Editor’s Picks: Best gifts for bird lovers

It may be so Familiar with the various memes detailing the fact that once you reach middle age, you are automatically pigeonholed, Harry Potter-style hat, into one of a few hobbies, such as making sourdough bread, gardening, or bird watching. I can’t disagree with this, because I am a middle-aged person who has been involved in bird watching. But I know that enjoying birds and their various activities is fun for all ages. Birds are beautiful, interesting and unpredictable, and it’s great to keep a running life list of all the birds you’ve seen and hope to see in your lifetime.

Whether someone you know is in the birdwatching phase, getting ready to do so, or has been at it for decades, all of these unique gifts—for traveling birdwatchers and backyard bird enthusiasts alike—are things that I or another bird-loving member of our review team has experienced, been gifted, or purchased IRL and enjoyed.

For more specific equipment recommendations, check out our guides to the best smart bird feeders and the best binoculars. For other gift ideas, check out all of our gift guide coverage, including the best white elephant gifts , best gifts for men , and best trending TikTok gifts .

Updated May 2026: I’ve overhauled this guide to a new format, swapped out the selections, and added a new game, smart box, magazine, and jacket. I’ve also made sure the links and prices are updated.

Our favorite smart bird feeder

If you love birds, there’s nothing like seeing them up close and personal, doing all their birding activities. I’ve learned more about birds in the past two years of testing smart bird feeders than I have in my entire life, such as the fact that cowbirds will lay their eggs in the nests of other birds (like juncos) and that “host” birds will raise cowbird chicks as their own, even if they’re not at all alike. Or jays and other corvids are scatterbrained, and will spend an entire day picking nuts from a feeder’s seed mix to hide caches around the yard. There are many smart seed feeders on the market, but Birdfy’s high-quality basic model (available with a blue or yellow roof) stands out for its balance of price, features, reliability and ease of use without a subscription, making it a great personal gift option.

Family choice

My mom gifted this game to my family about 10 years ago, and to this day, it is the most played and most enjoyed game we have ever owned, in any genre. Shuffle and recall small cards; Players place a square of blue cards on their bingo card if they have that bird. My son loved it, his friends loved it, the neighbors loved it, and extended family loved it – it can be played by up to six people at a time, and is suitable for all ages. No need to read or parse the rules. Best of all, my husband and I don’t mind playing it multiple times a day for years on end (an important plus for any parent of young children).

For beginner birders

Bushnell

Powerview 2 8×21 binoculars

Experienced bird watchers likely have a good set of binoculars, but for curious birders, kids, or anyone just starting out, high-quality binoculars and a Life List journal ($22) would make a great gift. WIRED contributing reviewer Caramel Quinn declared these binoculars the best budget binoculars. I purchased a set for each member of my family to take a cruise to Alaska last summer, and I’m so glad I did. It’s lightweight (7.2 ounces) but sturdy, with an aluminum housing instead of plastic, and small enough to fit in a pocket if you’re going hiking and don’t want to deal with it around your neck.

Classic nerd bird

David Allen Sibley

“What it’s like to be a bird: from flying to nesting, from eating to singing – what birds do, and why.”

This 8-by-11-inch hardcover by renowned ornithologist David Sibley (best known for his Sibley Field Guides) may be too large and heavy to fit in a backpack for field reading, but it remains the definitive source of interesting bird facts. Did you know that mallard ducklings only have a 15% chance of thriving, and that once hatched, less than half of ducklings survive? And that jays in the northeastern United States often eat paint chips in search of calcium, which is not naturally found in the soil of that region? Or do chickadees specifically seek out spiders to feed their young in the first week after hatching, since spiders are high in taurine? Whether you like it or not, you will know all these things and more if you gift this book to someone close to you.

A different type of bird food

My husband and I received this feeding basket and some suet cakes as gifts about 10 years ago. The basket has fallen to the ground countless times; They were chewed and used as gymnastics equipment by squirrels; It has weathered storms, snow, and almost everything Pacific Northwest winters have to offer. Sure, look wise it’s seen better days, but it still gets the job done.