delightful species and keeping them from being overwhelmed by larger species
• Squirrels often don’t bother with tiny nyjer seeds, making these feeders easier to manage
• A great secondary feeder to provide variety from your “main” feeder(s)

Cons:

• Some feeder visitors (particularly larger birds) are simply not interested in nyjer, so this kind of feeder is likely to get less visitation overall
• Mesh feeders (“thistle socks”) easily get soaked in the rain, so use small amounts and change the seed regularly
• Nyjer is more expensive than some other bird seed (though you’ll typically use less of it)

Tips:

• To start with, choose a small nyjer feeder and add only small amounts of seed until you get a sense of how popular it is in your yard
• If you live in the range of Pine Siskins and Common Redpolls,
• If you see a mess underneath your nyjer feeder don’t worry—it’s not wasted seed. It’s just the shells of the seeds; your birds have discarded these tiny shells before eating the even tinier seeds

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Suet Feeders

In Brief: Suet feeders are a great way to offer high-energy food to birds, especially woodpeckers, nuthatches, chickadees, titmice, starlings, jays, and sometimes Carolina Wrens and Pine Warblers. They are most often used during the cooler temperatures of winter, though you can find suet formulations that are stable during hotter temperatures. They come in two main designs: a wire cage built to hold blocks of suet; or pieces of wood (or fake wood) in which you can smear suet or peanut butter.

Pros:

• Attracts a different variety of birds to your feeders, and the birds often feed energetically and acrobatically
• Versatile: can be attached to a tree trunk, suspended from a branch, or fixed onto a hopper or platform feeder

Cons:

• Raw suet can quickly become rancid at temperatures above freezing
• Rendered suet, including most suet sold as bird food, stays hard at temperatures up to about 90°F (32°C). At temperatures warmer than this, suet can soften to the point it musses feathers, affecting their function and, in incubating birds, possibly passing a greasy layer on to eggs and endangering their survival. To avoid this, cease offering suet (and peanut butter) during hot months

Tips:

• To limit the number of starlings or jays at your suet feeder, look for a design that faces the suet cake downward. These force birds to hang upside-down while feeding and favor more agile birds such as woodpeckers and nuthatches
• For a fun DIY suet feeder, carefully drill holes in small logs and then spoon in rendered suet or peanut butter. Or try placing suet or peanut butter in bark crevices (during cool months)

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A gentle northward breeze blew off Long Island Sound, cooling the morning air in the amphitheater of Seaside Park in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Out beyond the pond, people started to filter in past foraging starlings and grackles. As they entered the park, they walked under the massive communal nests of our local Monk Parakeets. There was a noisy spat going on between two of the bright-green birds, and laughter broke out as some folks started discussing the nature of the dispute as if it were a plot point in an Oprah Winfrey Network family drama.  

My anticipation rose. I had recently attended local bird walks with groups of mostly white birdwatchers. But today, as a trip leader on my home turf in Connecticut, I was excited to stand in front of a nearly all-Black crowd and say:

“Welcome to the first official event of Black Birders Week 2024!”

Now in its fifth year, Black Birders Week 2024 featured over two dozen online and in-person events from May 26 to June 1, to celebrate, encourage, and highlight the work and presence of Black people in birding, ornithology, and conservation. It was born in 2020, in response to a series of racially traumatic encounters involving Black people in the outdoors, including but sadly not limited to Christian Cooper’s Central Park incident. Out of the turmoil of 2020, which laid bare so many social, environmental, and health disparities, the organizers of Black Birders Week created an annual tradition that showcases all the shades of our experiences in the outdoors.

For the last three years I have been an organizer of Black Birders Week, and this year’s theme, “Wings of Justice: Soaring for Change”, resonated with me as a chance to pause and take in the longevity and successes of this grassroots movement. But it was also a moment to reflect and ask: what has actually changed in the world of birding and ornithology?

Acceptance Is Spreading, But Progress Is Slow

To start, it’s been encouraging to see Black Birders Week—and even simply the existence of Black birders—gain recognition and in many cases warm acceptance by majority-white birding organizations on social media. The National Audubon Society, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, BirdNote, Wild Birds Unlimited, and other groups have helped host events and offered assistance. More broadly, it feels like many white birdwatchers have become aware that there are Black birders out there who are motivated by much the same sense of fun, curiosity, and wonder about our avian cousins.

This growing acceptance is palpable on social media. Nowadays, when #BlackBirdersWeek has been posted, I’ve seen fewer sarcastic comments like “I’m confused, is this a week celebrating black birds?” or the tired “When is White Birders Week?” as more and more white people see the value of events like ours (and even step up to respond to online detractors). 

But at the same time, it feels like the depth of the issues that many Black birders care about has yet to be fully grasped. It’s a positive sign that dozens of organizations from across the country and the world are now reaching out to connect with Black Birders Week. But it’s also exhausting that much of this interest happens at the eleventh hour, in ways that make it clear that they’re still not familiar with their own local Black birders and communities. There’s only so many times my co-organizers and I can field inquiries about whether we know anybody in a state none of us are from.

