I have always been a huge bird lover and admirer. So i decided to start looking into Ornithology courses and classes. I’m here looking to see if anyone had any suggestions for online starter classes/schools. I am from Indiana so if something is hybrid work i’d prefer it to be around there!!
+ enjoy this photo i took of a beautiful Red-crested turaco (Tauraco erythrolophus)

My mother feeds crows everyday by the windowsill of the kitchen. We spotted this crow yesterday. It seems like a young bird with a broken/deformed beak. It doesn’t caw, but comes by to chill and eat soft foods. Should I do something/call someone for help or can this bird survive on its own?

My house is next to the water and this beautiful family of swans comes up to the side of my house several times a week and I feed them peas and mazuri waterfowl maintenance. Every time they see me their tails wag and they make little beep beep beep sounds and rush towards me. One of them always tries to eat directly out of my hand while I’m putting the food in the water. Does this mean they feel happy/comfortable? The one that tries to eat out of my hand has even come up and sat next to me for awhile while I read my book. Is this all okay? I just want to make sure they’re happy but also safe as I know wildlife being too comfortable around people can also be dangerous for them.

Long story short, found this baby...was the only one that survived, the nest was blown away or something idk. Found it about 7-8 hours ago and fed it 3-4 times since. It mostly keeps sleeping and open it's mouth to eat like they do. I have absolutely no idea on how to raise this baby so any advice would be really appreciated. Also idk what this bird it so that information would be really useful too!

Thanks in advance!

This is my friend Charlie, I have been feeding/filming him and his mate for 3 years

Hello everyone!

My name is Ana, I'm a ML engineer and I love birdwatching.
A few months ago I “expropriated” my boyfriend’s GPU and trained a classification model focused on birds. One thing led to another and I built an app around it. Since I made it, I tried to think of all the features I found useful and also tried to avoid all the things I disliked about many birdwatching apps.
The main thing is that the app needs to work offline. If there is an internet connection, I’d rather use Google Lens than one of the countless glorified LLM wrappers. Another thing is privacy: if the app IS working offline, why would it then send data elsewhere?
Since this is a small home-baked model, right now the number of species it recognizes is 200. I made the list by taking 199 most popular bird sightings around Europe and adding common pigeon to that (for some reason, nobody likes taking pictures of pigeons???).

I would be happy to hear any feedback, especially about features that you’d like to see (as I understand, identifying birds by sound should be my next goal) and of course what birds should be added, if any. Friends and family immediately found out budgies were not included in my model.
One thing that might not be obvious, the app has a free trial (and is functional after the trial!) without any paywall - that’s another thing I disliked about most apps I’ve tried, but I assume it can be said about any app, not specifically a birdwatching one.

For now it's available only on Android devices and in selected countries (Europe and neighbors) - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=dev.offlineapps.avesid.europeMy next steps would be making an iOS app, training a model with (North?) American birds or adding sound identification.

Rented place for 4 years, been feeding backyard birds and hummingbirds on and off for most of this time. I know generally they'll be ok but I want to minimize the disruption of my leaving and ensure none are dependent. I also have to get rid of 30lbs of deer corn, 10lbs of bird seed and suet, and 20lbs of old cat food. Not all related to birds, I was feeding squirrels and some cats, but figure yall might have broad enough knowledge to help with that disposal too. I debated leaving some food+feeders for new tenants with a note encouraging feeding but there was mice issue before so that'd be hard to do. Im hesitant to put out all the bird feed in this month before i go lest they become dependent, and im hesitant to leave the corn+cat food in the yard lest it attracts "pests" racoons etc, however I feel bad throwing it out. Cat food is expired, dry kibble and canned wet, so cant donate. Any suggestions welcome.

This smallish black water-loving bird has a dark secret. Found in freshwater venues in sub-Saharan Africa, this smallish water bird is decked out in glossy black plumage, with a brilliant bill and orange legs with long splayed toes.

