Birding Resources
U.S. Government Bird Pages
- Migratory Birds
- The Fish and Wildlife Service is the leading federal agency for managing and conserving migratory birds in the United States. The Office of Migratory Bird Management is the branch that carries out the Service's responsibilities, which it does in concert with a host of participating partners, both domestic and foreign. The goals of the MBMO are to conserve migratory bird populations and their habitats in sufficient quantities to prevent them from being considered as threatened or endangered, and to ensure the citizens of the United States continued opportunities to enjoy both consumptive and nonconsumptive uses of migratory birds and their habitats.
- Bird and Terrestrial Species Conservation
- From the U.S. Geological Survey's Eastern Ecological Science Center. Has links to the North American Bird Banding Laboratory, the North American Breeding Bird Survey, and Bird Conservation.
- Migratory Species
- The U.S. Fish and Wildlife site includes recent news stories about about migratory birds. Also of interest is the Birding page, with links to topics such as How to Get Started, Where the Birds Are, and Refuge Bird Festivals.
Places to Bird
- Birds in Texas: Texas Parks and Wildlife
- Texas State Parks are some of the best places to bird, since Texas has over 600 species to be found in its borders. Most of the individual park sites have bird checklists, habitat information, festival information, and general information about bird trails and specialty birds at their park. Some local parks include Palo Duro Canyon and Caprock Canyon State Parks. Other good birding parks are Davis Mountains State Park and Hueco Tanks State Park.
- National Parks
- National Parks are also a great place to search for birds. Two of the best are right here in Texas: Big Bend National Park and Guadalupe Mountains National Park are birding hotspots.
- National Wildlife Refuge System
- Some of the best birding areas are National Wildlife Refuges, land set aside and managed just for wildlife. This site includes Birding in the Refuge System.
Birding Organizations
- Texas Panhandle Bird Club
- The Texas Panhandle Bird Club is the local birding club for this area. This site includes tips on where to bird in the Panhandle, spring and fall migrating bird arrival dates, and Christmas Bird Count listings.
- Texas Ornithological Society
- Texas Ornithological Society promotes the discovery and dissemination of knowledge of birds; encourages the observation, study and conservation of birds in Texas; encourages formation of local birding clubs; and stimulates cooperation among professional ornithologists.
- Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology
- Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology has a lot of information about our feathered friends. They have several watches, such as Feederwatch and NestWatch, disease ecology, homestudy courses, an Online Bird Guide, and, best of all, the Library of Natural Sounds, the largest natural sound library.
- National Audubon Society
- The National Audubon Society specializes in the conservation and education about wildlife. They promote local chapters (such as Lubbock, El Paso, and Norman) all over the United States and have several WatchLists of birds.
- American Birding Association
- The American Birding Association sponsors birding events, conservation and education for bird welfare, a blog, news, book reviews, and more.
International Birding Sites
- Hinterland Who's Who: Birds (Canada)
- Has fact sheets, videos, +and audio for some of the 462 birds in Canada.
- Israel Birding Portal
- To show that migrating birds know no boundaries, this project uses satellite telemetry to follow migrating birds.
- Birds Australia
- Here you can get an Australian bird checklist (download on Working List), follow along on the atlas bird mapping project, read about nest boxes and threatened species.