Paint wooden cut-out of a small songbird with black, white, yellow, and chestnut markings, nestled in the branches of a tree.
Paint wooden cut-out of a small songbird with black, white, yellow, and chestnut markings, nestled in the branches of a tree.

This Mystery Bird is one of ten to find and identify at the Sharon Audubon Center! Photo: Sharon Audubon Center
This Mystery Bird is one of ten to find and identify at the Sharon Audubon Center! Photo: Sharon Audubon Center

Things To Do

Bird Quest

Learn more about our local birds on a unique scavenger hunt adventure!

Our new Bird Quest adventure is open for visitors to our Sharon Audubon Center property! This fun scavenger hunt features various life-sized wooden replicas of birds found around SAC, and was brought to life through an Eagle Scout project completed by a local high school student. 

Many of the birds included in this Bird Quest scavenger hunt are listed as Audubon CT Priority Bird Species and each magnifying lens includes, along with identification clues, conservation actions that we can do at home to help these beautiful birds and their habitats. 

There are 10 Mystery Birds to discover. Follow the below rules to play!

  1. Explore our beautiful main grounds and hiking trails of SAC.  We ask that you please stay on the trails at all times.
  2. Look out for the large "magnifying lenses" along the way. These contain Mystery Bird clues to help guide your search.
  3. When you find one, read the clue and search around the immediate area—usually within 30 feet of the magnifying lens—for the Mystery Bird.
  4. Take a selfie with the found Mystery Bird in your photo and share it on our Facebook page or email to wendy.miller@audubon.org with subject line "BIRD QUEST" to post. Please do not touch the magnifying lenses or birds.
  5. If desired, grab an identification card at the trailhead kiosk and write down the name of each Mystery Bird. There are 10 in total.
  6. E-mail your completed card to wendy.miller@audubon.org for a chance to win a $75 gift certificate to the SAC Nature Store! You must have submitted at least two selfies with the Mystery Birds to be entered. Entry deadline for the drawing is October 1, 2023.
A large plastic "magnifying glass" attached to the side of the tree. Instead of a lens it has a piece of white paper with black text that contains facts about a mystery bird.
Use the "magnifying glasses" to help find and identify the hidden birds! Photo: Sharon Audubon Center

Special thanks to Caleb Rand and his fellow scouts and their parents and mentors, who cut, sanded, and placed the birds throughout the Audubon property, and to volunteer Sarah Lynch for bringing each bird cut-out to life with her beautiful painting skills.

How you can help, right now