Birding Resources

The ABA provides diverse resources for birders of all interest levels.

Community Resources

  • Welcome New Birders!

    If you are just getting started with birding, we offer these tips and resources for beginner birders.

    New Birder

  • Festivals & Community Events

    This registry is your guide to finding bird festivals and other birding events across the U.S. and Canada.

  • ABA Area Birding Trails

    Find out how to get to popular "birding trails" throughout the ABA Area.

  • Birding Clubs & Organizations

    Get a listing of local and regional bird clubs, as well as state and provincial ornithological societies, in the U.S. and Canada.

Listing & Taxonomy

  • Recording Standards and Ethics Committee

    This committee provides guidance for keeping personal bird lists, clarifying rules for birding contests, and interpeting the status of non-native birds.

  • ABA Recording Rules & Interpretations

    The ABA Recording Standards & Ethics Committee provides guidance to birders desiring to keep official lists of their sightings.

  • ABA Area Repatriated Indigenous Species

    This is a list of species indigenous to the ABA Area which have been successfully introduced (repatriated) to areas in which they formerly occurred.

  • ABA Code of Birding Ethics

    This widely admired set of easily understood guidelines encourages all birders to practice and promote respectful, enjoyable, and thoughtful birding.

  • ABA Checklist Committee

    This committee, made up of experts on avian status and distribution, maintains, revises, and publishes the ABA Checklist.

  • ABA Area Big Day Rules

    Get guidance on the rules for conducting an official Big Day in the ABA Area.

  • ABA Area Big Year Rules

    Get guidance on ABA rules for conducting an official Big Year in the ABA Area.

  • ABA Area Introduced Species

    We maintain a list of introduced and established non-native species that are countable on the ABA Checklist.

  • ABA Checklist

    This annotated list includes 1,161 species documented to have occurred in the ABA Area according to the criteria of the ABA Checklist Committee.

  • Listing Areas and Regions

    Learn about the exact definition of the ABA Area, as well as other regions of likely interest to ABA members and friends.

  • Listing Central

    This is an invaluable tool for ABA members interested in managing their life lists, as well as tracking year lists, month lists, and Big Day lists.

Learning

  • From the Magazines

    Select articles from Birding and North American Birds magazines.

  • Columns

    Explore our editorial columns, including "Book & Media Reviews," "Field Ornithology," "Birds and…," "How to Know The Birds," and "Photo Quiz."

  • ABA Area Field Guides

    These popular and successful photographic field guides, jointly produced with Scott & Nix Publishing and organized by state or province, are a must-have for resident and visiting birders alike.

  • ABA Livestreams

    Join Greg Neise and Nate Swick every other Friday for live bird ID discussion—or browse the archive of recordings.

    ABA Live

  • Identification Vault

    This member-only resource provides PDFs of 700 identification and fieldcraft articles, searchable and tagged by species.

News & Alerts

ABA Birding News

Birding News aggregates news from regional listservs, rare bird alerts, and more sources, all in one convenient place.

ABA Rare Bird Alert

Weekly summary of notable ABA rarities.

Rare Bird Alert Facebook Group

View rare bird alerts from ABA community members, and contribute your own alerts.

ABA Blog

Stay up to date with the latest ABA-related news.

Newsletters

Subscribe to our flight calls newsletter, as well as travel, publication, and general announcement newsletters.

North American Rare Bird Alert (NARBA)

NARBA is the source for fast, accurate rare bird reports in the ABA Area (Canada, the U.S., and St.-Pierre-et-Miquelon). ABA members who sign up for NARBA receive alerts via email; alerts are also viewable on the web.