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Ellis Abel Learns.

In my own words

Why I love birds

A pair of American bald eagles perched on the rim of their large stick nest on Kennedy Space Center property. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Birds" page.
A pair of American bald eagles perched on the rim of their large stick nest on Kennedy Space Center property. NASA · Public domain
  • They can go anywhere.
  • Every kind has its own sound.
  • Some of them fly farther than a car could drive.

What it really is

Birds are living dinosaurs with hollow bones and extraordinary navigation.

Three things to try today

  1. Learn one bird by its sound.
  2. Count how many you hear in ten minutes.
  3. Do it again next month and compare.
A pair of hands holds a small songbird while fitting a numbered metal USGS band around its leg during migration monitoring. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Birds" page.
A pair of hands holds a small songbird while fitting a numbered metal USGS band around its leg during migration monitoring. U.S. Geological Survey, Bird Banding Laboratory · Public domain

For the grown-up reading this

Bird counts are real citizen science. Your data can go into a national database.

Why I love birds — 4,299 places across America

Alabama (87)
Alaska (33)
Arizona (43)
Arkansas (86)
California (273)
Colorado (85)
Connecticut (27)
D.C. (1)
Delaware (5)
Florida (158)
Georgia (185)
Hawaii (8)
Idaho (54)
Illinois (155)
Indiana (117)
Iowa (112)
Kansas (116)
Kentucky (129)
Louisiana (81)
Maine (21)
Maryland (35)
Massachusetts (53)
Michigan (120)
Minnesota (111)
Mississippi (88)
Missouri (131)
Montana (61)
Nebraska (97)
Nevada (22)
New Hampshire (13)
New Jersey (45)
New Mexico (40)
New York (90)
North Carolina (127)
North Dakota (57)
Ohio (124)
Oklahoma (88)
Oregon (51)
Pennsylvania (88)
Rhode Island (6)
Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (5)
South Carolina (65)
South Dakota (68)
Tennessee (114)
Texas (340)
Utah (48)
Vermont (16)
Virginia (158)
Washington (77)
Washington, D.C. (1)
West Virginia (64)
Wisconsin (95)
Wyoming (25)

Love something else too

All 51 things to love · Girls are great at math