New: Binoculars available from Duluth Audubon Society!
To supplement the loaner binoculars in the Duluth Audubon Birding Trunks at the Great Lakes Aquarium (see below), the Duluth Audubon Society has purchased 40 new binoculars for education programs -10 Eagle Optics Denali 8 x 42 binoculars and 30 Eagle Optics Kingbird 6.5 X 32 binoculars. These will be available for use with school groups, teacher workshops, field trips, bird classes, and DAS events. If you are interested in borrowing them for one of these uses, please contact Education Chair Cindy Edwardson. Bird books will be purchased soon to go with the binoculars.
Duluth Audubon Society Birding Map and Descriptions
We’d like you to be able to learn and see all the birds in the local environments that you can. Download our Duluth Audubon Society Birding Map.
New to Birding?
For starters, visit Bird Watcher’s Digest Get Started Birding page for tips on learning the arts of observation and listening. For a slightly more in-depth presentation, visit National Audubon’s How to Bird page.
For help with learning to identify bird species, visit National Audubon’s Online Guide to North American Birds which covers all of North America’s regular breeding birds-approximately 580 species – as well as an additional 180 or so non-breeding species that regularly or occasionally visit North America north of Mexico.
To see photographs (and hear calls of) bird species to which National Audubon is devoting special care in protecting, visit their Bird Profiles page. Species on this list include those on Audubon’s WatchList, the top 20 Common Birds in Decline, birds under threat from climate change, birds affected by the Gulf Oil Spill, the top 30 Birds to Help in your neighborhood and the Waterbird Conservation program.
And finally, for the basic courtesies observed by birders, visit National Audubon’s Birding Etiquette page
Birding is good for mind, body, and soul, which is why it is a hobby for nearly 50 million Americans. The idea of learning about the hundreds of North American birds may seem daunting, but if you only learn to recognize one new bird per month, in five years you’ll know sixty new birds!
Key websites for birders
National Audubon Society
Visit their site for a vast amount of information. Here are currently featured articles: How to tell a raven from a crow. Listening at last to female birdsong!
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is a nonprofit organization and a world leader in the study, appreciation, and conservation of birds. Click on this site to read articles of interest to birders. Here’s one you may enjoy: Why do downy and hairy woodpeckers look so similar when they aren’t related?
Minnesota Ornithological Union
The Minnesota Ornithological Union (MOU) is a state organization and bird club. Lots of information here.
eBird
If you would like to share your observations plus check what other recreational and professional birders in your community and far beyond are seeing, visit this website. eBird was created in 2002 by Cornell Lab of Ornithology and National Audubon Society and it is providing a massive collection of observations that is used by birders and scientists to learn about bird populations and distributions. A fascinating site!
Another feature of eBird shows birding hotspots in your local area. Click on these for hotspots in St. Louis County, MN and Douglas County, WI
American Bird Conservancy
This is another valuable site featuring relevant avian topics. For instance, their feature “Bird of the Week”.
Climate Watch
Climate Watch aims to document species’ responses to climate change by having volunteers in the field look for birds where Audubon’s climate models project they should be in the 2020s.
Cool Green Science Weekly
Great articles from the Nature Conservancy.
Natural Food and Shelter
There is much information in our Natural Food and Shelter guide.
Books
If you are further interested in improving your habitat in your yard, here are few selected references to check out! Some of these books may be out of print, but your local bookstore or library may have a copy.
Woodworking for Wildlife: Homes for Birds and Animals by Carrol Henderson
Landscaping for Wildlife by Carrol Henderson
Lakescaping for Wildlife and Water Quality by Carrol Henderson
Birds and Forests by Jan Green
101 ways to help birds by Laura Erickson
Borrow binoculars and bird books!
If you or your organization is interested in borrowing binoculars and/or bird books, check out the Duluth Audubon Birding Trunks housed at the Great Lake Aquarium. It’s free and easy to check them out depending on availability. There are two sets of 15 binoculars and a birding trunk with a classroom set of field guides. Use the links below to sign out either or both of these great resources.
- binoculars
- birding trunk with books