Nikon EcoBins

Nikon is committed to protect the environment is working to prevent pollution from part of its product to watch birds and wildlife. Their latest binocular, the EcoBin is designed to be as eco-friendly as possible!

The Nikon ecobins binocular, available in 10x25, features Eco-Glass which means the lenses and prisms are lead and arsenic free. As if that weren't eco-friendly enough, the rubber used on the binoculars is non-chloride rubber and there are no harmful inks or dyes used during production.

The binoculars are the ususla compact, rugged, waterproof and fogproof construction customers are accustom to in Nikon optics. MSRP is $169.95.

Included carrying case that is just too cha cha for words with its cute style. In keeping with the Eco bins name the strap and bag are constructed from environmentally-minded Lenzing TENCEL® fiber that is fully biodegradable should you loose it in the woods or throw it away. Derived from the wood pulp of sustainable eucalyptus forests, TENCEL® fiber utilizes a revolutionary manufacturing process with minimal waste. This product also provides the ultimate in performance, absorbing fifty percent more moisture than cotton. For more information about TENCEL fiber.

The eco friendly features of this product carry all the way through to the manner it is packaged. Nikon ecobins packaging is constructed from eighty-five percent post-consumer waste and is printed on recyclable FiberStone® paper. This recyclable paper is completely TREE-FREE and made from limestone collected as waste material from existing quarries for the building and construction industry. Production of this product uses no water or bleaching chemicals and releases zero pollution into the air.

For more information about Nikon's full line of Binoculars, Fieldscopes and Spotting Scopes, please contact: Nikon Sport Optics, 1300 Walt Whitman Rd., Melville, NY 11747-3064, or call 1-800-645-6687. http://www.nikonecobins.com.

New Droll Yankee Feeders

Droll Yankees had a display of their new line of easy to clean bird feeders. One is the Onyx Clever Clean® line of feeders.

The feeders offer a new port style on DY feeders. Above is the sunflower port tube feeder. Still a nice wide area for a black oil sunflower mix to flow through, but the perch is a coated U-shape design, making it easier for small birds to feed--they can face the food and eat, as opposed to turning and twisting their heads to get at the food as with previous designs. The perch is also more attractive to larger ground feeding birds like the cardinal.

The port for the Nyjer/thistle feeder shows a unique flower pattern. It gives a finch four places to get food in one port and is a more artistic design from your standard Nyjer tube feeder. The design will also help people who feed a fine chips finch mix, since squirrels and downy woodpeckers both have a tendency to widen holes on the old style design. However, that's not the most exciting feature of the feeder. The bottom of the Onyx Clever Clean feeders, snaps apart easily for any customer to remove the base and clean out the feeder. Watch a video demonstration:



But the Onyx feeders weren't the only new style from DY.

It's not quite available yet, but the Droll Yankee Ring Pull tube feeder will be available soon. A bit more economical in price compared to the Onyx line, this line is a sturdy tube feeder that comes apart. The center of the tube is held together with a long rod. You unscrew the rod and all the ports come apart for super easy cleaning. There is probably a greater risk of an overzealous customer losing pieces, but overall is an exciting design.

Watch your supplier for these exciting Drolly Yankees feeder.

From New Creative

A couple of new items on the horizon from New Creative Enterprises:

This uniquely designed leaf birdbath is made of resin. It makes an exceptional centerpiece in the garden and is still pretty to look at even if there are no birds on it. It will also make a nice decorative platform feeder.

Have a customer who says that bird never use the bird house in their yard? This one is perfect, if no one nests in this house, there are cute birds in the form of a downy woodpecker, black-capped chickadee, and a couple of white-breasted nuthatches on the outside. Look for the resin Birdhouse with Multiple Birds in your next NCE catalog. It is meant to be used as an actual bird house and even has a cleaning hole to clean it out in the fall if it gets used.

For The Birds

Sisters Anne Schmauss, Mary Schmauss and Geni Krolick who own Wild Birds Unlimited franchises combined their birding feeding knowledge and created this book/calendar. It goes through the calendar year and lets you know what birds to expect, what feeds work best for the time of year, kids projects, and personal tips from the authors. The best part? The book isn't just for people who live in the eastern half of the US--it works for westerners too!

They realized they were getting a lot of the same questions about attracting birds and they decided it was time to write a book: For The Birds: A Month-by-Month Guide to Attracting Birds to Your Backyard, published in September by Harry N. Abrams Inc.

