Connecticut AudubonSociety
Birdcraft Museum at Fairfield

314 Unquowa Road
Fairfield, CT 06824
203-259-0416

Visitor Hours

Our Birdcraft Museum and Nature Store
are open to the public:

Tuesday-Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
Saturday, noon-5 p.m.
Closed Sundays and Mondays.

Directions

Birdcraft Museum Admission:
Adults: $2; Children under 14: $1.
Free for Connecticut Audubon Society Members

Our adjoining 6-acre Birdcraft Sanctuary is open 7 days a week from dawn to dusk year-round.

Founded in 1914 by Connecticut Audubon Society's founder, Mabel Osgood Wright, Birdcraft is the first private bird sanctuary in the U.S. It includes the Teaching Bridge and Pavilion that abut Birdcraft Pond. Starting in the spring the pond is teeming with Painted Turtles and Tree Swallows, many duck species, visiting Black-crowned Night Herons and many other species of song birds.

Focus
To offer premier natural history education programs and exhibits for the benefit of school children and adults and to preserve the historic heritage of the facility as the first privately owned songbird sanctuary in the country.

Designated as a National Historic Landmark, this small and intimate natural history museum with its adjacent private songbird sanctuary (the oldest in the U.S.) represents the historic heart of Connecticut Audubon Society. Changing exhibits, informative lectures and the teaching bridge and pavilion provide a unique environmental experience.

History
Birdcraft was established in 1914 by Mabel Osgood Wright, a pioneer in the American conservation movement and founder of Connecticut Audubon Society. Recognized as a National Historic Landmark in 1993, this remarkable facility includes an intimate natural history museum and an adjacent private songbird sanctuary, the oldest in the United States. Mabel Osgood Wright is also an inductee of the Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame, and CAS's Birdcraft Museum is one of the sites listed on the Connecticut Women’s Heritage Trail. For more information please visit www.cwhf.org.

Museum and Cottage
Representing the historic heart of Connecticut Audubon Society, these buildings served as the original headquarters. The museum offers dioramas of Connecticut’s wildlife as it existed at the turn of the 20th century.

The Four Seasons Room explores bird diversity throughout the years. Also, visitors can enjoy a honeybee hive, the Frederick T. Bedford Collection of African Animals, changing exhibits and hands-on children’s activities.

Sanctuary
Originally planted as a refuge to attract, harbor and feed migratory and resident birds, the six-acre site has documented records of more than 120 species of birds. Throughout the sanctuary are plantings designed to attract birds and butterflies. To enjoy this unique sanctuary and its inhabitants more fully, a new teaching bridge was constructed in 1995 over a pond on the property, allowing a unique perspective of the natural beauty of the area. A list of sanctuary plantings is available to visitors upon request.

Bird Banding Demonstrations
Connecticut Audubon Society volunteers, licensed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, have operated a Bird Banding Station here since 1979. More than 18,000 birds have been mist-netted, documented, banded and released unharmed. The station operates weekdays in spring (April 1 through Memorial Day) and fall (mid-August through Thanksgiving). Demonstrations are available to any group by appointment.

Tours
Volunteer docents lead tours of Birdcraft Museum and Sanctuary throughout the year for school and civic groups. The guides emphasize conservation and environmental awareness appropriate to any age. For over 25 years, hundreds of Fairfield first-grade students come every spring for hands-on tours that are led by parent volunteers trained by Connecticut Audubon Society staff and Birdcraft docents.

Directions
From I-95: Take Exit 21. Go north on Mill Plain Rd. about 1/2 mile. Take a right onto Unquowa Rd. and follow from below.****

From I-84: Take Routes 25, 8 or 91 south to Wilbur Cross/Merritt Parkway (Route 15) and. . . **

**From Merritt Parkway (Route 15): Take Exit 44.
(Going northbound, turn right immediately onto Congress Sreet.

Going southbound, turn left at light, go about 200 yards and turn left onto Black Rock Turnpike, then go under Parkway and take first right onto Congress Street.)
Turn left at first stop sign (Burr Street) go straight (Burr becomes Mill Plain Road) to 4th stop sign.
**** Turn left onto Unquowa Road. After you go under I-95 overpass, immediately take driveway on left into parking lot.

Our Thanks for Jobs Well Done!
Many thanks to the following Eagle Scouts for all their hard work in the Birdcraft Sanctuary:
To Nick Helm, for trail repairs along the handicap-accessible trail and the trail to the Pond overlook.
To Eric Nadolny, for new benches in the teaching circle and for trail repairs.
To Andy Coppola, for clearing invasive species from the pond hillside.
There’s always more work to be done! If your Cub Scout den or pack or your Scout troop is interested in a community service project, or if you are considering an Eagle Scout project at the Center at Fairfield or at the Birdcraft Museum and Sanctuary, please contact Carol Kratzman, Education Coordinator, at 203-259-6305 ext. 112 or ckratzman@ctaudubon.org.

About International Migratory Bird Day
International Migratory Bird Day was created in 1993 by visionaries at the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center and the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology. From 1995 to 2006, the program was under the direction of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Because of its consistent growth, IMBD is now the premier education project of Environment for the Americas. IMBD continues to focus attention on one of the most important and spectacular events in the life of a migratory bird: its journey between its summer and winter homes. Today it is celebrated in Canada, the U.S., Mexico and Central America through bird festivals and bird walks, education programs and Bird Day!

IMBD officially takes place on the second Saturday in May. But it was recognized that this date doesn't work well for all bird event and bird festival organizers, or for the migratory birds themselves. To the south, migratory birds have already left, heading for breeding sites to the north. Farther north, the birds haven't arrived. Now, IMBD is celebrated almost year-round. Most U.S. and Canada events take place in April and May, while fall events are the norm in the Caribbean and Latin America. Each year, a team of IMBD coordinators and sponsors work together to select a theme that meets diverse criteria -- conservation-based, current, positive, tangible, educational and engaging -- to reach the varied audiences that celebrate IMBD. The 2008 IMBD Theme is “Tundra to Tropics: Connecting Birds, Habitats and People.” (Source: http://www.birdday.org/history.php)

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Many CAS Nature Centers are celebrating IMBD with activities and events, most scheduled for May, so please check each Center's web page.