CURRENT

In 1968, at the age of 10, I set a goal to see 600 bird species in the U.S. by what then seemed the impossibly old age of 50. At that time, it seemed to me that spotting 600 bird species was akin to a Major League Baseball player hitting 500 career home runs, a goal which only a handful of players had reached. So, seeing 600 bird species was achievable, and certainly very special.

What about the problem of the proliferation of honorific, or patronymic, names on the ABA Checklist? Should all those names–some of them referring to widespread and familiar species commemorating significant historical figures–be scrapped? This commentary addresses that question, and proposes a way forward.

The Development Manager (DM) is responsible for the identification and qualification of major and planned gift prospects and assists in cultivating and soliciting donors through communications, meetings, trips, events, and other activities. The DM leads the development of an annual fundraising plan and is the main staff liaison to the Board’s fundraising committee.

After an extensive search, ABA is excited to announce the appointment of Wayne Klockner as Executive Director. Wayne joins the ABA with an impressive history of nonprofit leadership experience in the conservation field, including a 38-year career with The Nature Conservancy.

ABA Members can view the recording of this webinar here: https://www.aba.org/community/groups/programs-webinars/ The American Birding Association kicks read more >>

Many of us can attribute our passion for birding to the people and groups who fostered our read more >>

Indigenous Birders, Cattle Ranchers, and Conservation in Latin America
Birding and bird photography have become popular pursuits in Latin America, and, for many, even a career. This development applies also to Indigenous communities, where some people have discovered that they can use birding as a way to protect the area they live in while deriving a livelihood.

Closer to Owls, but in the Right Ways.
Snowy Owls are one of the most recognized and beloved birds in the world. To protect them, it’s essential that birders enjoy these birds ethically.

On behalf of the ABA Board of Directors and staff, the ABA Awards Committee is delighted to announce the winners of the 2022 ABA Awards. This year, the ABA Awards Committee is happy to recognize one recipient of the ABA Lifetime Achievement Award, also called “The Tropicbird,” one recipient of the Award for Conservation and Education, and two recipients of the Award for Distinguished Service. ABA Awards are given to birders who have done exceptional work in promoting the cause of birding.

Listen to the songs mentioned in Stephanie Seymour's interview in the December 2022 issue of Birding magazine from her brilliant album, There Are Birds.

Go To ABA Community >> We're delighted to welcome ABA members to our newest project: ABA Community. read more >>

Birds inspire art in many ways: writing, painting, photography, film. Not least of the art forms that birds frequently move people to create is music. The work of composer and violinist Julia Tchira has been heavily influenced by the wonder of birds, including a recent piece she wrote about the ABA’s 2022 Bird of the Year, the Burrowing Owl.

Holy freakin’ cow! I have uttered those words quite regularly, and rarely quietly, from the moment I unpacked my new Olympus M.Zuiko 150–400mm F4.5 TC 1.25x IS PRO. So what does the TC 1.25x in the name stand for? That’s another fun capability of this lens . . . it has a 1.25x teleconverter built in. Just flipping a switch multiplies your focal length by 25%, so the 300–800mm equivalent focal length becomes a 375–1,000mm f5.6 super telephoto birding lens.

As part of its celebration of the third Black Birders Week, please enjoy the ABA's two-part session of the prerecorded panel "Black Birders: Embracing the Beauty Within." The panel explores such topics as childhood experiences with birds, how to pass on generational knowledge of birds, and whether things have changed since the first Black Birders Week.

Delaware City, Delaware – Rebecca Minardi has been hired as Birding magazine’s new Book and Media Reviews read more >>

On behalf of the ABA Board of Directors and staff, we are delighted to share our two 2021 recipients of the ABA Lifetime Achievement Award, also called “The Tropicbird”: J. Drew Lanham and Jen Brumfield. ABA Lifetime Achievement Awards are given to birders who have completed a lifetime’s worth of...

If you’ve had experiences with access in the outdoors, we would appreciate knowing about them.

