Birding from Home

Ideas to bird in and around your home

Use webcams to meet birds living far away

Many locations around the world have webcams to show off nests, feeders, and gathering locations.  Here are some of our favorites!

Wilmington Falcons

Follow the adventures of the Peregrine Falcons named Trinity and Red Girl as they raise their young on the Brandywine Building in downtown Wilmington, Delaware.

Mispillion Harbor Cams

The Dupont Nature Center near Milford, DE, has two cams.  One follows a nesting pair of Ospreys and the other shows the shorebirds that come to feed on horseshoe crab eggs in spring migration.

Cornell Lab of Ornithology Cams

From albatross to hummingbirds to a feeding station in Panama, this page has lots of different adventures to choose from.

Nesting Condors

Discover North America’s biggest birds with these two nest cams focused on California Condor nests in California.

Nesting Bald Eagles

This nest cam focuses on a pair of Bald Eagles raising their young at Duke Farms in New Jersey.

Migrating Sandhill Cranes

Audubon’s Rowe Sanctuary in Nebraska is home to a major stop over for migrating Sandhill Cranes.  100,000 to 200,000 cranes can be seen during the peak season!

Atlantic Puffins

Hang out with some Atlantic Puffins and their friends as they congregate on Seal Island in Maine.

Use eBird to keep track of the birds that live near you

eBird is an international database of bird sightings.  Anybody can enter a checklist from anywhere around the world, then that data is available for researchers to learn from.  It is also a great way to keep track of birds you have seen in general or in a specific location, like your yard, neighborhood, or local park.

ebird home page
Eastern Bluebird

Create a bird-friendly environment at your home

If there are things that attract birds around you, it makes it easier to see them! You can make your home more attractive to birds by providing abundant food, shelter, and clean water. You can make your home even better by ensuring that the neighborhood birds are safe from window collisions as well.

Participate in community science projects

Community science is when people work together to help answer scientific questions using observations made right in their own backyards!  There are projects that relate to all different facets of bird life, and there is sure to be one that piques your interest.

Great Backyard Bird Count

Count the birds in your backyard over four days in February every year and contribute your counts to this long running project to monitor bird populations.

Celebrate Urban Birds

Learn how to identify the birds in your backyard while you count them

Project FeederWatch

Count birds coming to your feeder to contribute to the long running project to monitor bird populations.

Project NestWatch

Keep track of the breeding birds around your home to help scientists monitor population trends and breeding success.

Journey North

This project is all about the movement of species up and down North America during migration. Great for hummingbird lovers!

iNatualist

Join naturalists from the entire world recording all their nature observations. Great for all kinds of organisms including plants and animals of all types, not just birds. Document the species in your neighborhood using your phone.

red headed woodpecker

Follow Birding Facebook Groups

Following the Facebook pages of bird groups from around the country is a great way to learn about the birds you can expect to see in those areas!  Here are some groups that celebrate birding in our region.

Join Other Birders in your Area

Getting out in the field with other birders helps youth birders learn bird spotting and identification techniques that they can use at home! While we highly encourage participation in the field trips hosted by DOS and the Red Knot Youth Birders group, we recognize that schedules don’t always line up. Here are some places in our region that often host family friendly walks.

  • Bellevue State Park, Wilmington DE
  • Brandywine Creek State Park, Wilmington DE
  • Bucktoe Preserve, Kennett Square PA
  • Ashland Nature Center, Hockessin DE
  • Middle Run Natural Area, Newark DE
  • Trap Pond State Park, Laurel DE
  • Cape Henlopen State Park, Lewes DE
barred owl

Sponsorship

This endeavor to bring birding opportunities to young people is supported by the Chemours Company. We thank them for their support.