Bird Observer

21/05/2026

Celebrating 40 years of the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network and thanking the people who have supported World Shorebirds Day.

19/05/2026

Oystercatcher Day has officially launched as a new international awareness initiative focused on oystercatchers, coastal habitats, and beach-nesting birds.

18/05/2026

For more than a decade, World Shorebirds Day existed across surveys, local events, social media posts, photographs, and conversations scattered around the world. Now, it has a new home. The new World Shorebirds Day portal is live. https://www.worldshorebirdsday.org

15/05/2026

Most birding apps optimise for speed and certainty. Firefinch takes another path — using illustration and slower learning to explore how birding tools shape observation itself. A new reflective feature in The Ornithologist.

08/05/2026

A personal reflection on David Attenborough at 100, The Life of Birds, and the signed photograph that helped shape a young birder’s path.

https://bird-observer.org/a-wandering-albatross-in-a-hungarian-village

A personal reflection on David Attenborough at 100, The Life of Birds, and the signed photograph that helped shape a young birder’s path.

23/04/2026

Curlews are not disappearing unnoticed. We now understand the drivers of their decline with precision. Yet across continents, recovery remains slow — or absent. On World Curlew Day, a closer look at a species group still on the edge.

24/03/2026

Not everything resolves with time.
Some things simply continue.

A reflection on fifty years spent outside — in nature, in observation, and in motion.

https://bird-observer.org/fifty-years-in-the-same-direction-with-birds/

Not everything resolves with time. Some things simply continue. A reflection on fifty years spent outside — in nature, in observation, and in motion.

19/03/2026

A 40-year study of the Hermit Thrush reveals how climate change reshapes birds in unexpected ways — through both evolution and phenotypic plasticity.

10/03/2026

A Shoebill that never existed – yet looked entirely real. Artificial intelligence is already reshaping ornithology, from acoustic monitoring to migration modelling. But generative systems raise deeper questions: when realism becomes effortless, how do we preserve authenticity in science?

07/03/2026

How do you plan a birding journey through one of the most diverse countries on Earth?
This is the method we used for our Colombia trip.
https://bird-observer.org/how-we-plan-birding-through-colombia/

How do you plan a birding journey through one of the most diverse countries on Earth? This is the method we used for our Colombia trip.