Tourists have always flocked to Alabama, a bird-watching paradise, to glimpse some of the more than 430 species of birds that can be spotted in the state.

The Alabama Tourism Department (ATD) is enhancing this experience by launching the Year of Alabama Birding on March 22, during the prime March-through-May bird-watching season.

Bird lovers can enjoy professional videos taken during the Festival of the Cranes at the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge in Decatur and Eagle Awareness Weekends at Lake Guntersville State Park in Guntersville. The videos, which are on YouTube, are being promoted through the Alabama Vacation Guide and the Alabama Tourism website at Alabama.travel.

Beautiful birds abound across Alabama. (Beth Cowan Drake)

The house finch is seen across the state. (Beth Cowan Drake)

An eagle surveys its territory. (Beth Cowan Drake)

A crane skims the lake. (Beth Cowan Drake)

The blue jay can be territorial. (Beth Cowan Drake)

A red-shouldered hawk at rest. (Phil Free / Alabama News Center)

An Alabama bird greets spring. (Beth Cowan Drake)

The Year of Alabama Birding consists of a multitude of initiatives and promotions designed to attract birders to Alabama. Here are some offerings:

• An eight-page section in the 2023 Alabama Vacation Guide features the top birding trails and events in Alabama, including the best opportunities for those with special needs. About 56,000 copies of the Alabama Vacation Guide were mailed with the January 2023 issue of Atlanta Magazine.
• Visitors will hear birdsongs at each of the eight Alabama Welcome Centers across the state. The eight two-minute tracks of birdsongs recorded in Alabama were created by ATD through its agency of record, Birmingham-based Intermark Group.  Not only can visitors hear the birdsongs at the Welcome Centers; they can take them along for their journey by streaming them from select music platforms. For more information about the Welcome Centers and their locations, click here.
• Four print ads promoting the Year of Alabama Birding have been designed by Intermark and are appearing in two separate issues of eight magazines in major Southeast markets, including Texas Monthly and Atlanta Magazine. Paid advertising support includes digital video and banner advertising in Alabama’s top source out-of-state markets.
• A Find Your Flock quiz will appear on ATD’s website Travel/Birding. Designed by Intermark, the game will allow visitors to answer questions about their likes, dislikes and personality to find out which Alabama bird they most resemble. Then they will be told the area of the state and the birding trails where they can see “their” bird.
• On the Alabama.travel site, viewers will be able to “Follow a Birder” for Alabama bird-watching insights and tips. Throughout the campaign, videos created by Intermark will focus on a handful of local birding enthusiasts, who will show viewers the birds they see and trails they use in different parts of the state.
• Working with the University of Alabama and Audubon member Joe Watts, ATD has helped improve and publicize the eight major birding trails and more than 280 birding sites throughout the state.
• ATD is working with Alabama Audubon member Chris Oberholster to explore creating a festival event around the Coastal Bird Banding Initiative and to help the organization promote Alabama birding events outside the state.
• Well-known U.S. stamp artist Daniel Cosgrove was commissioned to create the “Year of Alabama Birding” poster, featuring the state bird, the Alabama yellowhammer.
• Beth Cowan Drake, a skilled photographer and publisher of Alabama the Beautiful Magazine, has created a magazine to help beginning birders discover Alabama. The magazine, sponsored by ATD, is free to visitors at Alabama Welcome Centers. During the next two years, Drake will perform a series of photography clinics at state parks to help people take better birding pictures.

ATD Director Lee Sentell said while he is committed to making birding one of the department’s popular “Year of” campaigns, the title may not give the campaign its due.

“We aren’t ending it after a year,” Sentell said. “We will be launching components of it during the next two years, and the impact will carry on far beyond that.”