Join our partners and your fellow nature nerds for a party where the field guides are the main dish! Following the City Nature Challenge, we need all hands to help identify the many birds found and uploaded to inatualist.

COS proudly presents the newest social event by and for birders; Flock Club! Join us as we gather to share our passion for birds in a casual and accessible environment.

Join our friends at Big Marsh for an afternoon celebration of all things winter!

RSVP Required

Join the COS Board of Directors as we celebrate our many accomplishments in 2023, play games, and announce exciting new plans for the new year, and much more!

COS proudly presents the newest social event by and for birders; Flock Club! Join us as we gather to share our passion for birds in a casual and accessible environment.

Sunday, Dec. 17 - 12:00pm

Everyone’s favorite bird beer in honor of Chicago’s Piping Plovers is back! Join us as we drink for a cause with an excellent craft brew.

RSVP Required

Join COS for the 75th Annual Lisle Christmas Bird Count and Dinner! Every year on a wintery Sunday in December, birders sally forth to count birds and contribute their sightings to the oldest continuously running citizen science project in the world.

COS proudly presents the newest social event by and for birders; Flock Club! Join us as we gather to share our passion for birds in a casual and accessible environment.

Birding is for everyone! Curious about what it takes to get started, what resources are available, or where to even go? Then join members of Chicago’s vibrant birding community at Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary for our first ever Beginning Birding Open House!

Birds & Beers meets bird walks... a birding hang out! Trying a slightly different concept from the typical bird walk, COS is thrilled to start the Tweets and Eats program!

Beer in the Woods is a fundraiser to help support Friends of the Forest Preserves’s advocacy work, Conservation Corps programming, and community engagement initiatives. COS is a proud supporter of Friends and will be leading bird walks as part of this event.

RSVP Required

Join COS for a nocturnal twist on the classic hawk watch, our second annual Nighthawk Watch!

Mark your calendar and join us for the bird conservation party of the year!

Join us at Metropolitan Brewing on Saturday, August 26th at 5pm where we will enjoy live music, delicious craft beers, major announcements, and of course, birding, while raising money for Chicago Ornithological Society’s many bird conservation projects.

RSVP Required

Join COS for a bird walk and craft for birding families at North Park Village Nature Center!

Kickoff summer at Big Marsh with a family-focused event to celebrate local art, artists, the many art installations at the park.

Join COS and Urban Rivers for a celebration of the diversity of avian wildlife that have been spotted at the Wild Mile.

Thursday, Jan. 19 - 7:00pm

RSVP Required

Join the COS Board of Directors as we celebrate our many accomplishments in 2022, play games, and announce exciting new plans for the new year, and much more!

Sunday, Dec. 18

RSVP Required

Join COS for the 74th Annual Lisle Christmas Bird Count and Dinner! Every year on a wintery Sunday in December, birders sally forth to count birds and contribute their sightings to the oldest continuously running citizen science project in the world.

Join COS and the Chicago Park District for the fifth annual Birds, Bikes, and Beats festival! Rolling event throughout the day guarantee there’s something for everyone at this celebration of urban parks and nature.

Saturday, Sept. 17 - 6:00pm
In Person

RSVP Required

Join Chicago Ornithological Society and Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum for the Chicago debut of Ploverville, the documentary chronicling the fateful summer that Nish and Nellie landed in Ohio and the people who stood up to protect them.

Aug. 29 or Aug. 31 or Sept. 2 - 7:30pm

RSVP Required

Join COS for a nocturnal twist on the classic hawk watch, our first ever Nighthawk Watch!

Join us for the next edition of our collaborative series, Compelling Voices in Birding! Dr. Abby Sterling, a shorebird biologist at Manomet working on the Georgia Bight Shorebird Conservation Initiative, will highlight some of these incredible shorebird stories, and explain how protecting shorebird habitat at strategically important locations can have positive impacts across the Western Hemisphere.

Chicago Ornithological Society is celebrating the next big chapter of our Calumet Initiative as we unveil the first Motus wildlife tracking tower in Chicago!

Saturday, Aug. 7 - 3:00pm

RSVP preferred

Join us and community partners as we celebrate the grand opening of Chicago's 1st Bird Themed Mini-Golf Course!