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2025 NYSOA Annual Meeting and New York State Birders Conference: September 19–21, 2025

The 78th annual New York State Ornithological Association (NYSOA) conference will be held in Ithaca, New York, and will be hosted by the Cayuga Bird Club, a NYSOA member club. The conference brings together birders from across the state and beyond, who come to develop new birding friendships, renew old ones, hear excellent speakers, and explore birding opportunities away from their home turf.

The conference weekend offers attendees various social, educational, and birding activities, including a paper session, NYS Young Birders Club ID Challenge, field trips, vendors, a silent auction, and a banquet dinner. Friday’s welcome reception will be followed by a presentation by Adriaan Dokter, Cornell Lab of Ornithology Center for Avian Population Studies, titled BirdCast: A Large-Scale Perspective on Bird Migration.

On Saturday, Peter Kaestner will give the Keynote address, titled “In Search of the Orange-tufted Spiderhunter,” about his quest to find 10,000 different bird species, the first person to reach this milestone. Peter has traveled all over the world during his career as a diplomat, birding everywhere he’s been. A highlight of his birding journey was his discovery of a new species of antpitta in Colombia, subsequently named after him, the Cundinamarca Antpitta (Grallaria kaestneri). Peter has also been an active bird conservationist and was recently awarded the American Birding Association’s Roger Tory Peterson Lifetime Achievement Award.

Visit the conference website for more details. Registration opens April 1, 2025.

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New York State Birders Conference 2023

David Allen Sibley will be the keynote speaker for the New York State Birders Conference, hosted by Saw Mill River Audubon September 22–24, 2023, in Tarrytown, New York. This event is also the 2023 meeting of the New York State Ornithological Association, which connects the birds and birders of the Empire State through over 40 Audubon chapters and bird clubs.

Sibley will be the keynote dinner speaker on Saturday night, and Tom Stephenson, co-author of The Warbler Book, will be the Saturday afternoon workshop keynote, with a focused workshop about learning bird sounds.

The conference will be held at the Sleepy Hollow Hotel and Conference Center in Tarrytown next to the Cuomo/Tappan Zee Bridge. Registration and all details are at www.nybirders.org.

Other event highlights include:

  • Excellent morning field trips on Saturday and Sunday to key birding hotspots led by local birding leaders. Special field trips include the opportunity for a guided kayak paddle in the Croton and Hudson rivers, as well as a wheelchair-accessible field trip to the State Line Palisades Hawk Watch overlooking the Hudson River.
  • Saturday afternoon workshops on birding and photography skills, advocacy, and arts, followed by the NYSOA annual delegates meeting.
  • Birding quiz for all ages led by the NYS Young Birders Club Friday night.
  • Ornithological research paper and poster sessions. Visit www.nybirders.org/research to be considered as a presenter. Open to researchers from high school to postgraduate, with free registration provided for selected researchers.
  • Saturday night banquet with delicious food, good company, and our very special keynote speaker.

Register as soon as possible at www.nybirders.org. Field trips and workshops will be space limited and available only by online registration.  Registration rates increase on July 1.

Conference questions and inquiries may be directed to info@nybirders.org.

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NY BBA III Breeding Codes: Possibles and Probables

By Julie Hart, NY BBA III

Possible Breeding Codes

There are only two codes that fall in the Possible category and they are used to indicate the presence of a species in the block in the appropriate habitat (H) and singing birds (S). Both of these codes should only be used if the bird is in appropriate nesting habitat (you may have to look this up online or in a field guide) and only during the breeding season (look this up on the Breeding Guideline Bar Chart). With both codes, it’s a good idea to return to the site a few weeks later to see if you can bump up the code for that species to the Probable or Confirmed categories. It’s likely the bird is on territory but maybe you are there at the wrong time of day or too early in the season. 

Continue reading “NY BBA III Breeding Codes: Possibles and Probables”