Maine publishes comprehensive study of the state's birds

MAINE PUBLIC • September 21, 2026

Maine has finally published the most comprehensive survey of the state's bird life ever compiled. The Maine Bird Atlas is the product of volunteer observations from nearly every corner of the state between 2018 and 2022, according to Maine Audubon naturalist Doug Hitchcox. "Just the fact that we had these thousands of volunteers and millions of cumulative records over those five years, it's easily the largest citizen science project that the state has ever seen," Hitchcox said. The atlas records bird species that breed or spend winters in Maine and is broken down into nine-mile blocks. It's an in-depth update to the first atlas published over 40 years ago.