Black Birders Week explicitly welcomes people of all ethnicities and backgrounds. But our main goal is to curate a space where Black experiences in nature are the focal point. In that respect, Black Birders Week is not just hosting a walk led by a Black birder to an audience of largely white people, and it can be hard to consider it a Black Birders Week event if literally no one involved is Black. We want these events to be opportunities for Black birders of all levels to share their experiences in community with each other, without being filtered through the lens of white culture (an idea that Nobel laureate Toni Morrison has called operating “beyond the white gaze”). At a Black birding event held in South Carolina, as American Goldfinches twittered overhead, one attendee likened their calls to a group of AKA sorority sisters. It’s only at events like ours that this kind of cultural reference would come up and be understood. 

Birdwatching Is About People, Too

“People need to realize that it’s not just about birds,” says Nicole Jackson, an environmental educator from Ohio and a founding Black Birders Week organizer. “Expecting the Black community to focus on conservation without addressing how our immediate and historical struggles make it difficult to engage fully in environmental efforts highlights a significant issue—especially now that it’s another election year with all of its similar controversies.”

With this in mind, we focused the bulk of this year’s online conversations on the human side of birding. Panelists explored how Black people have used birds and nature to aid in mental health and mourning journeys, including a moving keynote from D.C.-based falconer Rodney Stotts, and a beautiful reflection on loss and grief from Christy Hyman, a historical geographer. Additionally, we prominently featured members of the corvid family, highlighting both their boisterous intelligence and their use in anti-Black racist symbology. Lawyer and filmmaker Alice Crowe shared the history of her surname in the context of the Jim Crow laws that for a century relegated her family to second-class citizenship.

Even in recent years, some of the major bird conservation institutions have made missteps when it comes to equitably engaging with Black communities and scientists. Shortly after the first Black Birders Week, the National Audubon Society publicly acknowledged that their namesake, John James Audubon, was an enslaver who, in their words, had “ethical failings” and whose science “has sometimes been called into question.” Yet it seemed to me that the society’s concern about those ethical failings was ultimately trumped by brand recognition in last year’s announcement of their decision to retain the Audubon name—even though that association carries little weight outside of the conservation mainstream.

“Most folks… when they hear that name for the first time, they think I’m talking about a highway in Germany,” said Tykee James, president of the DC Bird Alliance (formerly the DC Audubon Society) in the DCist last year. “They’re not thinking about bird conservation.” 

While many among Audubon’s current membership may revere the man, the decision still stings for the rest of us. “The biggest thing for any organization to take away from this is listening to what is important and what holds weight for the very community that you wish to engage with,” said tech blogger Corvida Raven during a panel discussion hosted by National Audubon. “There’s always conversations about inclusion and diversity, but when someone calls you out on something as inconsequential as a name change? If we can’t make it there, what could we actually even hope for at this point?”(Watch Corvida Raven’s full comment.)

To Succeed, Conservation Needs Everyone

When organizations fail to equitably engage with Black communities and scientists, the results can be directly detrimental to conservation efforts amid the ongoing biodiversity crisis.

In 2023, towards the end of last year’s Black Birders Week, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology itself provided an unintended example. With the Lab’s help, The New York Times launched a well-intentioned but poorly aimed participatory science project that encouraged people to go birding during the summer and collect data in places with low birder coverage. The project highlighted an important issue, but the planning and rollout didn’t include scientific experts on the contribution of social factors to data gaps, such as Deja Perkins, a PhD student of geospatial analytics at North Carolina State University and a founder of Black Birders Week. 

As Perkins told BirdNote, gaps in participatory science projects like eBird and iNaturalist are directly correlated to the racial and socioeconomic demographics of their participants. Older affluent white people tend to go birding in their own neighborhoods or large parks. “People aren’t submitting [as many] observations in areas that have a higher BIPOC population or are lower income,” Perkins told me. “I don’t think the way [the NYT] framed their article was accurate to the research, nor to the importance of diversity in birding.”

From my perspective as a Black birder and someone interested in science outreach, it was a frustratingly baffling move for the Times to tackle the issue of data gaps with a paywalled readership that is only around 4% Black and 10% Hispanic, while offering little information on ways to bring birding to new audiences. “I thought it was very harmful and inauthentic,” Perkins continued, “and just goes to show the importance of Black Birders Week and the unique way that we tailor our topics to talk about the connections between the natural world and the human world.”

BirdNote has tapped into these connections and helped make inroads with Black audiences by adding a more human angle to their programming. Their Bring Birds Back podcast, now in its sixth season, often features Black experts and hosts (including yours truly) and focuses on the overlap between social and environmental justice. For this year’s Black Birders Week, they hosted a session on the heat island effect, exploring how urban birds and birders cope during increasingly hot summers. 

To foster connections among birders, we need to go beyond just the connections to birds themselves—and paying attention to culture is a key part of that. On the aforementioned Audubon panel, Zimbabwean raptor researcher Merlyn Nomsa Nkomo described how she’s moving beyond the Eurocentric cultural norms around birding. She incorporates local languages like Shona into her outings. She adopts familiar cultural practices, too, including ending each birdwalk with a braai, the southern African version of a cookout. “We’re creating a culture of our own around what birding entails, that makes people feel safe,” she said. 

