This is the week I make my New Year’s resolutions. I will start breaking them next week. Or maybe not. In 2025, I resolve to see more new birds.
Feel free to make that your resolution, too. Everybody can see new birds, even experts. It’s just a matter of knowing where to look. The best part is that inexperienced birders can see a lot more new birds than experts can.
Experienced birders may struggle to find even one without traveling far from home. I had to visit Sierra Vista, Arizona, in May to find my last lifer, a gilded flicker. That’s right, it’s been over half a year since I added a bird to my life list.
A life list is what it sounds like, a complete list of all the birds you’ve seen in your life. I’ve been keeping one since my early teens. But frankly that’s compulsive. Sane people don’t go so far overboard. For those who want to go overboard, 2025 is a good year to start.
It’s easy for beginners. Almost any bird beyond your backyard bird feeder might be new. Birds that eat suet and sunflower seeds may be old friends, but bug-eating birds in the treetops may be unfamiliar. Trust me, they’re up there, regardless of whether you’ve seen them.
There’s no need to wait until May to start your search, but spring is when the treetops will get louder. It’s when the birds are singing to tell you where they are. Just walk, listen and look.
Many bird walks are organized statewide in May. Penobscot Valley Audubon will host its usual assortment of regional walks, and so will other Audubon chapters, land trusts and birding festivals. There’s no easier way to find a new bird than to have someone find it for you.
Intermediate birders can add a new life list bird today, although it might require driving somewhere. That’s the secret to Maine. Our state has so many different habitats, a new bird can be found in any direction.
It’s possible to find at least 300 birds in Maine during the year. The current one-year record is 318. Maine Audubon’s chief naturalist, Doug Hitchcox, has accumulated 412 birds on his Maine lifetime list, but he’s a little nuts.
If I were an intermediate birder needing a new life bird today, I’d probably head for the coast. It’s a big ocean, and a new bird is out there somewhere, just waiting to be found.
Alternatively, there are woodpeckers in the North Maine Woods that few birders have seen. The black-backed woodpecker isn’t that difficult to find, deep in the northern forest. I will admit, the American three-toed woodpecker is wicked hard.
There are birds in Maine right now that shouldn’t be here. Unusual birds wander in regularly. Rare birds rarely escape attention. Word gets out quickly. Maine Audubon maintains an online rare bird alert, which anyone can join. Daily alerts are also available through eBird. Both services are free.
There are four birding festivals in Maine, occurring on four consecutive weekends from mid-May to mid-June. They usually turn up a few unusual birds. Boat trips in any season are likely to turn up birds that an intermediate birder has never seen before.
Even experts can see new birds on a boat trip. I only put one bird on my seen-in-Maine life list in all of 2024. A Forster’s tern crossed the bow of the Friendship V during Maine Audubon’s September pelagic trip.
The boat is one of the fast catamarans operated by Bar Harbor Whale Watch. We were 20 miles offshore.
Twelve tour boats serve Maine’s Atlantic puffin nesting islands. Odd birds often turn up on those trips, too.
Expert birders will likely have to travel farther for life list additions. My ambitions took me to Arizona this year. I don’t even know where I’m going in 2025, or when. I’m running out of places to search.
If I ever get to Alaska’s Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea, I could add a few more.
On the other hand, exploring Maine continues to be about the most fun a birder can have. Maine offers the largest unbroken forest east of the Mississippi, as well as the wildlife-rich Gulf of Maine. It contains large tracts of grassland, blueberry barrens and bogs. It’s got mountains and lakes that most other states can only envy.
With so much incredible birding habitat, why leave?
