The birds you love are counting on you to raise your voice and recruit friends! Commit to a weekly action this year and make sure our birds stay resilient in 2018.

Together, we will show our elected officials that North Carolinians love birds and want habitat protection and clean energy – for the good of birds and people alike. At the same time, we’ll add native plants and nest boxes to our yards and our neighborhoods and advocate for bird-friendly practices at the community level.

January

Make an appointment to meet with your town council member, and let him or her know what places in your town are important for birds. Check out tips on how to communicate with elected officials here.

Help celebrate our Bird-Friendly Communities program’s 5th Anniversary by sharing a link to your favorite BFC news story on social! Look through last year’s best moments here.

Take the pledge to help make 2018 the Year of the Bird! We've teamed up with National Audubon Society, National Geographic, Cornell Lab of Ornithology and BirdLife International to celebrate birds this year and take one action each month to help them thrive. Sign up here: http://birdyourworld.org.

Offer to help your neighbors count birds next month for the Great Backyard Bird Count by posting a note on your neighborhood email list or Facebook page.

February

Save the Date: The Audubon North Carolina Summit is September 7-9 in Asheville, and everyone is invited! Join us for spectacular fall birding in the mountains and plenty of time to make new friends who love birds.

Show some love for your favorite bird this Valentine’s Day by posting a photo to social media and tagging @AudubonNorthCarolina. For example – “Dear Chickadee, you are a dee-dee-dee-dee-lightful sight to see each morning! Love, Liz”

Count birds in the Great Backyard Bird Count (Feb. 16-19, President’s Day weekend) – anywhere, anytime, for 15 minutes or longer. Share at birdcount.org.

Host a bird-themed “cooking” party for kids, friends, or even neighbors. Make your own suet using nut butter, seeds, oats, shortening, and corn meal. Suet is a great addition to winter feeding as it has a higher fat content than seeds!

March

Order your Audubon Plants for Birds yard sign for spring! As your flowers bloom, so may you inspire your neighbors to build their own bird-friendly gardens.

Call or visit your favorite local nursery and tell them you want to buy Bird-Friendly Native Plants from this list. The earlier the better, so they know what to stock up on come spring!

Get the free Audubon Bird Guide app – and the next time someone asks you a bird question, recommend they get it too. This is a great way to bring new people into the Audubon network.

Find bird-friendly plants for your garden this spring – get started by entering your zip code in the National Audubon Society native plants database. Then refer to our North Carolina bird-friendly plant list for size, light and moisture requirements, and more to help you decide where to plant.

April

Save the Date: First Lady Kristin Cooper has invited us back to the Executive Mansion for a garden party, now that the native plants are in bloom! Join us in Raleigh the first week of May – stay tuned for updates.

Celebrate the return of Wood Thrushes to North Carolina (ETA April 15) by sharing the inspiring Wood Thrush Connection film produced by the Climate Listening Project.

Make your lawn care bird and planet-friendlier by mowing less, reducing or eliminating pesticides, and saving water. 

Wish your friends who own forested land a happy Arbor Day and encourage them to learn how they can manage their land for birds.

May

Go big or go home on May 5 with a Global Big Day! Enter your bird sightings at eBird.org.

Sign up for a Climate Watch count (May 15 – June 15) near you.

Start planning a summer trip to the coast to meet our 2018 Bird of the Year, the Painted Bunting! While you’re there, check out the Cape Fear Audubon Society event calendar and join in the fun.

Sign up for our quarterly Bird-Friendly Communities ebulletin for the latest on how you can help birds in your yard, your neighborhood, and your entire community – and encourage 5 friends to join you.

Kick off beach season by encouraging your friends to Share the Beach with birds – many of which are vulnerable to a changing climate and sea level rise -- by posting this fun, short, action-oriented video.

June

Make your next beach read a bird book! Try some birder murder mysteries; Wild Things, Wild Places from National Audubon Society board member and award-winning actress Jane Alexander; or Hoot by Carl Hiaasen.

Check your nest boxes and enter data at nestwatch.org.

