This page is dedicated to helping you find breeding birds, plan your visits, and get more confirmations.
Quick Links
When to survey
The best time of day to atlas is early morning, from just before dawn until 10 or 11 am. This is when most birds will be active and vocal making it easier to find them and observe their behavior. Bird activity picks up again in the evening, so dusk can also be a productive time. At least one visit should be at night to listen for nocturnal species such as owls, nightjars, and rails.
People new to atlasing are sometimes frustrated that they don’t encounter a lot of breeding evidence the first few times they go out. Sometimes this is because they are so excited to get out and start surveying that they head out too early in the season! The easiest time of year to document breeding behaviors is when the nestlings are being fed, which is the end of June to mid-July for most songbirds. This peak window may vary in different parts of the state and depends to some extent on weather conditions. Refer to the Breeding Season Table to learn which birds are nesting when.
Where to survey
Spend time surveying all the major habitat types in a block. It is not critical that you bird every part of a block, just that you capture as much of the diversity as possible. Be mindful of private property (seek permission from the landowner if necessary) and use maps to find trails, parks, and public lands. Consider scouting a block to plan a good survey route that hits as many habitats as possible.
It also helps to do some research before you head out in the field. Identify which species are still needed for a block and think about the specific breeding habitats those species use. Go to the Explore section of the Atlas website, and search for your block(s) in the upper right corner of the page. These block summary pages give you the full picture of what’s already known for that block. This can be really valuable to check the species list for things like:
- Early and late breeders
- Nocturnal and crepuscular species
- Wetland, grassland, shrub, and forest birds
- Common species – don’t overlook Rock Pigeons, European Starlings, and House Sparrows!
- Species that could be upgraded from no code or Possible breeding to Probable or Confirmed breeding
If you notice specific ‘holes’ in the species list, or opportunities to upgrade, then that’s a great way to focus your efforts.
You may already know where to look for those species from previous block visits or you may need to explore some satellite maps to find potential sites.
Having a strategy
Consider making a strategy for how you will complete a block. The way you strategize will depend on your schedule. One suggestion is to plan for three, 5-hour morning visits spread across the season. Consider a late May visit to start compiling the list of species in a block, then target breeding evidence on your next outings in late June and July. If you don’t have as much time, you could do many 1-hour visits before heading to work, again spread across the season. With either strategy, plan on one or two nocturnal visits, once in March to listen for owls and again in May for rails and nightjars.
Read more about how to finish a block in one year.
How to find breeding birds
Atlasing is birding with the intent to find breeding behaviors. Instead of focusing on increasing the number of species found in a block, atlasing requires you to slow down and pay attention to what individual birds are doing. You want to look at every bird you encounter to try to catch them “in the act,” specifically, in the act of building a nest or caring for young.
Here are our top tips for finding breeding behaviors. Hear more about our top tips for confirmations on our YouTube channel.
1. Start easy
Don’t start off trying to confirm breeding for a Scarlet Tanager which breeds high up in the dense canopy of large tracts of forest. Try something easier, like waterfowl, or birds that breed in residential areas, like robins and phoebes. As you look for common breeders, pay attention to posture, calls, and movement patterns. Once you have a feel for the “nesty” behaviors of these easier birds, you’ll be able to better recognize the same behaviors in other species. You may also want to refer to our post on Atlasing Around the Home for tips on some of the more suburban birds.
2. Slow down and linger
Take an hour to walk a mile. Seriously. It may seem ridiculously slow, but that’s not the point. Your focus should be on finding nesting birds, not racking up your species list. Going slow allows you to hear the small chips notes a pair uses to communicate with each other while collecting nesting material or food. The birds are also more likely to behave naturally and you, in turn, are more likely to see them and what they are up to before they are disturbed by your presence.
When you do spot a bird, linger. Stay on it for 30 seconds or a minute to see if it is focused on foraging for itself or something else. If it’s foraging and eating the food right away, move on. If it is up to something else, stay on it and see if it’s collecting nesting material or food for young.
3. Be quiet, stay still, use camouflage
This goes hand-in-hand with slowing down. The quieter you are, the more likely you are to detect the birds before you flush them, and they are more likely to keep going about their business. Being quiet also makes it easier to hear young nestlings giving their high-pitched begging calls.
Sometimes it’s fruitful to just sit down on the ground or lean against a tree and sit quietly for 5 or 10 minutes. Use camouflage, like standing behind trees and shrubs to break your silhouette. The birds will forget about your presence and go back to doing whatever they were doing before you arrived. Most of the time you will see at least some birds doing something related to breeding.
