Bird lovers are easy to shop for and hard to shop well for. The trouble with most “gifts for bird lovers” lists is that they’re bird-shaped things, mugs and scarves and earrings, that a person who actually watches birds already has three of. The gifts below are sorted by budget and picked by one rule: it’s something a birder would use, or something that gets a non-birder started. Every item is on Amazon with Prime shipping, so it’ll arrive in time for the holidays even if you’re reading this on December 20.
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Under $20
1. Bird Trivia by Stan Tekiela
Hardcover
The stocking stuffer. Short, strange, true facts about North American birds (hummingbirds’ hearts beat 1,200 times a minute; chickadees grow new brain cells every fall to remember where they hid seeds) from the author of the state-by-state field guides. Reads in an evening, gets quoted for years.
2. Audubon plush ruby-throated hummingbird
Squeeze it and it plays the real call
For the grandchild, or for the desk. Wild Republic’s Audubon birds are the ones nature centers sell: accurate plumage, palm-sized, and each one plays the actual recorded song. The goldfinch is the other favorite. Kids learn the calls without trying.
3. Perky-Pet window hummingbird feeder
Suction cups · 8 oz
A hummingbird two inches from the kitchen window is a gift that keeps paying off from April to September. This is the classic window hummingbird feeder. Pair it with a bag of nectar powder and it’s ready to hang.
4. The Field Guide to Dumb Birds sticker book
100+ stickers
Matt Kracht’s “Dumb Birds” books are the running joke of the birding world: real species, accurately drawn, with names like “Dumb-Eyed Junco.” The sticker book is the cheapest entry point and the one that ends up on water bottles and laptops.
5. The Sibley Birder’s Life List and Field Diary
Hardcover journal
Every birder keeps a list; most keep it badly. This is a checklist of every North American species with room for the date and place of the first sighting, plus diary pages, in a book that will sit on a shelf for forty years. The right gift for someone who just got serious.
6. “Bird Nerd” mug
16 oz stoneware
Fine, one mug. This is the one: chunky, dishwasher-safe, and “Bird Nerd” is what birders call themselves. The Birds on a Wire heat-changing mug, where birds appear on the wire as the coffee goes in, is the other one worth buying.
7. Nature’s Way cedar wren house
Cedar, clean-out door
A nest box that birds will actually use, which rules out almost every decorative birdhouse sold as a gift. The 1-1/8 inch hole fits wrens and chickadees and keeps house sparrows out, the cedar lasts a decade, and the side door opens for cleaning. Hang it in February; there’ll be a family in it by May.
8. More Birds double suet feeder
Steel, weather guard
The gift for someone who has a seed feeder and no suet feeder, which is most people. Suet is what brings the woodpeckers, and this holds two cakes under a roof. Add a ten-pack of suet cakes and it’s a complete present.
9. Songbirds 2027 wall calendar
Paintings by Susan Bourdet
A calendar is only a lazy gift if it’s a bad calendar. Bourdet’s watercolors are the ones birders recognize from Audubon and Wild Wings; twelve of them for twenty dollars is a deal. The photographic Backyard Birds calendar is the alternative.
$20 to $60
10. Sibley Backyard Birding 1,000-piece puzzle
Sibley’s paintings
A thousand pieces of David Sibley’s field-guide paintings of the common feeder birds, labeled. It’s a puzzle and an identification lesson, and it’s the one bird puzzle that isn’t a photo of a cardinal on a snowy branch. The Cornell Lab birds of the East is the harder one for a puzzle veteran.
11. The Sibley Guide to Birds, 2nd edition
The big one
The book. Every serious North American birder owns it; every beginner should. 600 pages of Sibley’s paintings covering every species on the continent, with the field marks that photos don’t show. Too big for a pocket, perfect for the table by the window. If they already have it, the Backyard Birdwatcher’s Bible is the coffee-table alternative.
12. Droll Yankees Observer window feeder
Suction-mount, 2 cups
The gift for an apartment, a nursing home, a home office, or anyone who wants birds at arm’s length. Droll Yankees is the brand that invented the tube feeder, and this window feeder is the one that stays up. We compared the category in our window feeder guide.