And when people feel safe and in community, that’s when the fun is had. That’s what’s kept us coming back to Black Birders Week for five years, even when it seems like so much is moving too slow or in the wrong direction.

Towards the end of our bird walk at Seaside Park, a Black man in a Baltimore Orioles jersey and his young sister walked up and asked what we were doing. Turns out, we’d just spotted an actual Baltimore Oriole, and we helped them get a look at it through our spotting scope. The man marveled at the bird’s brilliant orange-and-black for a while, then stuck around for an extra hour in the midday May heat as the group chatted about local legislative policy for improving community health with native plants. Before he finally left, he expressed how happy he was to have a new hobby to share with his sister and was looking forward to the next group outing.

For now, it’s only at events like ours that a serendipitously timed brotha might feel comfortable approaching a group of 25 birdwatchers to check out what they’re doing, let alone join in. But that’s where I hope we’re headed. To get there, we’ll need the contemporary birding world to broaden out beyond the dominant white culture it emerged from.

I don’t know about you, but I think we need more events like ours. Because true diversity in science ain’t just for the birds.

Many people are concerned about the outbreak of avian influenza, or bird flu, that began in 2022 and has affected domestic poultry, waterfowl, raptors, shorebirds, other species of birds, and some mammals in many parts of the world. Because the current strain (H5N1) causes heavy losses to poultry, it is referred to as highly pathogenic avian influenza, or HPAI.

Transmission of avian influenza from birds to humans is rare, according to Centers for Disease Control. To date, 14 people in the U.S. have tested positive for avian influenza. All had had contact with dairy cows or poultry farms, and all recovered. In June 2024, the World Health Organization reported a hospitalized man in Mexico had died from a different strain of avian influenza (H5N2), though the organization deemed the risk to the general population as low.

Reports of Avian Flu in Birds

This particular strain of avian influenza virus affects a wide variety of wild birds, including hawks, eagles, falcons, owls, crows, vultures, shorebirds, game birds, seabirds, and especially waterfowl such as Canada Geese and Mallards (see list of species with HPAI detections, below). The virus is shed in the saliva, mucus, and feces of infected birds and is transmitted to other birds via ingestion or inhalation.

Because of the duration of this outbreak, its recent spread to mammal species, and widespread mortalities in some types of wild birds, there has been concern about whether it’s safe for people to feed wild birds. In April 2022 and March 2023, we checked in with Dr. Julianna Lenoch, who directs the USDA APHIS National Wildlife Disease Program, and we’ve compiled the following summaries of key points regarding HPAI, especially among songbirds and other feeder visitors. As of August 2024, there is no official recommendation for people to take down bird feeders because of the risk of avian influenza (see next section). The Centers for Disease Control has updates and recommendations about H5N1 in humans.

Low Risk of Avian Flu to Songbirds

There has been widespread transmission of avian flu to wild bird species including waterfowl and raptors. The virus has also been found in mammals that prey on dead birds. However, transmission to songbirds and other typical feeder visitors has been low (less than 2% of all cases reported in wild birds), although this may change with increased testing or changes to the virus. That means there is currently a low risk of an outbreak among wild songbirds, and no official recommendation to take down feeders unless you also keep domestic poultry, according to the National Wildlife Disease Program. We do always recommend that you clean bird feeders and birdbaths regularly as a way to keep many kinds of diseases at bay. 

We also always recommend that you follow any recommendations put out by your state government, even in cases where that advice conflicts with ours. The CDC’s page on avian influenza in birds compiles additional helpful information and resources. 

How do we know songbirds are at low risk?

• USDA APHIS has a strong, multiyear surveillance program that routinely samples wild birds, including flocks of songbirds (and other species such as Rock Pigeons and Mourning Doves that are often around humans), for the presence of avian influenza. Since January 2022 they’ve detected the HPAI strain in 8,771 wild birds (plus 954 captive birds), with 179 detections in wild songbirds (see below for a list of species). Latest info about the outbreak.
• Avian influenza does not affect all types of birds equally. The “highly pathogenic” part of the term HPAI refers specifically to the severity of the disease in poultry, not necessarily in other bird species. For example, waterfowl often carry and transmit bird flu, and with the current strain they sometimes get sick or die. Raptors are much more sensitive to the disease. Domestic poultry are extremely susceptible to HPAI and spread the disease easily, leading to up to 100% mortality of affected flocks.
• Songbirds are much less likely than waterfowl to contract avian influenza and less likely to shed large amounts of virus, meaning they do not transmit the disease easily. (See Shriner and Root 2020 for a detailed review in the journal Viruses.)
• According to a separate study in the Journal of Wildlife Diseases, “…although passerines and terrestrial wild birds may have a limited role in the epidemiology of IAV [avian influenza A viruses] when associated with infected domestic poultry or other aberrant hosts, there is no evidence supporting their involvement as natural reservoirs for IAV.” (Slusher et al. 2014)
• For these reasons, it is unlikely that bird feeders will contribute to an outbreak among songbirds.

