Happy new year!

We’re proud to bring you the first issue of 2025, which is chock full of the Bird of the Year: the stunning Common Loon. All year, Birding will celebrate these incredible birds – and we’d love to hear your own celebrations! If you have any special stories about Common Loons, please send them to me at iseritan@aba.org for inclusion in the Celebrations column. Please include your name, hometown, date and location of your special sighting, and any details that made it memorable to you, no more than 150 words. I can’t wait to hear from you.

The cover features a rich and vibrant painting of the Bird of the Year by Sam Zimmerman /
Zhaawanoogiizhik, an Ojibwe artist based in Minnesota. Read the interview with Sam to learn about his art practice and what the Common Loon means to him, and to see some of his other beautiful paintings of Minnesotan wildlife.

We’re also happy to present the annual Bird of the Year coloring page, which you are more than welcome to print out and share with your friends and children. The more the merrier!

For more Bird of the Year content, check out Spectacles and Primary Thoughts, the columns written by Birding Co-Editor Frank Izaguirre and ABA Executive Director Wayne Klockner; B. N. Singh’s absolutely adorable Featured Photo of a loon chick; and Doug Tozer’s article on what birders need to know about these amazing birds.

January’s regular Interview is with Scott V. Edwards, an ornithologist, cross-country biker, and Professor of Zoology and Curator of Ornithology at the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University. Dr. Edwards talks about the importance of museum collections, what it feels like to watch students take flight, how to increase diversity in birding, and much more.

In addition, Meg Scherch Peterson teaches us tips on how to find secretive Flammulated Owls, and Jesús Antonio “Chucho” Moo Yam ponders where the boundary lies between being a birder and being an ornithologist.

As always, the Book & Media Reviews take their full form online. In this issue:

• Nancy Lord reviews “Loon Lessons: Uncommon Encounters with the Great Northern Diver” by James D. Paruk
• Katie Boord reviews “The Shorebirds of North America: A Natural History and Photographic Celebration” by Pete Dunne and Kevin T. Karlson
• Rick Wright reviews “Fergus the Silent” by Michael McCarthy and “The Last of Its Kind: The Search for the Great Auk and the Discovery of Exinction” by Gisli Pálsson
• Danielle Belleny reviews “Cemetery Birding: An Unexpected Guide to Discovering Birds in Texas”

We hope you enjoy this issue – and until we meet again, happy birding!