A good stocking stuffer for a bird lover is small, useful, and gets used before the new year. Most of the bird-themed stuff sold at Christmas is decoration. The picks below are things a backyard birder will reach for on a cold January morning: something to clean their binoculars, something to write sightings in, something to keep their hands warm at the feeder.
Everything here fits in a stocking, and nearly all of it sells for less than a dinner out. For bigger gifts, see our main gifts for bird lovers guide, sorted by budget. Shopping for a child? Our bird watching gifts for kids are grouped by age.
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For the binoculars and the notebook
1. Nikon Lens Pen
Retractable brush on one end, cleaning tip on the other
Every birder has wiped their binoculars on a shirt and regretted it. This is the fix: a brush for dust and a cleaning tip for fingerprints, in something the size of a marker. It lives in a coat pocket all winter.
2. Rite in the Rain weatherproof notebook
Pocket size, Wire-O binding
The paper doesn’t turn to mush when it gets wet, which matters when you’re writing down a sighting in sleet. It’s small enough for a jacket pocket and tough enough for a backpack. Write the first entry for them: today’s date and the bird at the feeder.
3. POMPONGO rechargeable hand warmers
2 pack, three heat settings
Winter birding means standing still in the cold, and cold hands can’t focus binoculars. These charge over USB and give up to 20 hours of heat on the low setting, so one charge covers a long morning at the window or a Christmas Bird Count.
For learning the birds
4. The Little Book of Backyard Bird Songs
A board book with 12 song buttons
Press a button and it plays the song of the bird pictured on it: cardinal, robin, blue jay, goldfinch, mourning dove, house finch and six more that live in the U.S. and Canada. It’s sturdy enough for kids and good enough that adults end up keeping it by the window.
5. Cornell Lab Backyard Birds flash cards
Eastern & Central, or Western
A boxed set of cards for 110 species with photos and range maps, from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Buy the set for their half of the country, and they’ll learn the birds most likely to show up at their feeder.
6. Sibley Birder’s Trivia
200 cards, 400 questions
A trivia card game about the birds of North America from David Sibley, with questions from easy to hard. It’s the rare stocking stuffer that gets played on Christmas afternoon, with the whole family arguing about whether dinosaurs had feathers.
7. National Audubon Society Birds of North America
The updated complete guide
A reference book, not a pocket guide, and the most expensive thing on this list. It’s newly updated, with conservation status for each species, and it’s the book that settles arguments about what that bird was.
For the feeders
8. Mr. Bird Christmas shapes seed ornaments
4-inch seed ornaments with hangers
A gift for the birds as much as the person: Christmas-shaped ornaments made of packed seed that hang on a tree or a hook outside. If you’d rather make your own, our bird seed wreath guide shows how.
9. Dreamdrawer window hummingbird feeder
Suction-cup base, two 2-ounce nectar cups
A Christmas gift for spring. It sticks to a window, holds two small nectar containers with three feeding ports each, and comes apart for cleaning. Wrap it with a note to hang it when the first hummingbirds come back.
10. Handheld hummingbird feeders
2 pack, mini glass, with suction cups
For the bird lover who has everything except a hummingbird on their finger. Hold one in your hand or stick it to a window. It takes patience, and it’s another one to save for spring, but it’s the kind of thing people talk about all summer.
For the tree
11. Stained glass cardinal ornament
A pair of cardinals on a snowy holly branch
The one purely decorative pick here. Cardinals are the bird of Christmas cards for a reason, and this one catches the tree lights. It’s a good small gift for the person who keeps a feeder full of cardinals all winter.
12. The Birdwatcher’s Coloring Book
Dover, 30 illustrations
Thirty detailed drawings of U.S. and Canadian birds in their habitats, from an oriole in an apple tree to a bald eagle diving for a fish. It’s inexpensive, it’s for adults as much as kids, and it’s something quiet to do on the slow days between Christmas and New Year’s.
One that costs nothing
Sign up together for the Audubon Christmas Bird Count. It runs every year from December 14 to January 5, and the birds volunteers count feed real conservation work. Audubon runs an introductory webinar for first-timers, so nobody needs to be an expert. It makes a good morning out with other bird people.
