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Every time you open a new tab, BirdTab displays a different bird species. The bird changes once per day — multiple tabs on the same day all show the same bird. BirdTab new tab showing a bird with info panel

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What’s shown

Name

Common name prominently displayed, scientific name in italics beneath it.

Photo

Full-screen landscape photography from the Macaulay Library at Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Facts

A short description of the species, its habitat, and behaviour.

Location

Where the specific photo was taken in the field.

Credit

Photographer name, linked back to the original Macaulay Library asset.

eBird link

Click the bird’s name or eBird icon to open the full species page.

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Refreshing the bird

Click the refresh button (circular arrow) in the toolbar to load a different bird immediately, without waiting for the next day. This draws a new random bird from your selected region.

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How birds are selected

Birds are drawn from a pool of species relevant to your selected region. Each day a new bird is picked randomly from that pool. The next day’s bird preloads in the background so new tabs open instantly.
By default BirdTab shows birds from North America. Pro users can choose from 200+ regions worldwide. See International Regions.

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Data source

All photography, audio, and video comes from the Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology — the world’s largest scientific archive of wildlife recordings. BirdTab requests landscape-oriented photos for the best full-screen display.

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If something goes wrong

If BirdTab can’t load bird data and has no cached backup, it shows an error with options to Try Again or Send Feedback. In most cases a cached bird from a previous session loads as a fallback automatically.