Let’s take a step outside today and engage our senses like our 5-year-old selves would! Today is World Migratory Bird Day and you might tune in to a chorus. This is a great opportunity to see or listen to the birds visiting wherever you are in the world. By learning their song, we can discover who lives with us year-round and who is migrating through. Becoming more familiar with each species we can learn how to best support them. We can install their favorite style of nesting box, a preferred type of water source, or native plants, trees, and berries that they love.

There are some great free apps for identifying birds by their song. Merlin Bird ID by Cornell Lab is the top pick. Once you download the free regional bird packs you’ll be able to see who is singing at any given moment. It will highlight the identified bird on the screen as it sings, even when multiple species are calling. Another app is BirdNET by Cornell Lab, where you select segments of a recording to identify a bird. As their song fills the screen with various frequencies, I am amazed at how complex they can be! The app also labels the level of certainty for the ID. The above photo shows some of the possible birds I’ve recorded in BirdNET. It has been fun to watch the list grow!

If you try out these apps, or are a bird ID pro, feel free to share below how many birds did you see or hear today? Let your inner child have some fun tuning into the sounds of nature! A friend and I will be doing just that this morning, as we head out for an Audubon walk to observe warblers and other species. If you might be interested in supporting your local Audubon chapter, or attending their events, visit Audubon.org to learn more.

Did you know that Audubon offers a Native Plant Search Tool to better support the birds in your backyard? You can search by zip code, and filter by type of bird to see plants appropriate for your area. You can also filter by plant type, and plant resource - such as nectar, fruit, nuts and seeds. Consider ways to offer food resources throughout the year.

To see some of my favorite products to support bird species visit the Sustainable Sites section of the Products page.

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