If songbirds are at low risk, why are people who keep poultry advised to take down their bird feeders?

• The main concern with songbirds is the chance that a rare individual might transmit an infection to poultry. This is a concern because poultry are so much more vulnerable than songbirds to HPAI.
• The key intervention is to keep songbirds away from poultry; it’s less important to keep songbirds away from each other.
• If you have a backyard poultry flock, these are the most important steps to take:
  (click for full info on these biosecurity measures from USDA APHIS)
  • make their food inaccessible to wild birds
  • make their water inaccessible to wild birds
  • keep poultry indoors or otherwise physically separated from wild birds, if possible
  • change your clothes and wash hands before tending to poultry (or pet birds)
• As a secondary measure, USDA APHIS recommends for poultry owners to take down wild bird feeders or keep them well away from their captive flock
• If you keep chickens or ducks, please see also latest information from the USDA Animal Plant and Health Inspection Service.  

If you keep nest boxes:

Avian influenza is only rarely transmitted to humans, according to the USDA. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers the general public health risk from avian flu to be low. Nevertheless, our NestWatch project always advises good hygiene and highly recommends that people wear disposable gloves and/or wash their hands thoroughly after checking nest boxes. Most birds that use nest boxes are songbirds, which are at low risk for contracting or transmitting avian influenza. If you monitor waterfowl or raptor nests (e.g., Wood Duck, Common Merganser, Canada Goose, American Kestrel, Barred Owl), we suggest you wear gloves, change or wash gloves and disinfect equipment between nest boxes, wear a mask when cleaning out nest boxes, and change clothes and footwear before visiting any domestic poultry.

If you are a wildlife rehabilitator:

Wildlife rehabilitators should take precautions when accepting sick birds so that they don’t inadvertently introduce HPAI to the rest of their patients. Here’s further guidance for rehabbers, from USDA APHIS. Rehabbers in New York State are also encouraged to contact the Cornell Wildlife Health Lab for more information.

What to do if you find a sick or dead bird:

Avoid handling sick or dead birds. Instead, call your state wildlife health agency; they can determine cause of death and send the bird to the appropriate lab for testing. Additionally, keep pets (including pet birds) away from sick or dead wild birds.

• Avoid contact with birds that appear sick or have died
• Avoid contact with surfaces that have bird feces
• If you must touch sick or dead birds: 
  • Wear gloves and a face mask  
  • Place dead birds in a double-bagged garbage bag 
  • Throw away your gloves and facemask after use  
  • Wash your hands well with soap and warm water 

Bird flu is not a risk to food safety. Poultry and eggs that are safely handled and cooked to an internal temperature of 165°F are safe to eat. 

If you feel sick after having contact with sick or dead birds, contact your health care provider. 

Has Avian Flu Been Reported in Mammals?

There have also been reports of mammals such as red foxes, skunks, bobcats, fishers, and bears infected with avian influenza, likely from eating infected birds. Outside the U.S. avian flu has infected farmed mink and has caused losses at marine mammal colonies in South America. In March 2024 the USDA reported that avian flu has been found in cattle in several U.S. states. The CDC has additional information on avian flu in cattle and associated risks to humans.

Additional Resources:

• Latest outbreak statistics from USDA APHIS
• USDA APHIS page about avian influenza in wild birds
• FAQ about avian influenza and wild birds (USDA APHIS)
• Simple biosecurity measures for preventing avian influenza on farms (USDA APHIS)

Wild bird species with HPAI detections in 2022–2024

Updated August 13, 2024. Total number of detections in wild birds: 8,771 (plus 954 captive birds). Detections in passerines: 263. See Detections of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza in Wild Birds for latest detections.

Passerines (18 species)

American Crow (83 individuals, plus 9 unidentified crow spp.)
American Robin (2)
Barn Swallow (1)
Black-billed Magpie (10)
Boat-tailed Grackle (1)
Common Grackle (4)
Common Raven (46)
Dark-eyed Junco (1)
European Starling (6)
Fish Crow (7)
Grackle spp. (unidentified; 2)
Great-tailed Grackle (6)
House Sparrow (76)
Lark Bunting (1)
Lark Sparrow (1)
Red-winged Blackbird (2, plus 2 unidentified blackbird spp.)
Summer Tanager (1)
Tree Swallow (1)
Western Kingbird (1)

Non-Songbirds (145 species)