Keep the Father’s Day celebrations going and share this video with a father in your life who loves birds.

Just say no to plastic straws, bags, and bottles, and commit to recycling household plastics.

July

Plan a visit to Audubon’s Pine Island Sanctuary! During the summer, the sanctuary hosts kayak tours, bird walks, and more adventurous outings. The sanctuary harbors more than 170 bird species, so you’re certain to check a few off your bucket list.

Take a child into nature. The experience could stay with them for a lifetime! For inspiration, watch this grandmother-granddaughter pair of birders.

Did you know that Audubon North Carolina’s sanctuaries support more than a third of the waterbirds that nest in North Carolina? Sign up for coastal-bird updates here – and encourage 5 beach-loving friends to join you.

August

Host a bird-themed art party for kids! Help them paint (and learn about) priority species like the Brown-headed Nuthatch or Piping Plover. Here's how to make it happen.

Spread the word about birds and our changing climate through this video story of Curtis Smalling, our Director of Conservation, who has watched birds his entire life – from UNC Climate Stories.

Discover parks, near or far – city parks, wildlife sanctuaries, state parks, and National Parks are wonderful places to enjoy birds. Visit ncbirdingtrail.org to find a birding location near you!

Share this webpage with your local scouts – the Girl Scout who sells you cookies, the leader of the troop that meets at your church, any scouts or scout leaders you know – and encourage them to consider projects that help birds this year.

No need to wait for spring! Clean out nest boxes and put up new ones for Brown-headed Nuthatch and Prothonotary Warbler.

September

All month long, check schools, churches, and other buildings with old chimneys for Chimney Swifts diving into chimneys at dusk – and find ways you can help them here.

Get more people to plant flowers for hummingbirds by posting this note on social media: “Did you know that a Ruby-throated Hummingbird, which only weighs as much as 2 dimes, flies 500 miles non-stop across the Gulf of Mexico? Blooming spring and fall flowers in your yard will help her make the trip!”

Sign up for Hawk Watch along the Appalachian Mountain ridges! Mid-September through early November is peak fall migrations season for hundreds of thousands of raptors in the western part of the state. Visit hawkcount.org and click on a site to find organizers' contact info and other information.

Make your windows bird-friendly for fall migration. We share tips for keeping birds away from windows on our frequently asked question page here.

October

Fall is the best time for planting bird-friendly trees and shrubs in North Carolina. Find plants for your area here and all the info you need to decide where to plant them here.  

Leave the leaves! Find out why – and what to do with them – here.  

Participate in Global Big Day #2 on October 6 and see how many birds you can find in 24 hours. Record your sightings at eBird.org as you participate in this exciting quest to collect as many bird species as possible across the globe!

Keep warm with a cup of bird-friendly coffee. Elisha Mitchell Audubon Society in Asheville is building partnerships with local roasters and shops to promote shade-grown coffee for bird conservation. Learn how you can sip sustainably here.  

It’s the one-year anniversary of our bird-friendly garden project at the Executive Mansion in Raleigh! Pick one of the 1,000 native plants added to the garden to bring life to your own yard this fall.

November

Take someone birding for their first time – a child, a neighbor with bird feeders, anyone! – it’s easier to see birds with the leaves off the trees.

Share your bird photography with National Geographic, in the Your Shot collection.

Post on social media about a bird you’re thankful for and tag Audubon North Carolina.

Write a thank-you letter to someone in your community who has done a lot of help birds this year.

December

Sign up for the Audubon Christmas Bird Count (Dec. 14 through Jan. 5 statewide) to help keep the ledger on how birds are responding to a changing climate.

Give a holiday gift of birdy goodness:  A graphic novel about John James Audubon, and a stunning book of owl photography, and Noah Strycker’s Birding Without Borders.

Start planning your spring garden according to the specifications of New Hope Audubon Society’s Bird-Friendly Habitat Certification Program! These can be used to improve the habitat for birds in a yard, at a business, or in any public or private outdoor space with or without certification.

Donate to Audubon North Carolina so we can keep supporting you in your work to help birds!