Check out Snapshot Adventures: Secret of Bird Island

This is an awesome little computer game for PCs let's you find out what it's like to be a bird photographer. The goal is to photograph birds in this cross-country adventure. Armed with nothing but a standard 35mm camera and a field guide, you must capture portraits of birds in close-up, in flight and perched in trees in order to complete your life list - the total list of all the birds you've ever seen - and solve the mysterious disappearance of your grandfather.

The game teaches observation and id skills, fun for kids of any age.

If you go to the company's website, you can download a free 60 minute trial (if you go beyond 60 minutes, they charge you). Once you start playing, you'll be hooked. Also, if you have played it, that will help you sell to customers in your store.

ChirpTracker

A new company called ChirpTracker is using the Internet to get buzz about their product generating among birders online.

By just searching for ChirpTracker.com you get a home page asking you to sign up for a newsletter to learn about the product--a way to get some directing marketing to target customers. They do have a "Chirp Chat Blog" giving readers glimpses of this upcoming product.

ChirpTracker has a Twitter Feed. If you are not familiar with Twitter, it is a free social networking site and can serve as a "micro blog." It allows you to send and update of up to 140 characters in length, or a mini blog. Since the character limit is small, users can easily send updates via cell phone through a text message. Updates are displayed on your public profile page and others can subscribe to it. Users can subscribe to other's Twitter feeds and that's how the networking begins.

Twitter is like the popular status updates that comes with having a Facebook account. Facebook is a social networking site where you can have a profile that let's you post photos, play games, write a blog and interact with other users. The status update is a way to let your friends know what you are up to and comment on it. ChirpTracker also has a Facebook fan page and the general public can view it, but members of Facebook and subscribe to it. Readers can learn much more about what this product is all about.

According to the ChirpTracker Facebook fan page, "ChirpTracker is a revolutionary concept that provides technological enhancements to birding hobbyists by birders, for birders. ChirpTracker utilizes the integration of satellite mapping technology with a community-based environment to steer the hobby of birding enjoyed outdoors, into the virtual realm of social media to provide a rich conservational, educational, user, and data driven platform to uncover new bird species locations around the country.


ChirpTracker’s media-rich environment provides the birding community with the capabilities to assist in the plotting of bird sightings geographically, logging and maintainance of life lists, and the sharing of user’s personal profile activities with other birding enthusiasts."

You can read more here.

It's just another way to build some buzz about your product, even in the birding market.

Advice Cards

For The Birds, makers of the BirdSong IdentiFlyer, are introducing a unique and memorable way for your customers to say: thanks, I miss you, happy birthday and mother’s day or Merry Christmas. They have created a collection of 8 note/gift cards with each bird enclosed in a 3D globe. These beautiful cards can by used for nearly any occasion:

Rise Early
Spread a little happiness
Keep a song in your heart
Think spring
Be Colorful
Feather your nest with friendships
The sky's the limit!

Your True Nature also contributed positive, up-beat advice from each bird which adds to it’s appeal. Unlike most note and greeting cards which are opened, read and put in a drawer, these unique WingTips cards will remain openly displayed, leaving a lasting memory of the occasion.

Also available - an easy to set up card display rack!

For more information and a free sample call Terry Allen at 877-261-6556 or email t.allen@identiflyer.com

Now The Bird Calendars Sing Too

Chronicle Books has upped the ante when it comes to birding calendars: The Bird Songs 2009 Calendar.

It not only offers accurate bird illustrations, also a range map, and natural history info--but it offers bird songs too. Here's a video sample:



If you wondered if that last bird was an ivory-billed woodpecker--why yes it was. The calendar will have appeal to hardcore birders and maybe a little less to backyard birders. For example--eastern yellow wagtail is one of the species--unless your store is in western Alaska, not too many customers are going to be seeing that species.

Things At birdJam Are Hoppin'

Ready to add some frog and toad sounds to your life? You can now add it to your iPod with birdJam Maker for Frogs and Toads. Based upon Lang Elliott's "The Calls of Frogs and Toads" book and CD, birdJam Maker for Frogs & Toads formats and organizes the 42 species found east of the Great Plains. Keeping with what makes their product so popular, they removed that narration and added photos to go along with the sounds. There's a variety of sounds for each species, including advertisement, aggressive, release, rain, distress, warning and hybrid, along with counter singing and mixed species choruses. birdJam Maker for Frogs and Toads retails for $9.99 and Lang's "The Calls of Frogs and Toads" is $19.95.