American Black Duck
American Coot
American Kestrel
American White Pelican
American Wigeon
Arctic Tern
Bald Eagle
Barn Owl
Barred Owl
Black Scoter
Black Skimmer
Black Turnstone
Black Vulture
Black-bellied Plover
Black-crowned Night Heron
Black-legged Kittiwake
Blue-winged Teal
Bonaparte’s Gull
Brandt’s Cormorant
Brant
Broad-winged Hawk
Brown Pelican
Bufflehead
Cackling Goose
California Condor
California Gull
California Quail
Canada Goose
Canvasback
Caspian Tern
Cattle Egret
Cinnamon Teal
Common Eider
Common Goldeneye
Common Loon
Common Merganser
Common Murre
Common Tern
Cooper’s Hawk
Crested Caracara
Double-crested Cormorant
Dunlin
Eared Grebe
Eastern Screech-Owl
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Forster’s Tern
Fulvous Whistling-Duck
Gadwall
Glaucous Gull
Glaucous-winged Gull
Glossy Ibis
Golden Eagle
Great Black-backed Gull
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Great Horned Owl
Greater Sage-Grouse
Greater Scaup
Greater White-fronted Goose
Green Heron
Green-winged Teal
Harris’s Hawk
Herring Gull
Hooded Merganser
Horned Grebe
Iceland Gull (Thayer’s)
Laughing Gull
Lesser Scaup
Long-eared Owl
Mallard
Merlin
Mottled Duck
Mourning Dove
Muscovy Duck
Mute Swan
Neotropic Cormorant
Northern Fulmar
Northern Gannet
Northern Harrier
Northern Pintail
Northern Shoveler
Osprey
Pacific Loon
Parasitic Jaeger
Peregrine Falcon
Pied-billed Grebe
Prairie Falcon
Razorbill
Red-necked Grebe
Red-necked Phalarope
Red-shouldered Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Redhead
Ring-billed Gull
Ring-necked Duck
Ring-necked Pheasant
Rock Pigeon
Roseate Spoonbill
Ross’s Goose
Rough-legged Hawk
Royal Tern
Ruddy Duck
Ruddy Turnstone
Ruffed Grouse
Sabine’s Gull
Sanderling
Sandhill Crane
Sandwich Tern
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Short-billed Gull
Short-eared Owl
Short-tailed Shearwater
Snow Goose
Snowy Egret
Snowy Owl
Snowy Plover
Surf Scoter
Swainson’s Hawk
Trumpeter Swan
Tundra Swan
Turkey Vulture
Western Grebe
Western Gull
Western Sandpiper
Western Screech-Owl
White Ibis
White-faced Ibis
White-winged Scoter
Wild Turkey
Willet
Wood Duck
Wood Stork

Our planet has a bounty of birds—more than 11,000 species in all. But on a global scale, most have relatively small ranges. And only a few dozen species can be called “cosmopolitan,” with ranges that touch six continents or at least three oceans. These are the birds that tie our human world together—birds that nearly all of us have in common.

The Barn Swallow at the top of this page is one of the best examples: a bird weighing less than an ounce, whose migratory routes touch Canada, Tierra del Fuego, Norway, Namibia, Russia, Australia, and most places in between. Their gleaming colors and graceful aerobatics delight birdwatchers on every continent save Antarctica.

Follow us on a tour of our favorite cosmopolitan birds—whether over land, in cities and towns, or out at sea.

The Birds of six continents

The birds We Bring With Us

With their seemingly inexhaustible talent for flight, birds are inherently good at finding new places to live (see the Western Cattle Egret below for a good example). But some species get a helping hand from humans. Some, like Rock Pigeons and House Sparrows, formed a bond with humans centuries ago and have followed us around ever since. Others are brought along for a variety of reasons—parrots and parakeets come with us as pets, for instance—but may escape or be released and gain a toehold on a new continent.

ocean Travelers

Oceans cover more than two-thirds of the planet, and birds have evolved to exist across most of that endless blue-gray habitat. The Arctic Tern is famous for covering a distance equal to the circumference of the Earth every year. With a lifespan that can exceed 30 years, an Arctic Tern might travel three-quarters of a million miles in its lifetime. Plenty of other seabirds have the ability to spend years on the wing, without touching land—following are a few examples of species that touch at least three of the world’s five oceans in their travels.

Honorable Mentions

The world is a big place, and some widespread bird species don’t quite make it to that sixth continent. Some species fall short through the vagaries of taxonomic changes—for instance the cosmopolitan species previously known as Cattle Egret was recently split into two species (Western and Eastern Cattle Egrets), neither of which make it to six continents. Others, like the Black-crowned Night Heron, come oh-so-close to that sixth continent, but fall just short. We love them anyway: these are our honorable mentions.

Ten lucky eBirders will get this course for free from their August eBirding in time for the peak shorebirding season of July-Sept. Enjoy the thrill of naming shorebirds without thumbing through your field guide.

Ten lucky eBirders will get this new course for free from their August eBirding. If you like taking part in the eBirder of the Month Challenges, your eBirding also makes you eligible to win a different Bird Academy course each month.

The eBirder of the Month will be drawn from eBirders who submit 3 or more eligible checklists in a single day in August. Each day that you submit 3 or more eligible checklists gives you one chance to win. That’s up to 31 chances to win!

You may be wondering when to stop a checklist and start a new one. A good rule of thumb if you’re driving between birding locations is to start your checklist when you get out of the car and stop the list when you get back in. Even if you’re just stopping at each place for a few minutes, these shorter lists are incredibly impactful! In general, the more precise the list (shorter distance and duration), the more valuable the information. You can learn more about best practices and how to make your eBirding easier through our eBird Essentials course.

