General | Mass Audubon – Your Great Outdoors

2 Boston women
125 years of impact
38 Bird-a-thon events
$3,000,000+ event dollars raised

Mass Audubon’s rich history spans 125 years. What started as a mission to stop the cruel and deadly treatment of birds for fashion has evolved into one of the nation’s leading nature conservation organizations.

In 1896 the founders of Mass Audubon, Harriet Hemenway and Minna Hall, set out to persuade as many Boston women as possible to forgo feathers in their fashionable hats to help protect birds.

Our founders did not shy away from the challenge. This is a tradition we’ve upheld all these years as we fight to protect the nature of Massachusetts for people and wildlife.

Bird-a-thon, our largest annual fundraiser taking place this Friday and Saturday, has been an integral part of our history for the past 38 years. This year, we invite our Bird-a-thon participants to take part in a very special challenge.

In honor of our 125th anniversary, participants can complete a 125-item nature scavenger hunt. This scavenger hunt will have them searching high and low for a wide range of nature-related items like birds on a wire, ants marching in a line, and the sound of rustling leaves. Any participant who checks off each item will be entered into a drawing for an awesome prize!

Are you up for the challenge? Sign up for Bird-a-thon today!

*Deadline to register is Wednesday, May 12, at 2 pm.

Thank you to our 2021 Bird-a-thon Sponsors!

Lead Sponsor

Media Sponsor

Supporting Sponsor: ZEISS
Community Sponsor: River Valley Co-op

Bird-a-thon brings birders, nature-lovers, and families together to celebrate nature and raise funds that provide essential year-round support for Mass Audubon’s conservation, nature education, and advocacy work. Bird-a-thon will take place from 6 pm May 14 until 6 pm May 15.

Spring at last! Our early migrant birds are returning in ever-greater numbers, but many of the year-round residents have already been preparing for nesting season for weeks, including our beloved Massachusetts state bird, the Black-capped Chickadee.

Year-round, chickadees make their namesake call, chickadee-dee-dee, using an increasing number of dees the more alarmed or threatened they feel—an early-warning alarm that even other species of birds will respond to. But as early as mid-January, males begin singing their high, sweet fee-bee song to attract mates and prepare for nesting season.

It’s easy to confuse the chickadee’s sweet whistle with the more emphatic, raspy fee-BEE sung by Eastern Phoebes, which we should also start hearing around this time of year, but play them side-by-side a few times and you’ll quickly learn to recognize the difference:

Plenty of small migratory songbirds will associate with flocks of chickadees during spring and fall migration, so if you hear a flock of chickadees in your neighborhood, grab your binoculars—there may be an interesting migrant nearby, as well.

Enjoy these five photos of Black-capped Chickadees from our annual Picture This: Your Great Outdoors photo contest, and listen for these sweet songbirds on your next nature walk.