13. Wingspan board game
1–5 players
The best-reviewed board game of the last decade happens to be about birds. Each card is a real species with its real habitat and diet, the art is field-guide quality, and non-birders love it as much as birders. If the household already has it, Wyrmspan is the dragon sequel by the same publisher.
14. Soliom BF08 smart feeder
2K camera, solar
The cheapest bird feeder camera that works: a metal-bodied feeder with a 2K camera that sends clips of every visitor to a phone. For under $60 it’s the gift that turns a non-birder into one in about a week. We ranked it against six others in our smart feeder guide.
$60 to $150
15. Solar birdhouse camera
2K, night vision, live view
A nest box with a camera inside, so the family can watch a chickadee or wren raise a brood from egg to fledging on their phones. Solar-powered, with night vision for the nest at 3 a.m. Hang it by February.
16. Harymor smart bird feeder
2K, three solar panels
A popular feeder camera under $100. Three solar panels keep it charged, the AI names the species (imperfectly), and the clips are sharp. The safe choice if you don’t know which smart feeder to buy.
17. Celestron Outland X 8×42 binoculars
Waterproof
The first real pair of binoculars. 8×42 is the birding standard, and the Outland X is the floor for glass that doesn’t fog, doesn’t double, and lasts. Don’t buy the $30 pair; it’s the reason people give up on binoculars.
18. Brome Squirrel Buster Plus
Weight-activated, 6 ports
The feeder that ends the squirrel problem, for the birder who has been fighting it for years. A squirrel’s weight closes the ports; a cardinal’s doesn’t. Lifetime warranty, and it’s the one product that gets an unprompted thank-you note. Our squirrel guide explains why it works.
19. Celestron Nature DX 8×42 binoculars
Waterproof, close focus 6.5 ft
The binoculars birding clubs hand to beginners, and the pair most people never outgrow. Sharper to the edges than the Outland, with a close focus that makes the feeder ten feet away look like a film. One of the best gifts you can give a birder.
20. Netvue Birdfy Feeder AI
1080p/2K, solar, lifetime AI
Our pick for best-value smart feeder: wide perch, three-month battery plus solar, microSD and cloud, and species identification included forever with no subscription. The one to buy for someone who’ll actually use the app.
For a birder who already has binoculars: our binoculars under $500 guide covers the step-up pairs, and a complete feeding station from our feeder pole guide is a gift they’ll use every day.
The big gift
21. Bird Buddy Pro Solar
2K HDR, 5MP photos, solar roof
The smart feeder with the best app, the best-looking clips and the biggest community, in the bundle with the solar roof so it never needs charging. The premium features cost a subscription, but the free tier is generous. It’s the gift that gets unboxed on Christmas morning and hung before lunch.
A big-ticket idea: for a birder who watches shorebirds, ducks or hawks at a distance, a spotting scope is the upgrade after binoculars. Our spotting scope guide covers five.
For the birder who wants photos: a superzoom camera like the Nikon COOLPIX P950 reaches 2000mm, far enough to fill the frame with a bird across a field. Our bird photography camera guide compares four.
Three more that aren’t on Amazon
A Cornell Lab membership supports the people who make the free Merlin and eBird apps and comes with Living Bird magazine. A local Audubon chapter membership comes with guided walks, which is how most people learn to bird. And a bag of black-oil sunflower with a note saying you’ll fill the feeder all winter is, for the right person, better than anything on this list.
By the person
Just getting started: the window feeder, Bird Trivia and the free Merlin app. Our beginner’s guide has the rest. Already hooked: the Nature DX binoculars, the Sibley life list, Wingspan. Has everything: the Squirrel Buster or a Birdfy, because they don’t have those. A kid: the Audubon plush, the sticker book and the Soliom camera feeder; see our kids and birding post.
Related: The best binoculars under $200 · The best smart bird feeders · The best window bird feeders · Backyard birding for beginners