August’s winner will receive a new ZEISS SFL 8×40 binocular and will be notified by the 10th of the following month.

Each month we will feature a new eBird challenge and set of selection criteria. And don’t forget to submit lists for the 2024 Checklist-a-day Challenge!

ZEISS is a proven leader in sports optics and is the official optics sponsor for eBird. “We are thrilled to continue our partnership with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and support the vital scientific data being collected by dedicated eBirders.” – Richard Moncrief, Birding and Nature Observation Segment Manager at ZEISS

A great way to enjoy birdwatching is by going to festivals—they’re organized to get you to well-known birding spots at the right time of year, and they’re a perfect way to meet people. Experts and locals help you see more birds, and you’ll meet other visitors who share your hobby. While you’re there, keep an eye out for Cornell Lab representatives, as we do attend several festivals each year.

To list your festival on this page, please contact our advertising manager:
Susanna Lawson
phone: 434-983-1771
fax: 434-983-1772
svl22@cornell.edu

Festivals by Location

See the map and listings, below, for upcoming festivals.

Originally published July 2014; updated July 2024.

Among the U.S.’s many spectacular federal and state lands, it pays to remember the wildlife havens that are the National Wildlife Refuge system, administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. This system of more than 500 areas is managed primarily for the benefit of wildlife, and they are great places to see birds of all kinds, including waterfowl, shorebirds, and songbirds.

One of the best ways to support National Wildlife Refuges is to buy a Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp, or “Duck Stamp,” every year. It’s a win-win-win: it proudly proclaims your support of public land, it funnels money directly to the refuge system (to the tune of some $40 million per year), and it gets you free entry to the refuges all year.

Duck stamps Though the Years

Buying a Migratory Bird Stamp is a simple and direct way for people to contribute to grassland and wetland conservation. In 2013, the New York Times ran a piece on the annual stamp art competition; now here’s our own list of eight reasons to love the stamp:

1. Over $1 billion for conservation and counting. The first stamp was issued in 1934. It cost $1 (about $18 in today’s dollars) and sold 635,001 copies. By law, the funds raised go directly to habitat acquisition in the lower 48 states. By now, stamp sales have surpassed $1 billion and helped to protect 6.5 million acres of wetland and grassland habitat.

2. A 73-year tradition of beautiful wildlife art. The Migratory Bird stamp is a beautiful collectible and a great artistic tradition. Since 1949, the design of each year’s duck stamp has been chosen in an open art contest. The 2022 stamp, showing a pair of Redheads, was painted by James Hautman, a veteran of the contest who now has six wins to his name (see a gallery of all stamps back to 1934).

3. A bargain at $25. Ninety-eight cents of each dollar spent on a stamp goes directly to land conservation for the National Wildlife Refuge System. This $25 purchase is perhaps the single simplest thing you can do to support a legacy of wetland and grassland conservation for birds.

4. It’s much more than ducks. Waterfowl hunters have long been the main supporters for the program—the stamps are a requirement for anyone 16 or older who wants to hunt. But the funds benefit scores of other bird species, including shorebirds, herons, raptors, and songbirds, not to mention reptiles, amphibians, fish, butterflies, native plants, and more. (See a full illustrated history of how the Duck Stamp helped save North American waterfowl, from Bird Academy.)

5. Save wetlands; save grasslands. Since 1958, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has used stamp revenues to protect “waterfowl production areas”—over 3 million acres—within the critical Prairie Pothole Region. The same program also protects declining prairie-nesting birds in the face of increasing loss of grasslands. As a result, refuges are among the best places to find grassland specialties such as Bobolinks, Grasshopper Sparrows, Clay-colored Sparrows, Sedge Wrens, and others.

6. The benefits are gorgeous. Some of the most diverse and wildlife-rich refuges across the Lower 48 have been acquired with stamp funds. Chances are there’s a wildlife refuge near you that has benefited.

7. It’s your free pass to refuges. A migratory bird stamp is a free pass for an entire year to all refuges that charge for admission—so your $25 could even save you money.

8. As birdwatchers, let’s get in on the secret. Though it’s long been a fixture in hunting circles, the Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp is one of the best-kept secrets in all of bird conservation. It’s time to buy and show your stamp!

(Thanks to the Friends of the Migratory Bird/Duck Stamp for help in preparing this post.)

A longer version of this essay first appeared in Art and Illustration for Science Communication © 2022 Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Art and science might be humankind’s two most noble enterprises, and they have lived culturally hand-in-hand ever since our first applications of paint to depict animals, people, and action on the walls of caves. The great mathematician-philosopher Jacob Bronowski argued that they share common origins within the human psyche, driven by two parallel and powerful inner forces: our persistent curiosity and our vivid imagination.

In Bronowski’s words, “The symbol and the metaphor are as necessary to science as to poetry” and, “the discoveries of science, the works of art, are explorations…of hidden likeness. The discoverer, or the artist, presents in them two aspects of nature and fuses them into one. This is the act of creation, in which an original thought is born, and it is the same act in original science and original art.”

