Birding Values and Birding Bucket List

Our Birding Values


Birds are everywhere and integral to the world's ecosystems. We go to green spaces almost daily. We watch and listen to birds. We photograph birds to learn and share their complex beauty. I hope “My Family’s Birding Values” inspires mindful attention to birds. 

  • Appreciation: Spending time with birds to observe and appreciate their plumages and behaviors in their world. Birds are beautiful independent of us. 
  • Holistic: We’re interested in bird behavior, differences, ecology, beauty, history, and their importance in different cultures.
  • Curiosity: There is an infinite amount of knowledge to gain about birds and nature. Things can be learned from all birds, including the common ones. 
  • Community: We can see birds anywhere. We prioritize the green spaces of the South side of Chicago. 
  • Preservation and Conservation: Birds didn’t need us before, but they need us now. Clean up habitats when able and help injured birds when needed.
  • Citizen scientists: We supplement what we learn in the field with research, education, and conversation with experts and elders. 
  • Remembrance: We could be seeing any bird for the last time. Through photography, we preserve our memories and experiences.
  • Coexistence & Reduce harm: We document and research how birds and people intersect and interact. We prioritize the wellbeing of birds and their habitats. We try to limit negative impact as much as possible. 
  • Mindfulness: Being in nature improves mental health. We bird to remind ourselves that we are a part of nature and nature is always with us.
  • Experimentation: We experiment to improve our knowledge. Mistakes are an essential part of experimentation. You have to fail to be creative and learn.

We acknowledge and accept that the land we bird on is not ours; it was stolen from indigenous peoples and their descendants.



Instead of listing species, we decided to list the behaviors we are interested in seeing and documenting

Killdeer stack parking at Northerly Island.


American Crow with a snake  for prey ✓ 

Shrike storing food by impaling it on a thorn/barbed wire (common killing strategy)

Peregrine Falcon attacking a businessperson downtown Chicago (read about)

Shorebirds "stack parking" ✓

House Sparrow dangling another by the neck feathers (seen but not photographed in our backyard)

Great Horned Owl carrying something like a hobby horse (seen on instagram)

Common Merganser chicks

Gull chicks

American Woodcock mating display

Wild Turkey chicks

Gulls in trees

Great Blue Herons courting

Wood Duck ducklings jumping out of a tree

Bird feeding its chick a preying mantis

Preying Mantis attacking a hummingbird

Road runner eating a snake

Pigeon in a tree ✓

Leucistic Turkey Vulture 

Leucistic Red-tailed Hawk

Barred Owl hunting crayfish

Roseate Spoonbill chicks

Cattle Egret on a bovine

Video coots underwater

Osprey over the South Branch of the Chicago River  ✓