Texas Butterflies

Looking for a splash of color for the yard, then check out the unique yard accents made by Texas Butterflies.



Made of strong non-yellowing acrylic, there are three styles to chose from: Monarch, Swallowtail, and Lacewing (aka Admiral) in a variety of color combinations. The butterflies come in two sizes, Large have a 21" - 22" wingspan and Smalls have a 12" - 14" wingspan.

The wings are screen-printed with non-fading commercial sign paints and sealed with ultra-violet curing. The bodies are spray-painted with an acrylic enamel paint that will not chip or fade. All parts are specially made to withstand all weather.

Bird Vibes

You know how customers come into your store and ask for the latest, the very latest and newest in birding? Well, kids, this is it, something completely new:

Bird Vibes is a deck of 54 meditation cards based on bird species in North America. The birds are grouped by eight chakras according to the bird's color, habitat or other characteristics, with an additional card for each season. Each card shows a different bird through reproductions of paintings commissioned from Ottawa nature painter, Heather Bale. The cards are printed on FSC certified paper (the wood comes from well-managed forests, independently certified in accordance with the rules of the Forest Stewardship Council).

This was originally self-published in Ottawa in May 2007 and then published by Baico in December 2007. The second edition took into account comments from birders and Bird Vibes and is now sold in various book stores and nature gift shops in Canada and the U.S.A. Posters of the artwork are also available.

Bird Of Paradise Collection From Audubon

Woodlink's Audubon Brand has a Bird of Paradise Line of poles, bird feeders, and bird baths:

Product Code: NACBATH1

Product Code: NAYHB1

Product Code: NABPFLY

Product Code: NABPO1 (There's even a mealworm feeder...if you are one of the few stores that can still get them during the shortage). Fortunately, this feeder will also work for grape jelly and orange halves as well.

Revamped Peterson Bird Guide

Houghton Mifflin has released a new version of the classic Peterson Field Guide to Birds. Some of the changes include:

• 40 new paintings

• Digital updates to Peterson’s original paintings, reflecting the latest knowledge of bird identification

• All new maps for the most up-to-date range information available--also, smaller maps are now on the same page as the bird species description, as well as larger, more detailed maps in the back.

• Text rewritten to cover the U.S. and Canada in one guide

• Contributors include: Michael DiGiorgio, Jeff Gordon, Paul Lehman, Michael O’Brien, Larry Rosche, and Bill Thompson III

• Includes URL to register for access to video podcasts

Earth, Sun, Moon, Peace, and Bluebird Advice

Earth Sun Moon Trading Co. is pleased to announce the release of two much anticipated designs: Advice from a Bluebird and Squirrels for Peace.

The newest addition to the bestselling Advice from NatureTM series, Advice from a Bluebird was among the most often requested designs. Beginning with Advice from a Tree® in 2003, the Advice from NatureTM line of T-shirts, sweatshirts and hats has expanded to over 30 designs, with around six new designs being introduced each year. Advice from NatureTM products continue to be bestsellers for state and national parks, nature centers, zoos, aquariums, wild bird shops, museum stores, garden centers, pet stores and specialty gift shops across the country. As Cheryl Zalik, owner of Wild Birds Unlimited in Erie, Pa., says, "The Advice from T-shirts from Earth Sun Moon Trading Company have been great sellers for our store. The designs appeal to a wide variety of interests and the advice given on each shirt is catchy and makes customers smile. Once read, the shirts really sell themselves!"

Also on the roster of new releases is the latest installment of Earth Sun Moon’s popular Peace Tees series, Squirrels for Peace. Artist Tom Griffin has done it again, creating a delightful, humorous and heartwarming design with just the right balance of realism and whimsy. The shirt depicts a gray squirrel, red squirrel, black squirrel and flying squirrel, all hilariously giving the peace sign. With the popularity of “squirrelly” stuff among backyard birdwatchers, this design is sure to be a hit. Other favorites among the Peace Tees series are Bears for Peace, Dogs for Peace, Cats for Peace and Primates for Peace.

For further information, contact Leo Glenn, Wholesale Marketing Director at Earth Sun Moon (Tel: 888-458-1687 x331, email: lglenn@earthsunmoon.com) or check out the website.

The Young Birder's Guide

One of the hottest books hitting the shelves is The Young Birder's Guide for easter North America by Bill Thompson III the editor of Bird Watcher's Digest. Thompson used his kids and his daughter's fourth grade class for input on what kind of bird guide they would like.

