When: Monday, May 26, 2025 through Thursday, June 26, 2025 (Tu/Thur), 7:00 - 8:30 PM
Where: Virtual
Member ticket: $160 early bird price, $175 after April 27
Non-member ticket: $185 early bird price, $200 after April 27

Are you fascinated by birds and eager to learn more? Join us for Ornithology 101, a beginner-friendly, 5-week virtual course designed for bird lovers of all backgrounds! Whether you’re a budding birder or simply curious about the avian world, this interactive series will introduce you to the fundamentals of bird biology, behavior, identification, and conservation - as well as ways you can get involved locally to help protect birds and their habitats!

Sign up by April 27 and you’ll benefit from the early bird price and get a special list of NVBA’s favorite insider birding spots to help you find migrating spring warblers during peak migration time in early May. 

The course will cover the following topics:

• Week 1: Intro to Birding and Ornithology (Monday, May 26, Thursday, May 29)

• Week 2: How A Bird Works, Anatomy (Monday, June 2, Thursday, June 5)

• Week 3: Reproduction and Life Cycle (Monday, June 9, Thursday, June 12)

• Week 4: Bird Migration: Benefits and Risks (Monday, June 16, Thursday, June 19)

• Week 5: Habitats and Climate Change (Monday, June 23, Thursday, June 26)

Each session will be 90 minutes long, for a total of 15 course hours. This course will take place virtually, and sessions will be recorded and videos shared with all registrants. 

We will have several optional field trips in-person to locations in Northern Virginia. Information about these field trips will be provided to those registered for the class as soon as details are finalized. 

Courtesy of Kiersten Newtoff

Kiersten Newtoff is an associate professor of biology at Montgomery College, a community college in Maryland. Over the past 8 years, she has been teaching her students about the local avifauna, which led to the development of the campus nestbox trail where over 300 fledglings have called Montgomery College their home. Recently, Kiersten has started a PhD in Biology at UMBC to better understand the impacts of urbanization on Eastern Bluebird reproductive success and holds a Master Banding Permit to explore her research. When she’s not working on teaching or research, she can be found doing yard work, playing boardgames (like Wingspan!), or crafting up a fun cocktail.