Bucks County Birders
Est. 2003
Welcome to Bucks County Birding
Join us in exploring the beautiful world of wild birds in southeastern Pennsylvania.
This Month in Birding
February - Pinnacle of Winter Birding
Who doesn’t like winter birding? Well, that is most of us. Maybe it’s time to do another round of re-read of ‘The Sand County Almanac’ to inspire us to go out and enjoy some tough birding in sub-zero weather. Due to low availability of food and water sources, the feeder stations at your backyard has been busy lately. Has it not? This is why the Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) is held every year in February. The 28th annual GBBC is held between Friday, February 13th through Monday, February 16th, 2026. Please visit birdcount.org to see how to participate. It is free, fun, and the best part is, you don’t have to leave your home.
Believe it or not, February also brings some spectacular opportunities to see migration in action to Southeast PA. Every year in starting in February, 100s of thousands of Snow Geese start to peak at Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area between 2nd half of February to beginning of March depending on the ice cover. Please check the Middle Creek’s snow geese forecast for 2025-26 here.
Bald Eagles have already started visiting and amending their nest sites. It is also peak nesting time for Great Horned owls and other raptors increase their activity in February. If you are an ‘PA3 atlas-er’ (or not), it is a fun time to watch these birds increase their aerial displays and nest building.
It is still a good time to visit the Jersey shore points for watching the sea ducks and the gulls as they may be gone in a few weeks. If you are not sure where to go, don’t worry. Bucks Birders are planning for the Shark River Day Trip in February. Please watch for the emails or check the calendar. If you are into chasing rarities, a good number of Canvasbacks are wintering along the Delaware shore in Salem Harbor area. A couple of Lapland Longspurs are hanging around with Horned larks in Patterson Farm, New Town, PA.
Citizen Science:
Audubon Climate Watch survey for the winter ends by February 15th. Read about the survey here: https://www.audubon.org/community-science/climate-watch
PA Bird Atlas 3 Winter Season is ongoing. Eagles, and Great Horned Owls can be coded.
Upcoming Bucks County Birders events:
Introducing ‘The Chat - Birding in Bucks’ Blog
We are glad to introduce a blog post for Bucks Birders by Bucks Birders — The Chat. We wanted to share some fresh, peer-reviewed, member-created content. If you have a talent and penchant for writing, please show your creative side — it could be a bird- or nature-related essay, journal notes or a narrative from your recent bird walk, a travelogue, a poem, or a drawing. Anything that inspires us and sends us back to birding.
This new blog site will appear on our website (buckscountybirders.com) as one of the tabs named "The Chat - Birding in Bucks Blog".
Here are the latest two blog posts for your reading pleasure.
Bird Safe Doylestown
In 2025, we launched Bird Safe Doylestown and Bird Safe Bucks County programs, modeled after the nationally recognized Bird Safe Philly (www.birdsafephilly.org) program. Thanks to the multiple organizations supporting this initiative, Bucks County Birders, Bird Town PA, Bucks County Audubon, Bird Safe Philly and PA Audubon Council, this multi-year initiative aims to protect our local bird population by monitoring bird collisions and developing strategies to mitigate bird collisions with buildings during their migration periods. Ask Bucks County Birders team for more info.
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED !!
Starting April 15th, 2026, we are starting the Spring 2026 bird collision monitoring at the Admin Building and the Justice Center in Doylestown Borough to collect dead and rescue injured birds. Dead birds will be safely transported to Academy of Natural Sciences at the Drexel University. The injured birds will be taken to AARK Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Chalfont.
We are looking for volunteers to walk the around the buildings and collect dead and injured birds between September 15th and November 15th, every day in the morning. We need volunteers to monitor and also volunteers to transport the injured birds to AARK. We are flexible and can accommodate depending on your schedule.
Please contact bucksbirders@gmail.com for further info or use the following registration link for volunteer signup.
Thank you!
Birds of Bucks County - A Bucks Audubon Publication!
We are delighted to announce that the 2nd edition of Birds of Bucks County has been published! It is available at book stores and at the Bucks County Audubon Book Store for pick up for $30. Please order your copy today at Bucks Audubon Store here.
If you haven’t already heard, Pennsylvania is in its second year of the third Bird Atlas (2024-2029). The goal of the atlas is to record what birds are breeding in PA and what birds reside here in the winter. If you bird, you can be contributing! The best place to start is at the Atlas Project on eBird . If you have ANY questions feel free to email your atlas coordinators, Erich Boenzli and Barbara Stollsteimer at PBA3.Bucks@gmail.com
Bucks County is broken down into 78 blocks - 72 full size (3 mile by 3 mile) and 6 partial blocks along the Delaware River. We would love it if you wanted to take responsibility for a block (you don’t have to do all the birding - just track it’s status and see what it needs). Find out what blocks are available here: https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/63b22e740f834def847b1d9f211cb0e3/page/PA-Bird-Atlas-Map/
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Bird Walks
Explore birding in Bucks County and nearby locations with us by joining our monthly trips or bird walks in local parks.
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Meetings
Primarily by Zoom and periodically in person on the 4th Tuesday of the month, we invite an interesting speaker to our monthly meeting. Check who is joining us next month!
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Conservation
Education and Habitat Conservation is high on our list of priorities. We are committed to set aside a portion of our funds towards conservation efforts that have a specific impact in our county. Learn more.
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Join Us
We love to see you join our flock and be a part of the Bucks County birding community. Join us today.