Audubon Magazine

Audubon is the official magazine of the National Audubon Society. Get Audubon Magazine digital magazine subscription today for news coverage of the natural world. We help our readers appreciate, understand, and protect the environment with a particular focus on birds, other wildlife and their habitats

To Catch a Yellowlegs

Making Sense • By creatively and closely observing birds, we can learn to see them in new ways.

The Birds of Our Lives • Some species are inextricably linked to the places they inhabit. When we fail to spot them, we look for what is amiss.

Audubon Magazine

INBOX

A Very Big Deal • Vital ecosystems across the West may live or die by how states decide to manage the shrinking Colorado River.

Hot on the Trail • An Audubon community science initiative is revealing where birds go as temperatures rise—and which species are falling behind.

New Chapter • A storied birding bookstore turns a page with its latest owner.

Patching Up the Prairie • In the Black Belt of Alabama, researchers are tracking birds to understand what makes high-quality grassland habitat.

Fine-Tuning the Forest • The Kirtland’s Warbler has recovered from near extinction, but maintaining this success may require fresh approaches.

Hunger Pangs • After a spectacular comeback from DDT, populations of Ospreys in the Chesapeake Bay are again crashing—this time from starvation. The birds’ fate may once more rest on us.

Built for Fishing • Ospreys use bold means to procure their nearly all-fish diet: They are the only raptors that specialize in plunging into the water to catch prey. Evolution has equipped them well for this lifestyle with unique adaptations to help them find, trap, and carry home fish for their families.

A.I. in the Wild • Scientists are using artificial intelligence to gain unprecedented insight into the lives of birds and more effectively protect them.

Listen to This • A metalhead turned archaeo-ornithologist uses ancient Indigenous instruments to recover long-lost knowledge of birds.

Are Crows Really Our Friends? • We investigate the state of corvid–human relations.

How to Befriend a Crow • Interested in getting to know your local crows? Here’s how to get started, mindfully.

Strangers in the Night • With huge mouths, little feet, and weird calls, nightjars are some of our oddest birds—and they need help.

Things That Go Boom • During breeding season, Common Nighthawk males put on a show for their mates and rivals.

The Not-Quite-Nightjars • Meet the other bristled and bugeyed nightbirds of the world.

Small Is Beautiful • A humble native-prairie garden can have big benefits.

Wide-Open Spaces • Explore prairie remnants big enough to make you feel small.

Last of Their Kind • These niche grassland types are nearly gone, but conservation efforts continue to protect what’s left.

“Bugwatching” Is the New Birding • While birds lie low in the summer, set your sights on smaller wonders.

Build a Bug Hotel • Attract insects—and birds to boot—with this easy project.

Ready for Their Close-Up • Insect photography can open a new window into the natural world.

Hold the Phone • Your mobile device can help migrating butterflies.

Looking Up • Naturalist and author Scott Weidensaul shares tales of hard-won avian recovery.

At Your Leisure • Bird-forward diversions for however you like to relax.

Just Hatched • These birdy new books are sure to delight the young—and young at heart.

THE AVIARY • Where birds inspire art, awe, and action