As scientists, we organize and codify our explorations, building upon the organized curiosities of our forebears. As artists, we craft our “data of the senses” into expressions of curiosities and perceptions, interpreting and evoking human emotions. Both of these endeavors involve experimentation and vision, as well as mistakes and failures. Science advances by pushing the boundaries of observation, evidence, and logic while staying aware that ideas are vulnerable. Art advances along remarkably parallel tracks, relentlessly probing boundary zones between observation, interpretation, and imagination, sometimes achieving brilliance, and other times falling flat.

In 1505–06, for example, Leonardo da Vinci wrote Codex on the Flight of Birds, having studied how birds fly and imagining how humans might mimic them. His ideas about human flight were abject failures, but his copious illustrations became timeless masterpieces of imaginative engineering.

By the 18th and 19th centuries, ornithologist-explorers such as Mark Catesby, William Bartram, Alexander Wilson, and John James Audubon were making fundamental scientific contributions while also exploring previously uncharted artistic spaces. For example, it was the British Museum’s ornithologist John Gould—famous for ground-breaking lithographs largely created by his wife, Elizabeth—who first recognized multiple distinct species among finches and mockingbirds collected by Charles Darwin on the Galápagos Islands, helping pave the way for Darwin’s foundational insights into evolution by natural selection.

To this day the world’s great natural history museums routinely bring artists and scientists together in order to catalog and understand the natural world, and to inspire the public about its wonders. Pioneering naturalist painters of the early 20th century like Liljefors, Fuertes, Rungius, Jaques, Sutton, and Peterson graced both the walls of museums and the pages of influential books, effectively blurring the distinctions between science and art in our discipline.

Universal Accessibility and Striking Variety

The interweaving of art with science at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology owes its origins to a Cornell professor in the early 20th century. Arthur A. Allen, the founder and first director of the Cornell Lab, understood that birds possess two great powers:  universal accessibility and striking variety, making them outstanding subjects for scientific breakthroughs about form, function, and ecological relationships. Equally, however, Allen appreciated how deeply birds appeal to the human imagination, thus making them focal subjects in painting, sculpture, poetry, song, and folklore through all ages and cultures.

As luck would have it, the junction of 19th and 20th centuries produced a gifted young bird artist named Louis Agassiz Fuertes, who is often referred to as “Audubon’s successor.” Fuertes lived in Ithaca, attended Cornell University, and became fast friends with Arthur Allen. This influential friendship helped reinforce Allen’s recognition of how powerfully birds stimulate the human psyche—both as subjects of science and as inspirations for art.

It is tempting to speculate that Allen, with his naturalist’s intuition, recognized that birds activate both sides of our brain. This idea gained currency much later as a popular concept in neurobiology—that the left-brain manages important features of intellect, speech, logic, and reasoning; while the right-brain handles less linear functions—the artistic, emotional, and spiritual components of our personality.

Birds possess the extraordinary power to light up both sides, often simultaneously. We study them, count them, learn nature’s secrets from them, even as we marvel at them, write songs and poetry about them, love them, and even worship them. Perhaps more than any other group of organisms, birds commingle our intellect with our aesthetics. They capture both our minds and our hearts.

As his long career at Cornell progressed, Arthur Allen increasingly focused on pioneering nature photography, natural history filming, sound recording, and studio productions for the general public. Among his dozens of students were talented artists such as Robert Mengel and George Miksch Sutton who incorporated sketches, technical illustrations, and color paintings into their publications. Allen’s launch of an annual journal called The Living Bird in 1960 was a milestone in ornithology, in large part because each issue interspersed dozens of line drawings, scratchboards, paintings, and even poetic verse among its dozens of technical papers.

Living Bird in its original form was a scientific and artistic success, but it circulated to only a few hundred scientists, supporters, and libraries. By 1981, when Charles Walcott arrived at the Lab to become its new director, birdwatching was gaining momentum as a popular outdoor pastime. Walcott made the bold move to convert Living Bird into the award-winning color quarterly magazine that it remains to this day. As the Lab’s signature magazine, Living Bird continues to pair extraordinary photography and illustration with top-flight science journalism written to stimulate, educate, and inspire a broad public audience about the wonders of birds and their places, habitats, behaviors, and vulnerabilities. In this way, every issue strives to be a quintessential melding of art and science.

art Finds a Home at the cornell Lab

Today the halls, walls, and grounds of the newly renovated Johnson Center for Birds and Biodiversity are adorned with paintings, prints, and sculptures by fine artists varying from the traditional realism of Louis Agassiz Fuertes and Frances Lee Jaques to the poignant sculptures of Todd McGrain and the witty, colorful avian graphics of Charley Harper. Two colossal murals grace our Visitors Center. James Prosek’s Wall of Silhouettes, inspired by Roger Tory Peterson’s iconic endpapers from A Field Guide to the Birds, pays homage to the role of birdwatching in the scientific study of birds and their habitats. Jane Kim’s From So Simple a Beginning is a monumental 2,500 square-foot mural presenting a stunning journey through 375 million years of evolution, beginning with the earliest marine tetrapods and ending with a vibrant celebration of modern birds and their global prevalence.

