Founded in 1987, WildBird educates and entertains readers with useful details about North American birds and birding – in readers’ back yards and in the entire Western Hemisphere. WildBird urges readers to share their appreciation for birds and to consider beginners’ education and habitat conservation as means of ensuring avian species’ survival.
We enjoy receiving queries about backyard birding destination/field birding species profiles identification techniques and tips habitat and species conservation efforts the next generation of birders bird photography techniques and tips photo essays. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts. You’re invited to send a concise query via e-mail that proposes your story idea, shows your familiarity with WildBird and reveals your writing and birding experience. Please read the guidelines.
To find the fabulous images in each issue, we work with a limited number of photographers who receive the photo needs list. If you’re interested in being considered for the waiting list, please look at the photography guidelines. Read more here.
The March/April 2012 issue focuses on travel, which opens up so many possibilities for new species to see and hear. Before you set out on an adventure, check our roundup of travel gear plus tips for exploring California’s Salton Sea and making technology work for you.
Looking to Buy a Previous Issue? Click here to purchase PDF versions of WildBird’s back issues at $4.99 each. We offer previous issues only as downloadable PDFs, and our catalog goes back to January 2007.
In every issue of WildBird, readers can answer questions that might lead to prizes, such as books from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, a gift pack from Swarovski Optik North America and even a Swarovski Optik binocular and a trip to a birding hotspot like Costa Rica.
The questions appear in the Birder's Back Yard and Lister's Forum departments in each issue, and readers' responses must arrive by the given deadline. Some responses – which typically demonstrate actions that benefit birds and/or birders – will appear in a future issue of the magazine, and two of those responses will garner the Backyard Birder and Forum Birder titles and prizes.
In the November/December issue each year, the Backyard Birders and Forum Birders appear with the Birder of the Year ballot, and all WildBird readers can vote for the most deserving candidate. The winner appears in the March/April issue and receives a Swarovski Optik binocular and a guided birding trip. More »