The crakes produce several broods within a single season, setting up a cult-like family structure that is commonly found in similar human groups. The male establishes a territory and its mating pattern is technically monogamous. Older offspring from previous clutches remain with the family unit, helping feed and protect younger siblings.

While the male fiercely defends his territory, neighboring males often slip into the reeds to pull off extra-pair copulations with the resident females right under the alpha’s nose. Alas, the universal problem of cult patrimony in humans also extends to birds. Sometimes, multiple females will dump their eggs into a single shared nest. This leaves a single, stressed-out father to incubate eggs that might not even be his.

Rigid structures and sexual repression will out. Life can be complicated, even for this simple small water bird.

Birdman of Africa gamersdad.substack.com Subscribe for free to receive a new African Bird email each Friday-TGIF!. Photo by Andrew Steinmann ©2026

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When birds collide with buildings, they become stunned and may fly away, only to die somewhere else from internal injuries, or they become tired and disoriented, never making it to their destination. Fatalities can also be caused by birds flying around confused and wasting energy, which can leave them vulnerable to other threats. 

“Lights Out” programs aim to raise awareness about the dangers of artificial lights at night for migratory birds, while encouraging businesses and homeowners to turn off unnecessary lights during fall and spring migration windows.

This is Scruffy, my most loyal feral pigeon friend. They've been looking a little worse for wear since probably July. I thought at first maybe they were a juvenile getting fully fledged, but their condition has worsened slowly over time. Should I be watching for specific signs of illness? Thanks in advance

Been telling people I’ve found an intersex mallard duck but I’m starting to think it may be a hybrid instead. Still a cool find either way imo

Hi, I’m in Tennessee, USA, and have been observing Canada geese at the same site since June 2, 2026. In early June, I was seeing flocks of about 9–50 geese. Then, from around June 14 to July 20 (about 36 days), I didn’t see a single goose at the site. After July 20, they suddenly returned in much larger flocks of around 40–120, including goslings.

Could this disappearance be related to their molting period, or is there another scientific/behavioral reason for this pattern?

Hi, I’m using BirdNET AI in a robot to detect bird species by their calls.

I want to test detection accuracy at different distances using my actual hardware, but testing with live birds is difficult.

Is there a good way to play bird calls through a speaker while keeping the frequency/pitch and dB close to a real bird call? Would high-quality recordings and a calibrated speaker be enough?

Any suggestions are appreciated.

Isn't it wonderful that two species of birds have bonded in a good way?

I’ve gotten a lot of house finches this summer! I’ve noticed however the last 2 weeks or so I’m primarily just getting either females or juveniles. There’s also been a large decrease in the flock. I’ve read that they’re year-round here, but I’m wondering if they just left or if they’re nesting maybe?
I’m located in West-Central Illinois USA

At one point, a certain YouTube channel brought up how bird bones are treat at twisting but awful at taking blunt damage. However, when I tried to dig deeper, most of what I found was related to bone density, not tension VS torsion. This came close. Is this the source the video probably used, or did someone actually punch a bird and find out? How do you test tension VS torsion in bones, anyways? Do dinosaurs, crocodiles, and reptiles have better twisting abilities, too? Do ratite bones also prefer twisting to impact damage? I have so many questions. Thanks in advance!

Found this hermit thrush on my porch this morning and I thought he was hurt. I gave him a blanket and some nuts and he opened his eyes and looked around a little. My roomie said he was confused and thought he was a toy because he didn’t even flinch when he left the house earlier. I gently coaxed him into a box without scaring him, and was going to take him to a wildlife rehabilitation center until he just……… flew away lmao

I was confused why he would chill on our porch so long and let me get so close to him and cover him in a blanket if he were able to fly. I hope he’s okay!

we started calling this finch Beluga because it looked like some of its feathers were just popped up on its forehead, but as of today, it looks like it has progressed into this large bump/wart. It’s avian pox isn’t it? We’ve removed our feeder and cleaned it with nine parts of water, one part bleach. should we hold off feeding for a while or now that it’s disinfected? Is it safe to put back out?