Spend any amount of time at all in the company of birders, and you quickly discover read more >>

The ABA's 2022 Bird of the Year is the Burrowing Owl, arguably the world's most charismatic bird species!

The American Birding Association announces that Jeffrey A. Gordon has resigned from his 11-year post as president, effective 30 Nov. 2021.

In 2004, Mark Obmascik suddenly burst onto the birding scene with the release of his first book, The Big Year—and his fame escalated when Hollywood made it into a movie in 2011.

The American Birding Association is happy to announce a re-envisioned, complete make-over of our tried-and-true staple: ABA Birding News 2021.

The ABA is proud that the Pileated Woodpecker, emblem of both the wild woods and the adaptability of birds to anthropogenically altered spaces, is our 2021 Bird of the Year.

December 31, 2020 As 2020 draws to a close, we have the following updates on efforts and read more >>

It turned out that I didn’t know what kinds of noises Northern Saw-whet Owls made in fall and early winter! Now I do, and it’s changed everything.

Here is a concise update on our progress toward equity, diversity, and inclusion over the last three months. As always, we welcome your input, support, and participation in these worthy and long-term efforts.

The Tale of an Epic Big Sit in a Tiny Back Yard

Stuck at home for the entire spring migration, Greg Neise documents the birds flying through, around, and over his 35-foot-by-25-foot brick patio. Even if you're confined to a small urban swelling during this time of COVID-19, there is still birding to be had.

The American Birding Association presents this summary of its recent and ongoing efforts to make our birding community read more >>

Like so many in the birding community, American Birding Association staff and board were inspired by last week’s #BlackBirdersWeek, and greatly appreciate the effort to not only celebrate Black faces and voices in birding, but to draw attention to the unique difficulties birding can pose to Black people in terms of accessibility, safety, and community. 

"Please don’t tell a person of color you don’t see color. That’s insulting. After all, most birders spend lots of time seeing color—otherwise a Red-winged Blackbird and a Snow Bunting wouldn’t be so beautifully different. So, see the color. Respect the face. Get to know me inside. The rest will fall into place."

The American Birding Association is saddened by the situation documented by Christian Cooper in the Central Park ramble read more >>

The whole world seems to have started to notice birds, a phenomenon that has been widely reported in major newspapers, on network news, and at online information sites.

This spring is a historic one. For us birders and nature-lovers, sheltering in place during spring migration is a tough pill to swallow. You might have had a calendar chock full of group tours, road trips, or bird club meetings. For your own safety and the safety of others, you’re staying home… but now what?

American Birding Association Guidelines on Birding and Social Distancing The basic principles of “quarantine” birding are already well covered in the ABA Code of Birding Ethics:

Here’s the deal: We’re all sheltering in place, we’re all staying at home, and we’re all, frankly, looking for ways to take our minds off the COVID-19 crisis, if even for a short while. And birding, it turns out, is a superb activity if you can’t get out of the neighborhood, if you can’t even get out of the house.

With this update, we’re going to let you know what’s been going on at the ABA in the past week (lots!), how you can continue to help (not just financially), and how we can help you (we really do mean that).

Dear ABA Members and Friends, The past week has been unlike anything any of us have ever read more >>

Hey, everyone! My name is Hannah Floyd, and I am a ninth-grader in Colorado. Like many of you reading this, I am on an extended break due to the coronavirus. What does one do in a situation like this? Go outside and explore, of course!

First things first. We at the ABA are taking this seriously. The COVID-19 emergency is affecting read more >>

May 29, 2019 How many bird species are on the official list of your state or province? read more >>

Now we faced another long haul … but this was into unknown territory for us. The drive to Meredosia was quiet. We were in the mid-170s, the day was running out and we couldn’t see a clear path to 188. Jeff was becoming irritated. It’s the unspoken part of doing a big day. We hear all about the awesome sightings, the strategy and so on … but the grunt-work: the driving (especially, and Jeff is an especially gifted driver), and staying on-your-game when you’ve been up and going at it for 18 hours—with another day’s-worth of work ahead of you—takes a toll.