Wondering where you can find a new birding area nearby? Use eBird’s Hotspot Explorer to learn more about where birds are being reported in your area and far beyond (Black-necked Stilt photo by Paul Konrad). Zoom in to the location you would like to go birding to find hotspot pins. Click the View Details button on the hotspot pop-up to see a site map, species lists, numbers, and more information.

If you are interested in expanding your birding horizons by a few miles, to the next county, to a refuge you’ve heard about in a neighboring state – or anywhere else in the world – by all means take a look at the wealth of information provided at ebird’s Hotspot Explorer. It’s easy to use, just click on the link provided below, which will open to a map of the world; zoom in and click on or near the location you are interested in, and click on any hotspot pinpoints that interest you. You can also simply enter the geographic location you are interested in birding to get started!

Just type in a location or the name of a town nearby in the upper right box. A map with pinpoints of birding hotspot locations will appear, and you can begin clicking pinpoints to see up-to-date lists of birds seen. It may also be helpful to narrow the information provided by designating a specific month you are interested in monitoring the birds observed.

Realistically, you can investigate and discover the best places for birding nearby, across the continent, or around the world. Plus, if there is a species you would like to find, Hotspot Explorer provides a completely new way to check what birds are being seen in particular locations and when to plan birding trips in the process. When you zoom in and reveal the hotspots, you can click on the locations to get a quick pop-up summary of the information from that location. Hotspot Explorer may even help reveal some hidden gems near home that you never knew about before!

When you click the “View Details” button on a hotspot pop-up, you get a new page specific to that location with bird lists that include numbers seen and the dates they were observed, along with other information. This information has been provided by fellow birders who listed their sightings on eBird, and you can add your sightings anytime too.

The most recent sightings list is a full species list for the hotspot, and you can expand this to see the photos, videos, audio recordings, and comments by clicking the “Show All Details” button. The “Recent Visits” button also gives you quick links to the latest checklists submitted about birds sighted at the hotspot, and you can link directly to the Bar Charts or High Counts for a hotspot from that page.

To get started, see Hotspot Explorer