Birds of New Hampshire

For as long as I can remember, I have always loved seeing the various wildlife that lived and wandered throughout the property of my family’s home in southern New Hampshire. From the myriad of small birds and the ever present squirrels to the occasional black bear and even a mama moose and her calf, I was fortunate to have a front row seat to view several of New Hampshire’s animal inhabitants.

Fast forward through the years and I found myself wondering why I wasn’t spending more time trying to photograph these amazing creatures! I decided that this was something that I needed to invest my time in and immediately started looking for some sort of goal to keep myself focused and motivated on this aspect of photography.

My first thought was to photograph every native mammal species in New Hampshire but I quickly dismissed that idea. The thought of trying to photograph tiny nocturnal mice seemed like a clear reason not to try. Beyond that extreme example, I felt like seeing anything other than the typical squirrels, chipmunks and rabbits was a somewhat rare occurrence. I had since moved from my family’s house and no longer had the luxury of a large backyard in the middle of a heavily wooded area.

I then decided to make it my goal to photograph all the native species of birds in New Hampshire. Granted, there are some nocturnal birds (specifically several owl species) but I believe that the “barrier of entry” was much lower for birds than it is for mammals. Even living in a more urban area, I can walk outside and see half a dozen bird species without looking too hard.

I am using the New Hampshire Audubon’s “2020 State of the Birds” report to know which birds to include in this project. The report can be found here.

The report lists both breeding and non-breeding (or “native” and “non-native”) bird species of New Hampshire. I have since expanded my goal to include all of the listed non-native species. The non-native species are denoted with an “(x)” next to their name.

In total, the report includes 278 species - 193 native species and 85 non-native species.

This is an ongoing project that I anticipate will take several years to complete. While my main goal is to photograph every specie on the list, I am also doing this with the intention of learning more about the various birds in New Hampshire as well as to grow my knowledge and experience in the craft of wildlife photography. As such, each of the bird profiles will be updated over time as I photograph and learn more about the subject.

This project began on October 9, 2022.