The best bird gift for a kid is one they can use this week, from the window, without an adult setting it up every time. A toy that looks like a bird gets played with for a day. A feeder outside the kitchen window, a book that tells them what just landed on it, and a pair of binoculars they can actually see through will keep them looking all winter.
The picks below are grouped by age, using the same stages as our guide to getting kids interested in birdwatching. Ages are a rough guide, not a rule: a patient five-year-old can handle binoculars, and plenty of teenagers still want the plush cardinal.
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Ages 3 to 6
No binoculars yet. Little kids can’t hold them steady or find the bird in them, and the frustration ends the interest. At this age the gift is the bird itself: something to hold, something to color, and real birds close enough to see through the window.
1. Audubon plush northern cardinal with real song
Wild Republic, about 5 inches
Squeeze it and it plays the cardinal’s actual call. Wild Republic makes these with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and under license from Audubon, and there’s a whole flock of them: chickadee, robin, goldfinch. The trick is to buy the bird that actually visits your yard, so the toy’s song is one they’ll hear outside.
2. Bird Book for Kids: Coloring Fun and Awesome Facts
A coloring book for ages 3 to 7
Twenty-five birds to color, each with a short, strange fact to go with it. It covers birds from around the world, not just the backyard, which is fine at this age; the point is getting them to look closely at feathers and beaks.
3. Droll Yankees Observer window feeder
Clear, suction cups, holds 2 cups of seed
The single best birding gift for a small child, and it isn’t a toy. It sticks to the outside of a window at their height, and the birds land a few feet from their face. Fill it with black-oil sunflower and give it a week. More options are in our window feeder guide.
4. National Geographic Kids Bird Guide of North America
Second edition, by Jonathan Alderfer
A real field guide written at a kid’s level, with range maps, drawings, facts and activities. Keep it on the windowsill next to the feeder, and it becomes the book they reach for when something new shows up.
Ages 6 to 9
This is the age for real binoculars, small ones, and for anything that turns watching into a game or a project. Kids this age like keeping score, so a life list and a bingo card go a long way.
5. Kids 8×21 binoculars
Shockproof, made for ages 4 to 8
Real 8×21 binoculars with roof prisms and coated lenses, in a rubber shell that survives being dropped. Skip the cartoon toy binoculars with plastic lenses. A kid who can’t see a bird through them decides birding is boring, when the problem was the toy.
6. National Geographic Build Your Own Bird Feeder kit
Build, paint, hang
They put it together, paint it with the six colors in the box, and hang it outside for real birds. The only tool you need is a Phillips screwdriver. A feeder they built themselves gets checked a lot more often than one you bought.
7. Beginning Birdwatcher’s Book
Dover, with 48 stickers
A workbook of 48 common North American birds, from blue jays to red-tailed hawks, with a sticker for each one. It’s set up as a life list: when they see the bird, they add the sticker and write down the date and the place. Small, cheap, and a perfect stocking stuffer.
8. Bird Log Kids
A guided birding journal for ages 5 to 12
For the kid who likes to draw and write. Each page walks them through what to notice, where they saw it, and what it was doing, with room to sketch. It works in the backyard, on a camping trip, or on vacation.
9. Bird Bingo
Laurence King
Bingo played with 64 illustrated bird tokens instead of numbers, from robins to puffins, with a leaflet of facts about each one. Up to 12 players get a card, and everyone learns bird names without anyone calling it a lesson. Good for a rainy day, and good for the grandparents’ house.
Ages 9 and up
Older kids are ready for the same gear adults use, just sized for them. This is also the age when most kids want the free Merlin Bird ID app from the Cornell Lab, which identifies a bird from a photo or a recording of its song. Put it on their phone before you wrap anything else.
10. Vortex Bantam HD youth binoculars
6.5×32
Real optics built for smaller hands and faces. The lower 6.5x magnification makes it easier to find a bird and hold it in view, which matters more for a kid than extra power. If you’d rather buy an adult pair they’ll grow into, our binoculars under $200 guide has the options.
11. Sibley Birds East
Or Sibley Birds West, depending on where you live
The regional field guide grown-up birders actually carry, with David Sibley’s paintings of every species. Buy the one for your half of the country; it’s smaller and easier to use than the full guide.
12. Sibley Backyard Birding Flashcards
100 common North American birds
A deck of 100 cards with Sibley’s illustrations on the front and the details on the back. Kids quiz each other with them, and they’re a quick way to learn the birds that are most likely to show up in the yard.
13. Wooden birdhouse kit, 2 sets
Build and paint, screwdriver included
Two birdhouse kits with wood, screws, paint, brushes and a screwdriver. Build one and give the other to a friend or a sibling. It’s a good weekend project for an older kid, or one to do together.
Two gifts that cost nothing
A promise to keep the feeder full. Write it on a card. Then actually do it all winter, because an empty feeder is how kids lose interest. A trip to see birds. Forty-five minutes at a pond full of ducks, or a local Audubon walk, will do more than anything on this list.
Shopping for a grown-up too? Our main gifts for bird lovers guide is sorted by budget.
Need something for the grown-ups’ stockings? Try our stocking stuffers for bird lovers.
