Hello everyone i am from a village near nainital and thinking to bring birdwatchers in our village forests how can i do that?

Hi everyone! 👋

I'm a hobbyist developer, and I built SnapCounter after one too many evenings squinting at photos, trying to count animals one by one and losing track halfway through. 😅

You load or take a photo, tap each bird and the app keeps the count for you. You can also use colored categories to separate species or ages — like the California and Heermann's gulls in the screenshot. I think it could be really handy for eBird lists, flock estimates or bird counts, but you'd know that much better than me!

It's still in closed testing on Google Play, and Google needs a group of testers to keep it installed for 14 days before I can release it to everyone. If you have an Android phone and a minute to spare, I'd be so grateful:

1. Join the tester group:

   https://groups.google.com/g/snapcounter-testers

2. Opt in:

   https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.snapcounter

3. Install it from the Play Store and keep it for 14 days (use it as much or as little as you like)

I'd really love to hear from people who count birds for real — what would make it useful in the field? Any feedback, good or bad, is very welcome.

Thanks so much, and happy birding! 🐦

(Photo: NPS / public domain, Limantour Beach, CA)

Hi fellow birders!

I'm a relatively new birder who picked up the hobby about two years ago. When I'm not out birding, I love staying home and playing video games.

I've always enjoyed games like Birdle and Magnitudle, and one day I thought, wouldn't it be fun to combine the two into a game where you have to guess the actual size of different birds?

And that's how Birdsized came to be!

It's a little browser-based game I've been working on in my spare time. It's completely free to play and really just a passion project that combines two of my favorite hobbies.

I'd love to share it with fellow bird enthusiasts and hear what you think! I'm still actively working on it, so any feedback, suggestions, or ideas for improvement would be greatly appreciated.

Hope you enjoy it, and happy birding! 🐦
Play Birdsized here: Birdsized

Location: Veracruz, México. Around Catemaco.

Hi there, unfortunately I do not have a best picture of the bird. I have spotted a few times but can never actually get a picture of its full look. The most recent time was a few days ago.

So it is big, pure black, the wing feather shape looks like probably a hawk. Rare calling and flapping when flying, the calling is low and gentle- like woo woo.

That’s all I could observe when it was flying on the low sky lol- 😂 thanks in advance if anyone has any brief info.

Hi folks,

Curious if you could help me identify this bird we saw soaring above Zermatt at the start of October? It’s at the capabilities of the zoom on my phone, but note the paler head and pale shape on its underside.

In person it was one of the biggest birds of prey I’ve had the pleasure of seeing.

My thoughts were “Golden Eagle!” but could also be some sort of vulture? I’m not exposed to the birds frequently enough. I believe it was making a high-pitched chirp as it circled, but there were smaller birds (including Choughs) in the skies too.

Thanks!

Laughing Gull * my content

Just kidding. I think this is a leucistic house sparrow but wanted to see if anybody else had opinions!

They did this guy SO DIRTY with the main pic they chose: https://ebird.org/species/batapa2

Lookin raggedy af when all the alternate pics show a much more sophisticated bid.

What other birds has eBird totally disrespected with their choice of main pic?

I’m pretty sure this same couple shows up to my feeder together often, usually in the morning though today it was this afternoon. The second one that shows up has a better Mohawk. Basically I’m wondering if anyone has any advice on distinguishing male and female blue jays because from what I understand the males can be slightly bigger, but that’s about all. Thanks

I didnt think they live out here, but I guess there might be a few living in the Unicorn preserve just outside of town.

There I am this morning, doing a little sound ID while the dog is out, and I keep seeing the blue “hearing a bird” dot, but no species being identified….its popping up every time I hear a high whining sound, almost like a wheeze…

Turns out it was my asthma from standing in the cold air 😂 gave me a good laugh and thought I’d share. I know sound ID isn’t the end all, but it’s fun to see how wrong they can get it.

I Rarely ever see owls in southern Nevada, especially before evening. How fun!!! I was watching her for about 2 hours. Can’t get enough of these beautiful creatures.

Location: my backyard in Providence, NY.

Southern California

I had never seen a hummingbird contort itself like this before! This Sparkling Violetear looked like it was breakdancing on a little branch at Ensifera ensifera. Eventually, it finished its acrobatics and flew off to continue defending its territory, as it so often does.

🇬🇧 Sparkling Violetear
🔬 Colibri coruscans
🇪🇸 Oreja-Violeta de Vientre Azul
🗺️ Ensifera ensifera, Yanahuara, Cusco, Peru
🗓️ August 2026

Went for a walk at the park and I was pleasantly surprised to find this night heron among the usual domestic ducks and geese that call the pond home!

(My original photo) Here's a ruby-crowned kinglet, a tiny bird capable of perching on the thinnest of twigs. It's taking a rare break here between pinging around the bushes like it just downed a six-pack of Monster energy drinks. Seen in Prospect Park, Brooklyn NY USA.

I turned the balcony lights on this morning to find a dead rat in my empty planter. My husband chucked it off the balcony and we were just discussing whether it could be someone's leftover dinner or a gift from a corvid when this guy perched.

That answers that.

He was confused, like, "Where did my dinner go?"

The Steller's Jays were pissed. But he wouldn't leave for the longest time. We were feet away from him at the window and my husband even went out to try to scare him off. Didn't budge. Finally he gave up on waiting for his dinner to magically appear again, flew into the trees, but then came back again!

Eventually he did leave, and the Jays rejoiced.

Is it normal for an owl to be this carefree?

Finally got close to the American Bittern. What prehistoric feet!

Location: Fernhill Wetlands - Forest Grove, OR

Newbie here. Saw this from my front porch and was like, “what on earth is that?” A pleasant surprise.

(Edit: photo my own)