The end result is a book of 200 common species with information on habitat (note above photo), "wow" facts on all the bird species, photos, Julie Zickefoose illustrations and range maps. Even though the book is geared for kids, many adults are finding it a handy tool as well, it's especially useful for someone who is looking for something more than a Stan Tekiela guide but not ready for a Sibley guide. Customers can also download a companion to the guide from birdJam--songs, calls notes and photographs for 160 species to your iPod to ratchet up your birding knowledge and fun.

New Duncraft Window Feeders

Duncraft, a leader in innovative bird feeding, has created three new window feeders designed to let you see birds closer than ever, the One Way Mirror Window Feeders line.

One-way mirror film is laminated to the back of the feeder. The bird sees only a reflection of itself and doesn’t see inside the house. Get as close to the window as you’d like and observe every tiny movement and detail. The bird dines totally unaware and undisturbed.

Duncraft introduces three One Way Mirror Window Feeders, all easily attached to the outside of a window with heavy duty suction cups:

The Cardinal One Way Window Feeder is a covered platform tray for offering a variety of foods.

The Songbird One Way Window Feeder and a larger version, The Super Songbird One Way Feeder (pictured above) both feature two hoppers for offering different types of seeds which flow into the center tray—right where you’ll get the best view of the bird.

All of Duncraft’s One Way Mirror Window Feeders are handmade of durable, 1/8” clear polypropylene, at the Duncraft factory in Concord, NH.

This fits right in with the current trend of the "Stay-cation." Customers are not traveling as much with the higher fuel costs and looking to be entertained at home. Attracting birds can be a big part of that enjoyment.

The Hummer Helper

All right retailers, file this under "What won't they think of next?"

Don't panic, that's not a confused hummingbird trying to get nectar out of some fluff in the above photo. That is The Hummer Helper from Songbird Essentials that allows customers a chance to offer nesting material to hummingbirds.

It all started with the folks at The Hummer House, a cabin retreat many people visit in Christoval, TX in order to watch hundreds of hummingbirds. Hummer House brought the idea to Songbird Essentials and encouraged them to market the product in a manner that makes it easy for people to encourage hummingbirds to nest. As a matter of fact, all the photos in this entry were taken by Linda Gardner at The Hummer House.

Here is a photo of a hummingbird nest, the inside lined with the natural fibers of The Hummer Helper.

Part of what makes this packaging successful with hummingbirds is the red sandwich holder for the nesting material. Hummingbirds are attracted by the color red and the flat holder allows the nesting material to dry quickly after a heavy rain.

And don't worry, if you don't have a lot of hummingbirds, other species will use this as well including goldfinches, orioles, waxwings, and chickadees.

The Seed Hoop

Many customers have asked for it: "Isn't there any thing I can put under the feeder to catch all the seed that birds kick out?"

Well someone has invented it! Introducing the Seed Hoop--a 30” diameter base made of lightweight exterior grade vinyl-coated fiberglass mesh which catches spilled seed but allows water to drain and seeds to dry.

The unexpected benefit is that birds appear to enjoy using it as an extra large tray feeder--one last chance at the food before it falls to the ground. The hoop is available to fit on a feeder mounted onto a pole or free hanging feeder. The product was designed by a couple in Utah and has been a hit at local bird stores. However, the product has not been hard tested against squirrels. Only one squirrel has been documented feeding on the hoop--on the upside, the hoop was able to take the weight, however how will the product stand up to the savvy eastern squirrels?

Woodstream Offers New Feeders

In an effort to bring art to form and function, Woodstream is introducing two Sip & Seed seed and water feeders. These very unique feeders are constructed of opposing silos that hang from a decorative scroll hook. Each silo is equipped to serve either seed or water.

The Copper Sip & Seed (pictured above) is made of glass and antiqued copper. Both of the silos have a patent-pending collar that twists to feature a seed opening or a water opening, allowing the consumer to serve seed and water. If you live in northern climates and the water could freeze in the winter, both silos can offer only seed.

The Garden Sip & Seed (pictured above) is a lower price point version, constructed of durable plastic. It features silos that have interchangeable bases, to serve either seed and/or water. So like the Copper model, the Garden Sip & Seed can be set up to serve seed and water, two silos of seed, or two silos of water.

Both Sip & Seed feeders were launched at the 2008 Bird Watch America show and will be available in retail outlets beginning in April 2008.