Maya Lin’s elegant Sound Ring is an interactive audio-sculptural component of her What is Missing? memorial to threatened and extinct biodiversity around the world. Todd McGrain’s evocative two meter tall Passenger Pigeon longingly faces skyward just outside the Lab’s entrance, one of five pieces in his dramatic Lost Bird Project. Hidden along a forested trail amidst Sapsucker Woods is a captivating, egg-shaped stone obelisk donated and constructed in situ by the artist Andy Goldsworthy. Closer to the building, a life sized, gleaming stainless steel Whooping Crane entitled “Invitation to the Dance,” by Kent Ullberg, was unveiled in 2018 to honor Dr. George Archibald for his research on cranes as a Cornell graduate student, and his subsequent founding of the International Crane Foundation.

the bartels science illustration program

Fine art of the highest caliber percolates through the Lab’s science and outreach, in no small part thanks to the vision of Phil and Susan Bartels. In 2003 they helped the Lab establish the Bartels Science Illustrators residency program. This unique and highly competitive annual fellowship has allowed the Lab to host a remarkable series of early-career artists who join us at our headquarters in Ithaca, usually for a year. Artists come from all corners of our country and beyond, challenging themselves and the many scientists around them to explore both sides of our brains.

Their styles and favored media are as varied as art itself, and over the years their contributions to the Lab’s scientific and public outputs have been prodigious. While learning from Lab experts and our scientific collections exactly how birds are shaped and feathered, Bartels Illustrators have given back to the Lab and the greater science communities by creating local field guides, participatory science materials, data visualizations, technical illustrations, playful cartoons, and even cover art for magazines and journals.

Many of us fell in love with birds because they stimulated our imagination and captured our hearts as well as our minds. As each Bartels Illustrator arrives at the Lab, their work reminds me that ornithology is an extraordinarily visual science. Their work reminds me of Bronowski’s profound insight that creativity and evolutionary progress in both science and art stem from the same, remarkably human union of curiosity and imagination. The very existence of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology is a celebration of this union.

About the Author

John W. Fitzpatrick served as the Executive Director of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology from 1995–2021. Read more about Fitz, including both his scientific career and his artwork, in this profile from Living Bird magazine.

About the Bartels Science Illustration Program

The Bartels Science Illustration residency supports illustrators who are just starting their careers to build their portfolios by working on projects at the Cornell Lab. Their work is published regularly in Living Bird magazine, our All About Birds website, participatory science materials, and in scientific publications.

View the work of the 30+ talented illustrators that have been part of the program since it began in 2003. For more information visit the Bartels Science Illustration Program website or contact program coordinator Jillian Ditner.

At A Glance

PROS:

• Sharp image 
• Attractive and easy-to-hold design
• Large eyecups and focus wheel for ease of use
• Affordable price point

CONS:

• Strong sepia cast affects color perception and limits brightness
• Very limited close focus can interfere with birdwatching at feeders

STATS:

• Price: $95 MSRP at press time. Prices often fluctuate, so check with retailers
• Close focus: Listed at 13.1 feet (400 cm). However in tests, we could not focus these binoculars closer than about 22.6 feet (689 cm)
• Field of view: 6.8° (357 feet at 1,000 yards). More about field of view 
• Weight: 11.9 oz (337 g)—that’s about 1.2 oz (35 g) heavier than the average for pocket binoculars in our review
• Eye relief: 10 mm

Viewing Experience: The Nocs Standard Issue 8×25 offers a sharp image that is hampered by an odd sepia cast and poor close focus. Previously, we’ve admired the performance of the Nocs Pro Issue 8×42, but these smaller binoculars don’t meet the same standard. When looking through them, colors shift strongly to a golden or amber tone, giving the impression of a dim image and making it hard to discern true colors. In strong light, a Carolina Wren prospecting for nest sites was a lovely warm brown, with an eyestripe so sharp it seemed sculpted. But when watching an Eastern Bluebird perched in side light on a low branch, the russet tones were so exaggerated that it took a few extra seconds to realize it was a male, not a female. Added to this issue is the close focus. At about 23 feet, it can really hamper everyday birding; watching a feeder on a back deck, we found we had to move farther back into the kitchen to get the visiting cardinals and White-throated Sparrows into focus.

Feel and Build: We love how Nocs are aiming to bring some fun and style into the world of binoculars. The Standard Issue 8×25 comes in fun colors including canary, poppy, cypress, glacial blue, and cobalt. And with their heavily textured, geometrically patterned armoring they are instantly recognizable. We like the secure grip this provides, though it may not be for everyone. The single-hinge design is practical and secure for birdwatching, though it doesn’t fold down as small as the double-hinge design models. The eyecups are large, rounded, comfortable, and provide good shading and contrast for the image. The focus wheel is grippy but has a rather stiff movement that can be slow to focus. We also appreciated the choice of packaging: recycled cardboard, without plastic, and with fun birding tips printed on the box.

This article is one in a series of mini-reviews. To see how these binoculars compare to others we’ve tested, see our full review of pocket binoculars.