News

ATTENTION DBC Volunteers: We’re celebrating YOU at the DBC Volunteer Luncheon October 18 at St. James Farm! The DBC Board would like to acknowledge all of our volunteers at a casual luncheon on October 18 at St. James Farm. The event will begin at 10:00 a.m. with a short birding walk followed by lunch at 11:30 a.m. Click here to RSVP by October 15. The event is for everyone who has volunteered in any capacity on behalf of the club in the last year. This includes Board Members, Committee members, field trip leaders, outreach volunteers, newsletter and website contributors, event coordinators, […]

The public is invited to join members of the DuPage Birding Club on October 9 for an auction and fundraiser at the DuPage County Historical Museum, 102 E. Wesley, Wheaton, IL. Doors open at 6:00 p.m. with a cash bar and time to browse the live auction and the museum. The live auction begins at 7:15 p.m. To attend the event, register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/d/il–barrington/dupage-birding-club/. Parking is available on the street and at a nearby parking garage 1 ½ blocks west of the museum. The club will auction more than 60 bird- and nature-related items donated by members, local merchants, and

The August 13, 2025, edition of The Daily Herald featured a story on DBC member Denis Kania and his quest to see as many of the world’s hummingbirds as possible. The feature was authored by DBC member Jeff Reiter in his monthly Words on Birds column. Photo by Diann Bilderback Coppery-headed Emerald. Photo by Mike Warner Hummingbirds exist only in the Western hemisphere so you won’t find them in Africa, Europe, Australia, or Asia. Denis has traveled extensively within the region including destinations like Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, Costa Rica, and recently Cuba to see 237 species of the 367 that

  The DBC Auction, our first in six years, will be held on October 9 at the DuPage County Historical Museum in Wheaton, 6:00 p.m.-9:00 p.m. Auction Donations are Rolling In The DBC Auction, our first since 2019, will be held at the DuPage County Historical Museum in Wheaton. Its purpose is to raise funds for club operations and our grants and donations program—and to provide a fun social event for members and friends of the club. Auction Highlights Mark your calendar NOW because you don’t want to miss this event. Here’s a preview of some of the 60 or

Do you have a few hours a month to devote to DBC’s governance? The Nominating Committee is actively looking for new volunteers to fill important roles on the leadership team. This is a great opportunity to join a collegial group who makes it happen at the DuPage Birding Club. Contact Thelma Hulka at scubabird@gmail.com if any of the open roles interest you: Vice President—serve as #2 on the Executive Committee, with primary duty to arrange speakers for member meetings and coordinate with COD for our meeting space. The VP will step in to lead if the President is unavailable and

  Photo by Glenn Koupert DBC member Jeff Reiter has just released The Best of Words on Birds, a selection of his favorite columns from 30 years of publishing Words on Birds monthly in The Daily Herald. Columns focus on individual species, birding tips and know-how for beginners, interesting people or books in the field, and Jeff’s own personal experiences as a birder. Few people have done more to evangelize the pleasure of engaging with birds than Jeff. If birding is “having a moment,” Jeff is one of the people who importantly nurtured the interest of new birders and bird

A reminder from the Bird Conservation Network (DBC is a member of this regional coalition): if you want to stay abreast of what is happening in the birding community within the Chicago region, the Birding Illinois Discord app is the place for conservation updates, news, and events. This online community, currently with 1,800 members, has about 30 channels with topics that vary from Rare Bird Alerts and bird sightings in various counties to ID questions and general discussion of birding. You’ll find BCN updates on the conservation community and events channels. You can sign up for Discord on a mobile

DBC members can help support the restoration and management of habitat for birds in our DuPage County Forest Preserves while having fun at the same time. The Friends of the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County, the 501 (C) (3) charitable organization that raises private donations to support District programs, is holding two fundraising and fun events in August and September. All monies raised will be used to restore and manage wildlife habitat in the County. The first event is a Duck Race at the Fullersberg Woods Forest Preserve Preserve, which will be held on August 9th at 3:00 pm.

The DBC Education Channel on YouTube just added its 1000th subscriber, a significant milestone. This popular resource is a bonanza for birders who want to bone up on birding basics, improve their birding-by-ear skills, and explore the finer points of bird identification-and a lot of people have discovered just how helpful it is. Some of the more popular videos include the following: • Basic Bird Identification -1,200 views (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTn6n372iXY) • Bird Topography -2,500 views (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQ9oUSNVjzA) • Birding by Ear: Empidonax Flycatchers – 1,800 views (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErTc_WH45CU) • Birding by Ear: Vireos—1,400 views (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoznOErXUCU) With more than 100 videos, most created by

The DBC Auction, our first in six years, will be held at the DuPage County Historical Museum in Wheaton on October 9, 6:00 p.m.-9:00 p.m. Auction Backstory: An Overview A little back story for newer club members: in the past the auction was held every two years, but COVID put a wrench in that and our last auction was in 2019. Its purpose is to raise funds for club operations and our grants and donations program—and to provide a fun social event for members and friends of the club. Auctioneers Denis Kania and Jeff Chapman will auction 50-60 items donated