Birding is booming as Birds Georgia celebrates 100 years

On a busy December afternoon, Adam Betuel was trying to calculate whether he had time to see about a bird. Sure, he had work and kids, and sure, he’d have to drive at least two hours from Atlanta to Augusta. But a Georgia birder group chat had just alerted him to something unusual: A groove-billed ani had been spotted in the eastern part of the state—far outside Central America, where it’s usually found. It was tempting to see a member of the cuckoo family in his own state, but Betuel decided not to make the drive.

It wouldn’t be the last time he would weigh daily responsibilities against the urge to chase a bird. The executive director of Birds Georgia, Betuel has more than 2,600 species on his “life list,” a birder term for the record of all the species one has observed over a lifetime.

The thrill of the treasure hunt is part of what draws people to Birds Georgia, which has 2,500 members and turns 100 years old this spring. Since its founding as the Atlanta Bird Club in 1926, its members have not only honed field skills and added new species to their life lists, but they’ve also advocated on behalf of bird conservation and educated the public about why birds matter.

Birds serve ecological purposes, such as pollination and seed dispersal, says Betuel, who is also a trained ornithologist and ecologist. And, he says, “they inspire us culturally, they’re beautiful, and they’re more or less ever present, so [birding] is a great way to engage with wildlife.”

Photograph by Ben
Rollins

To celebrate the group’s centennial, Birds Georgia will host several public events. Its Centennial Bird Fest, a monthlong series of field trips, educational seminars, and family activities, begins April 10. This year, the organization also plans to launch construction of the Georgia Birding Trail, a long-planned network of more than 400 birding sites statewide.

The group’s charter members would likely be proud to see how far their organization has come. Fourteen people attended the first Atlanta Bird Club meeting in March 1926, and according to historical records kept by Birds Georgia, they had lofty goals: They would collect data on bird behavior and migrations, improve the bird friendliness of public parks, prevent cruelty to birds, and support birdhouse-building projects for scouts and school groups.

One of the group’s first acts of advocacy was to protest a mass killing of purple martins that had been ordered by the city. Such activism continued through the club’s early decades, including pushes for stronger protections against the hunting of migratory birds. The group also helped establish the brown thrasher as Georgia’s state bird, proclaimed by Governor Eugene Talmadge in 1935.

Over the decades, the organization expanded its mission to protect not just birds, but also the wild habitats and ecosystems that help them thrive. The shift reflected the wider conservation movement that began to take shape in the 1960s, led by pioneering voices such as Rachel Carson and Paul Ehrlich. When research showed that species decline among birds was a consequence of human-driven habitat loss, Birds Georgia ramped up its public outreach and launched its enduring Wildlife Sanctuary Program to educate community members on making their properties bird-friendly. This program remains a core part of Birds Georgia’s mission today, along with the Master Birder Program, which certifies graduates as experts in bird identification. Another is Project Safe Flight, an effort to reduce window strikes, which are a leading cause of death for songbirds in urban areas. (Virtually all bird groups are struggling in the modern world due to human development and climate change.)

In 1968, the Atlanta Bird Club joined the National Audubon Society, becoming Atlanta Audubon. But in 2021, as part of a wider national reckoning on American racism, many birders—including some in the Georgia group—began calling for their chapters to disassociate from the Audubon name because John James Audubon was an enslaver and well-known promoter of white supremacy.

“We learned that there are fellow bird conservationists and prospective bird lovers who feel unwelcome when we use the Audubon name,” Marc Goncher, then the vice chair of the board for the Georgia chapter, said in a public statement. In 2023, after six months of research and deliberation, the board voted to rename the organization Birds Georgia.

Some birders criticized the national wave of name changes, but many longtime members supported the shift, including Mary Kimberly, who has been involved with the organization since the 1990s. “I think the whole name change has been very beneficial,” Kimberly says. “We see a lot more younger faces now at meetings and events and a lot more people of color.”

Photograph by Ben
Rollins

Not only is membership diversifying; it’s growing. Birds Georgia’s numbers peaked in the 1990s, with about 4,100 members, but then began to steadily decline. That changed during the Covid-19 pandemic, when lockdowns led to a surge of national interest in birding, spurring new avian enthusiasts to join their local associations.

One of Birds Georgia’s younger members is Olivia Jones, a middle-school language arts teacher in her 20s from Druid Hills. She became interested in birding in 2024 after watching a barred owl pair raise chicks in her yard.

“Then my barred owl family left, but there was so much more out there,” Jones says. “It was like I truly opened my eyes and had seen birds for the first time.”

Jones equipped her yard with a hybrid bird feeder–camera and a bluebird nesting box and downloaded bird-identification apps on her phone. She kept a spreadsheet of her observations and started a life list. Then she joined Birds Georgia, began going on bird-watching walks, and eventually even earned her Master Birder certification.

These programs and events have provided resources to enhance her naturalist skills, and they also offer an opportunity to learn from others and make friends. “It’s such a great way to meet people,” Jones says. “Generally, generations have different pastimes that they get involved with. But birding feels like the great equalizer . . . It is a great opportunity to remind you that your age is not the only age, and people have walked this path before you to share their insights.”

This article appears in our April 2026 issue.

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