It’s that time of the year again – time to think about holiday gifts. While the bird lover in your life may not be the easiest person to shop for, a birdy gift or two never fail. Here’s a brief list of holiday gift ideas for birds lovers of every kind. From seasoned birder to novice aficionado.
Budget Binos
Normally, I wouldn’t suggest gifting binoculars or other optics equipment. There are just too many variables and personal preferences. Add to that the insane price range… It isn’t ideal. But binos open up a whole new perspective for those beginning to be interested in the world of birds.
The National Audubon Society has put together a great binocular guide for every price range. It’s a bit dated but a good overview especially for lower end binos. Personally I still carry around my Bresser Condor 10×42 – they’re a bit on the heavy side but so far they’ve taken every beating I’ve thrown at them and haven’t given me any reason to replace them.
Bird & Nature Books
While binoculars are the tools that made a whole range of birds accessible to observation, it’s the development of field guides that turned the observation of birds into a popular pasttime. There are fantastic free and paid apps out there, such as Cornell’s fantastic Merlin App – but nothing beats sitting down with a field guide to study your local birds.
For Europe, the classic guidebook is Svensson’s Birds of Europe (Kosmos Vogelführer in German).
For North America, things get a little more complicated and more dependent on personal taste. Cornell has a nice review here.
And if you’re going birding in Costa Rica, the excellent field guide by Garrigues and Dean has gotten some competition this year. I have yet to get my hands on the new guide by Dyer and Howell but initial reviews suggest that it’s pretty nice as well.
One of the nice things about birds is that there’s a whole world of them out there – and there’s always something new to learn. For birders who love to visit the European coasts and wetlands, I highly recommend Lars Gejl’s excellent “The Waders of Europe“.
For birders planning a visit to the tropics, the Neotropical Companion by John Kricher goes far beyond birds and conveys a great overview of this fascinating ecosystem.
Lost Among the Birds
After all the birding and studying, it’s nice to kick back and enjoy a nice story. My absolute favorite birding book is Neil Hayward’s riveting account of his record-setting 2013 Big Year Lost Among the Birds. I must have listened to the audiobook around 10 times by now…
How about some Bird Art?
Christopher Reiger’s “Field Guide” series reduces birds to their essentials in a very aesthetic and minimalistic style.
The Birdsong Project is a truly magnificent initiative – and true to their name they have the perfect gift for audiophiles: A 20 LP Box set, containing music inspired by birdsong, performed by artists across the musical spectrum, and selected poems read by familiar voices.
Wingspan
Now I might be slightly biased but this is one of the best board games out there.
A beautifully design engine building game, Wingspan is great fun for everyone. The developers are also regularly releasing new expansions. What started out as a game featuring selected birds from North America has since seen expansions for Europe, Oceania, and Asia.
English: https://stonemaiergames.com/games/wingspan/
German: https://www.feuerland-spiele.de/spiele/fluegelschlag/
Gear
Without a doubt, one of my best gear additions for this year was a Kowa digiscoping adapter that connects my smartphone camera to my spotting scope. Most of the birds shown on our YouTube videos are shot this way. At least the nice ones.
A lense cleaning kit is the perfect stocking stuffer for photographers and birders alike. There are different kits by different manufacturers but I liked the Rollei Kit that I got earlier this year. It’s inexpensive and it comes in a nice tropic-proof traveling case.
While I don’t necessarily recommend gifting binoculars, a nice binocular harness can be an absolute difference maker. Especially on long hikes, it’s nice to be able to do your neck a favor and redistributing the weight of the binos. I have a local Costa Rican one for now, and there are lots of good budget options available at a price point that makes it okay to just try them.
Apparel
For gifts for every sort of bird lover, check out our collections!
We design beautiful shirts that let you show your love for birds while at the same time protecting their habitat. We work with selected conservation projects to make a difference for the birds.
Have a look – and happy holidays!
We hope our list of holiday gift ideas for birds lovers was helpful to you – let us know what you think!
