Vermont Breeding Bird Atlas

If you are not an experienced birder and want to participate in the Atlas, we strongly encourage you to start becoming familiar with the species that occur in Vermont by sight and sound. Even experienced birders often need some refreshing over the winter.

If you don’t already have a field guide you like, we recommend one of the following, which can be found at bookstores or on the web:

The National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America by Jon L. Dunn. For songs, National Geographic also puts out a “Guide to Bird Sounds” cd.
A field guide to the Birds: A Completely New Guide to All the Birds of Eastern and Central North America (Peterson Field Guides) by Roger Tory Peterson (Illustrator). Peterson Field Guides also puts out a bird song cd for Eastern birds.
“The Sibley Guide to Birds” by David Allen Sibley is more of a table top bird guide than a true “field guide” (it is fairly big and heavy). However, it has very complete information about the natural history, distribution, and various plumages of each species, and can be a very handy resource. It is generally considered the top field guide nowadays.

The Cornell Lab or Ornithology has accounts of many species, and each account includes a description, sounds, information about habitat, conservation status, and cool facts.

The Virtual Birder
This website can help beginning birders get started - it offers helpful hints about how to remember bird songs, but only has a sampling of species.

“Birding by Ear” (Eastern/Central) by Peterson field guides is a cd with similar information and guides, and has all the species you might encounter in Vermont. It is available at most nature stores and bookstores, or you can order it on the web.

Thayer Birding Software provides songs pictures, quizzes, etc. in an interactive environment right on your computer. We recommend the "Birds of My Area" cd which will allow you to select the Northeastern US when you register it.

The Species Audio Library, sponsored by the Wisconsin breeding Bird Atlas: listen to songs and calls of many of the species that breed in Vermont.

Northern Michigan Birding has visual i.d. quizzes and tests on-line. A helpful study guide for new birders and as a refresher.

About Birding.com
This website has almost everything from reviews of field guides to where you can purchase song cds and other birding equipment.

For a very readable and informative treatment of all the bird species known to occur in Vermont and where to find them, make sure to add Ted Murin and Bryan Pfeiffer’s new book “Birdwatching in Vermont” to your birding library. This is also available in most local bookstores.

VERMONT'S BREEDING BIRDS We have compiled, for species nesting in Vermont, information on preferred habitat as well as nest location, height, substrate, and type. This document also includes safe dates and special techniques helpful in documenting some species.

"Nests, eggs, and nestlings of North American Birds" by Baicich and Harrison can be helpful in the sometimes difficult task of identifying bird nests and eggs. Nest or egg i.d. isn't always fullproof for confirming the identification of many species, but this book will give you ideas as to what to look for and may help if you're trying to decide between a few different species. "The Birder's Handbook" by Ehrlich, Dobkin, and Wheye gives a brief account of each species behavior, status, diet, and breeding information. A good encyclopedia of the basic facts about each species that field guides don't cover.

The Interpretive Birding Bulletin, "a science magazine for birders". It has interesting articles generally focusing on how to interpret the meaning behind what birds are doing. It helps you understand bird behavior - great for atlassing!

eNature.com
See when birds are migrating through our area, hear their songs and nesting and habitat information.