If you come across a likely nest site or unidentifiable fledglings, it helps to back off and hide behind a tree or crouch down and wait for the adult to return. You also shouldn’t get too frustrated if you hear something you don’t recognize. Come late June and early July, the soundscape is full of high-pitched nestling calls. You most likely won’t have any idea what species is making the sound, but if you wait long enough, the adult will return.
4. Follow females and funky sounds
Most of our normal birding focuses on identifying species, based mostly on what we hear singing. But singing males often just do that, they sing from a tall perch and defend their territory. That’s great and all, but it only gets you to Possible or Probable breeding. Some males don’t even help out in nest building, incubating, or raising young (that’s where point 5 comes in). In many species, you want to find the female and they are often quiet or only give soft chip notes. Use the singing birds to your advantage; look in the area nearby for a bird moving around quietly, which will often turn out to be the female busily taking care of nesting activities.
Also be sure to listen for unusual sounds. This could be contact calls between a mated pair, communication between a fledgling and parent, or even begging young. Young birds in the nest and fledglings will give loud begging calls when the parents are nearby and feeding them. In some species, like woodpeckers, the young birds call incessantly from inside their nest cavity. All you have to do for them, is stand some distance away and watch the hole until a parent comes in to feed.
Some birds follow a consistent feeding route. If you see a sapsucker or hummingbird, stay put for a while and see if it comes back. Watch where it goes and follow it to its next stop. Keep doing this for 15 or 20 minutes and you will likely find its nest.
5. Follow suspicious birds
Recognizing a suspicious bird is a more advanced skill that comes with experience, but it can be really productive to follow suspicious birds for a while. A “suspicious bird” is a bird behaving out of the ordinary. A great example of this is a silent Blue Jay. When are Blue Jays ever silent?! The answer is only when they are near their nest, gathering nesting material or food, or feeding young. Other examples are a male American Redstart or Yellow Warbler giving songs at long intervals and madly foraging in between (multitasking between announcing their territory and finding food for its young), any bird that is unaware of your presence (most likely focused on nest building or caring for young), and a male Common Yellowthroat silently following you along the trail (making sure you leave the area where he’s nesting). These are just a few suspicious behaviors; there are many more. You will slowly pick up these cues the more time you spend atlasing. Be sure to reflect back on what you’ve absorbed at the end of the breeding season—it might surprise you!
6. Synchrony across blocks
Once you find a Rose-breasted Grosbeak feeding young in one block, head to neighboring blocks to find them feeding young there, too. The environmental conditions (i.e., weather, habitat, food availability) tend to be similar in nearby blocks. Because of this, the breeding phenology of each species is often synchronized locally. Nest building vireos in one block indicates vireos are probably nest building in neighboring blocks. Fledgling Piping Plover on one beach means there are likely fledgling plovers on nearby beaches. If you atlas in multiple blocks, you may want to plan trips around this phenomenon, but only if your blocks are near one another. If you live on Long Island and camp in the Adirondacks, you’ll notice the birds can be at very different breeding stages.
7. Ask questions and learn
Asking questions, along with gaining experience, is the best way to increase your skills as a birder and atlaser. Use your birding experience to help you figure out what birds to be on the lookout for in different habitats. Then go one step further. Read up on the biology of species of interest. Find out what habitat they prefer, where they build their nest, what type of nest it is, and what materials they use. Knowing this will help you know where to focus your attention when you are in the field.
Learn about parental roles. Do the females, males, or both sexes do most of the nest building, incubating, and care for the young? Once you know that male Red-winged Blackbirds and Baltimore Orioles don’t help build the nest, you’ll know not to spend time watching them during nest building season. On the other hand, when it’s fledgling time, you’ll be looking for male Northern Cardinals, Eastern Bluebirds, and Rose-breasted Grosbeaks feeding fledglings while the female starts incubating another brood.
In the field, refer to the free Audubon app for information on breeding behaviors and nesting habits. At home look things up on All About Birds and Birds of the World. If you still have questions, post them on the Atlas Facebook Discussion Group or email the Atlas Team.
As you gain more atlasing experience, you’ll find that it becomes second nature. Enjoy the process and don’t get frustrated if it’s slow going at first. It is! The second half of June is when things start to get really hopping, with all the young to be fed, fledglings hopping around with their fluffy heads, and some birds starting second or even third broods.
Be patient, take pleasure in each observation you make, and have fun!