Take On a Year of Avian Action With Our 2025 Bird Challenge Calendar

Need some inspiration for your 2025 resolutions? We’ve got you covered. Audubon has designed a series of monthly goals to keep your birding feeling fresh all year long. Keep up with these challenges to sharpen your skills as a birder, deepen your relationship with nature, and grow as an avian advocate in the new year. 

(For a printable version of this calendar, click here!) 

January: Get Bird Ready 

Kick off 2025 with some bird-friendly housekeeping. Start by adding decals or screens to your windows to prevent strikes. Got a feeder? Clean it out. Got a yard? Stack branches to build a brush pile. 
 

February: Listen Up 

Use the winter quiet to learn songs and calls of year-round residents. Your local robins and finches deserve some love, too—and knowing their sounds will help you notice when visitors add their voices. Then, apply your neighborly knowledge to the Great Backyard Bird Count, which happens mid-month.

March: Seed Local Growth 

Native plants provide nectar, berries, seeds, and bugs that fuel birds throughout the year. To support your local food web, use Audubon’s Native Plants Database to prep for spring planting, or volunteer at a nearby park to pull up invasives.

April: Be a Patch Pro 

Patch birding, or returning to the same, specific spot over and over, can offer rich rewards. Go deep by picking a patch near you and birding it every week this month.

• Week one: Walk around your patch. Draw a map of its features.
• Week two: Settle in for a bird sit. Spend 15 minutes in one spot and deeply engage your senses.
• Week three: Visit at a new time of day. What differences do you notice in bird behavior?
• Week four: Reflect on how your patch has changed since your first visit. Keep coming back throughout the year to spot seasonal shifts.

May: Put Female Birds First 

Male birds, with their often-flashier plumage, tend to get the spotlight. But overlooking females makes for biased birding and has real impacts for conservation. Dedicate a day to look for only female birds. Noting subtle markings and behavior can help nail these trickier IDs—and make you a sharper birder.
 

June: Peep Family Antics 

Now’s the time to spy on new bird families (from a respectful distance). To find a nest, check birds’ beaks for deliveries: Some will be carrying nesting material, shuttling food to their young, or clearing out the fecal sacs that serve as diapers for baby birds. Try to spot a juvenile looking a little fluffy or oddly proportioned.

July: Share the Shore 

Heading to a beach? Make sure to leave room for shorebirds, whose sandy nests and waterfront foraging are often disturbed by human activity. Volunteer with one of Audubon’s Coastal Bird Stewardship Programs, or start your own, to spread the word.

August: Bask in Molt Madness 

Boost your birding skills by finding a scraggly, patchy bird going through the awkward—but important!—process of refreshing its feathers. Molting waterfowl and large birds in flight can be good targets for  spotting telltale feather gaps. (Just be sure not to judge.)
 

September: Refresh Your Fall  

As migration gets underway, challenge yourself to try something new. Craft your personal birding goals using the prompts below, then check back in at the end of the month to see how you did.

• What is one new species I want to look for?
• Who is one new person I want to bird with?
• Where is one new location I want to explore?
• What is one new birding approach I want to try?

October: Hit a Hawk Watch 

Take in the majesty of raptors soaring through fall migration. Find a watch near you at hawkcount.org, and keep an eye on silhouettes and flight patterns to sharpen your long-distance IDs.
 

November: Practice the Art of Observation 

 Try your hand at sketching birds in the field. Start by capturing overall posture and shape, then take your time to fill in feather groupings and key details. No matter your level of artistic skill, the practice can help you observe birdlife with fresh eyes.

December: Boost Science 

Each year, the Christmas Bird Count creates a global snapshot of avian populations that offers crucial insight for researchers. Find a count near you at audubon.org/cbc to add your local birdlife to that picture, and check zooniverse.org for more ways to help scientists from the comfort of home.

This piece originally ran in the Winter 2024 issue as “A Year of Avian Action.” To receive our print magazine, become a member by making a donation today.