See what's been spotted near you
🐦 Real Sightings, Not Guesses Enter your location and we'll show you bird species that have actually been observed nearby recently, pulled from a real biodiversity database rather than a generic species list.
Matching is flexible with typos and alternate spellings — if your exact town isn't found, try the nearest larger city.
If both fields are filled in, they're used instead of the city lookup above — otherwise leave them blank.
Every sighting shown here was logged by a real person in the field — citizen-science observations like these are exactly how researchers track bird populations and migration patterns at a scale no single research team could cover alone.
How It Works: Enter your city (or exact coordinates, if you know them) and this tool queries GBIF — the Global Biodiversity Information Facility — for real bird sightings logged within roughly 25km of that location. You'll see species that have genuinely been observed nearby, not a generic regional checklist.
Where the Data Comes From: GBIF aggregates biodiversity records from citizen science platforms including eBird and iNaturalist, along with museum and research collections, all standardized into one searchable database of over two billion records worldwide.
Essential Gear for Beginners: Start with 8x42 binoculars (the standard), a field guide (Sibley or National Geographic), and a notebook. A spotting scope comes later. The best gear is what you'll actually use — don't wait for perfect equipment.
Using Your Results: A short list doesn't mean an area lacks birds — it usually means fewer people have logged sightings there. Try visiting at dawn, learning a few common calls, and checking back later as new observations get added to the database.
Example: Say you enter "Seattle." The tool resolves that to coordinates, then queries GBIF for bird sightings within 25km logged in the past 30 days. You'll see scientific names first (e.g. Haliaeetus leucocephalus), with common names like "Bald Eagle" filling in a moment later as they're looked up — each with how recently it was observed, pulled from real logged sightings rather than a general "birds of the Pacific Northwest" list.
Some sightings are logged as a genus (like "a gull" or "a hawk") rather than an exact species — the observer wasn't certain enough to identify it further, or the species-level ID wasn't confirmed. These are shown honestly as genus-level rather than guessing at a specific species that wasn't actually confirmed in the sighting.
When available, the photo shown is from the actual sighting record itself — not a generic stock photo of the species. If no photo was attached to that specific sighting, we show a labeled "Reference photo" of the species from Wikipedia instead, so you can still see what the bird looks like — this reference photo isn't from the local sighting, just a representative image of the species. Photo credit, when available, is shown in small text under the thumbnail.
Common names and scientific names come from two separate parts of GBIF's database. The sighting itself loads first with its scientific name; the everyday common name (like "Bald Eagle") is looked up right after and fills in within a second or two. If a species has no recorded common name in English, the scientific name stays shown.
Sightings come from GBIF (the Global Biodiversity Information Facility), a real biodiversity database that aggregates observations from citizen science platforms including eBird and iNaturalist, along with museum and research records. These are real, dated sightings logged by real observers, not a prediction or estimate.
We first check the last 30 days for sightings, matching the same recency window professional birding tools like eBird use. If nothing turns up in that window, we automatically widen the search to the past year before concluding there's nothing — and we'll tell you which window actually produced your results. Sparse results are more common in rural or less-visited areas where fewer people log observations, not necessarily an area with fewer birds.
8x42 binoculars are the standard starting point — a good balance of magnification and field of view. A spotting scope can come later once you know how committed you are to the hobby.