Connecting Baltimore’s communities to the nature in their neighborhoods.
Upcoming Events
Birds of Urban Baltimore works in parks and greenspaces across Baltimore City; we also provide educational programming to community partners and offer (paid) bird walks through our BURB Tours. We hope you join us soon!
Our Mission:
Birds of Urban Baltimore addresses environmental justice issues, and helps inspire a sense of wonder for nature in communities throughout Baltimore through the lens of the conservation science of birds
Testimonials
“Eric Fishel and the B.Ur.B Project are helping the Natural History Society of Maryland build a future as storied as its past. For nearly 100 years, NHSM has been involved with efforts to find, identify, quantify, map, preserve and share Maryland's natural history. The B.Ur.B Project is a natural extension. Together we are collecting data to help better understand Maryland's bird populations, and not only sharing the data with the public, but actually engaging the public in the process. That magical sense of wonder is unleashed in participants when they come face to beak with bird that Eric caught for banding. His passion for birds is contagious. His knowledge base seemingly endless. And his commitment to his work unflinching. NHSM is a proud partner.”
— Bronwyn Mitchell-Strong, Natural History Society of Maryland
“Eric Fishel supported our Summer Camp with enrichment activities centered on birds. Our campers went on bird walks and actually caught birds for the purposes of learning unique characteristics about them, tagged and released birds for future study purposes. It was an amazing experience for our camp and we look forward to doing it again!"
— Robert Levine, Executive Director, Beyond The Natural Foundation
“I was fortunate to have Eric come into my high school physics class for a series of lessons during the past two years. He is incredibly knowledgeable and passionate – and I believe that introducing my students to people who are knowledgeable and passionate in their field is an important aspect of education. Moreover, the subject matter of which he has mastery is engaging and the opportunity to catch and tag birds is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for my students. On multiple occasions, he was able to tap into his knowledge of birds and connect it to the physics curriculum –including one lesson about drag/Bernoulli’s principle to discuss flight (during our mechanics unit) and another one about how birds adjust the frequency of their song to be able to get around obstacles in an urban environment (during our waves unit). My students would ask me repeatedly “when is the bird man coming back”. I hope Eric is able to bring his expertise and joy in birding into many classrooms and community learning settings in the years to come.”
— Michael Sarbanes, Green Street Academy
Birds of Urban Baltimore is a non-profit whose costs, from staff salaries to equipment, are wholly covered by grants and private donations. Please consider donating today, so we can continue to provide quality and professional services to Baltimore’s communities.