The Urban Birding Festival
Photo: Magnolia Warbler, Mark Knoll
September 18-20, 2026
We are currently working on the planning for this year’s festival. More details coming soon!
2026 Keynote Presentation: Extremely Accurate Bird Songs
Tommy Siegel (Jukebox the Ghost) and Billy Libby (Ingrid Michaelson) are two world-touring musicians on a daring quest: to write a song about every bird species and document the process in podcast form — Since there are only 11,145, it shouldn’t be too tough!
The result is “Extremely Accurate Bird Songs“ a comedy/nature podcast dedicated to learning about bird species with the most absurd and high-effort method imaginable. In each episode, Tommy and Billy do an irreverent (but largely factual…) deep dive on each bird species, followed by the worldwide debut of an original, bird-specific genre parody song meant to fully capture the bird’s unique essence, presented to a bird expert guest who decides if the song is Extremely Accurate (or not). Just wait until you hear the Alice in Chains grunge-metal of the American Crow… or the Fine Young Cannibals runway strut of the Red-winged Blackbird… or the psychedelic desert rock journey of the Gambel’s Quail… Think of them as the birding world's version of "Flight of the Conchords".
Registration Pick-up Information
The registration table will be in the lobby of the Peggy Notebeart Nature Museum, where you can pick up your festival name tag and swag bag (if you pre-ordered a t-shirt, you will get it here as well).
Registration Hours
Friday, September 18th: 10 am - 4 pm and 6 pm - 8 pm (during the Birds and Brews)
Saturday, September 19th: 10 am - 4 pm
Sunday, September 20th: 10 am - 4 pm
2026 Silent Auction For The Urban Birding Festival
Thank you to all the bidders and winners from the 2025 auction. We raised over $3,000 for the bird friendly effort in Chicago.
Auction will open the week before the festival
Winning items will be available for pick-up on Sunday at The Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum.
People
Birds
2026 Organizing Partners
