VIREO Initiative is a student-led organization that creates open acoustic datasets to better recognize how sound affects avian wildlife. The datasets are available to anyone who wants to study the effect of our noise and how to mitigate its impact. Magaranth Rajkumar, founder of VIREO Initiative, shares an absorbing look into how the nonprofit started, technology used, and insights gleaned.

The Urban Birding Festival continues to grow in its third year, with around 850 festival-goers, presenters, guides, volunteers, and vendors traveling from 23 states to attend this year! It is a testament to the power of birds and the awe they inspire that they can bring so many people together.

This year in Chicago we had two Bald Eagle nests, with eaglets! All of the news reports mentioned that these eaglets were the first born within city limits in over 100 years. Why the wait? Well, it’s not just Chicago with the dearth of eaglets. Illinois overall has had relatively few eagle nests, much less eaglets, until recently. Here we take a look at the known, or at least published, local history of Bald Eagle nestings in the last 100 years, and successful strategies to increase the feasibility of future nests.

Dexter Patterson is a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor and huge bird nerd who wants everyone to experience the joy of birding. The Chicago Bird Alliance had the incredible opportunity to interview Dexter, and we are thrilled to share his responses!

Ospreys are fascinating predatory birds, and they’ve been sighted nesting around Chicagoland in recent years, as far as the suburb of Lemont, thanks to the method of hacking! Learn about the ongoing Illinois Osprey Hacking Project and how you can help these magnificent raptors in our exclusive interview with Tih-Fen Ting, Ph.D., head of the hacking project at the University of Illinois Springfield!

Has the thought ever crossed your mind that every avian species should be feted, with their uniqueness honored in song? Tommy Siegel (Jukebox the Ghost) and Billy Libby (Ingrid Michaelson), both world-touring musicians, have tasked themselves with creating the entrance music each bird deserves with their podcast Extremely Accurate Bird Songs. All episodes contain serious facts, amusing commentary, and original music for a specific bird, as well as an expert who critiques the song for accuracy.

Believe it or not, Fall Migration for birds is already underway in Chicagoland.

For the first time in roughly 100 years, baby Bald Eagles were born in Chicago earlier this year. While this stoic and iconic predatory bird has been seen more frequently in Chicagoland throughout the past 20 years or so, their history and presence in Cook County, and even beyond Illinois, goes farther back.

For anyone living or working in Chicago tired of reading about collisions and seeing fatalities prone on the sidewalk, please visit the Chicago Collisions Coalition website to learn more about what you can do now.

When rain is predicted you might open a weather app to check when the storm will roll in, viewing radar imaging to pinpoint the moment you need an umbrella. Weather radar is, of course, used to track precipitation. But not everything in the sky is a meteorological phenomenon - a perhaps lesser-known use of radar is bird migration monitoring.

The original story appeared in OutdoorIllinois Journal (outdoor.wildlifeillinois.org), a product of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and National Great Rivers Research and Education Center.

Join us for Female Bird Day by celebrating female birds.

Local birder and environmental policy advocate talks careers, rare-bird chasing, and the power of constituency.

Black and white plumage,

checkered with white spots,

a ruff of lace around the neck—

kings and queens of the lake,

dignified, graceful,

royalty among waterfowl.

We need your help for the Spring Bird Count next Saturday, May 9th! This is a yearly count covering all 102 counties in Illinois. The data derived from it is vital in helping understand the impact of climate change on birds and population trends statewide.

Pine silhouettes gathered the first light along their edges, and the morning seemed suspended between night and day. The surface lay still, holding its breath. I arrived at dawn, before the park’s quiet would yield to footsteps and voices, hoping to encounter the birds in the brief hour when the lake still belonged to them.

We know that Mother Nature follows her own calendar of the seasons, and has no need for our human holidays to mark the entry of spring in the Northern Hemisphere. But, if she were to put together an Easter Basket, what eggs might we find in it? How, and why, do the eggs of so many bird species become colorful and distinctive?

Register now for the Chicago Bird Alliance Environmental Awards Brunch and Annual Meeting!

The lakefront stretch from East 45th-51st St, Morgan Shoal, is being redeveloped by the City of Chicago with significant new parkland built out into what is now lake.

Spring migration season for birds has arrived - here are some things we can do to make it safer.

On February 19th, the Chicago Bird Alliance held a special evening benefit performance of BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA at A Red Orchid Theatre in Chicago’s Old Town neighborhood. Hear our thoughts on the play in our full review!

Many Presidents and First Ladies have had pet birds in the White House. Read more in this special President’s day post

The Forest Preserves of Cook County (FPCC) are 70,000+ acres of diverse habitats and recreational areas, and Adam Bianchi is the one in charge of overseeing it all. As the General Superintendent of the Forest Preserve District of Cook County, he manages a balance between preserving the land and ensuring people can enjoy the natural resources inherent to the area. The Chicago Bird Alliance had the privilege of interviewing Adam and learning more about his background, his conservation philosophy, and his priorities for FPCC, among other items of note.

It may seem obvious that birds are heavily reliant on plants to survive – they nest in trees, they eat berries and seeds for sustenance, and they feast on the insects that use flora for their own advantage. But not all bird-plant relationships are equal.

The importance of Black Americans in conservation and environmentalism is GREATLY underrepresented and it requires some digging to learn about the significant past and current Black contributors and advocates of birding, conservation, and environmental justice.

While commonly seen, Canada Geese exhibit a variety of behaviors and there are subtle differences between genders and subspecies. Learn about their fascinating features and histories here.

New rules proposed by the Department of the Interior significantly weaken the Endangered Species Act. Our friends at the American Bird Conservancy (ABC) have made it easy to alert your Members of Congress of your concerns. Read below for what is at stake.