Now Available! · Paperback
Birds of the Toledo Area cover

Birds of the
Toledo Area

2026 Edition

by Matt Anderson

co-authors: Tom Kemp, Greg Links, Elliot Tramer, Steve Lauer

editors: Matt Kemp, Rob Harlan

featured photographers: Rick Nirschl, Brian Zwiebel, Geoff Malosh, and 50+ more

design: Abby Anderson, Matt Anderson

foreword: Kenn Kaufman

About The Book

Home to The Biggest Week in American Birding, the Toledo area attracts birders from across the globe and boasts great birding in all seasons. This thoroughly updated book covers what you need to know about the region's birdlife.

"One of the great pleasures of birding is that it is both predictable and unpredictable. It is reassuring to go out at a particular season and find the birds we expect to see. At the same time, we can hope for something completely unexpected."

- Kenn Kaufman

Book Details

Pages
326
Publisher
Matt Anderson
Published
2026
Format
Paperback
Photographs
Over 200 full color photos
Species
Status of all 381 species
Guides
Site guides for top birding spots
History
Local history and background information

Reviews

Kenn Kaufman

Noted author, artist, and naturalist

“I've lived various places in the U.S., and wherever I go, I hope to find a good reference on the status of local birds. When I moved here 21 years ago, I immediately picked up the earlier (2002) edition of this book and I've referred to it thousands of times since. This new edition is many grand leaps beyond the previous one, and it's fantastic. For anyone birding in northwest Ohio, I consider this new book to be essential equipment, on a par with binoculars, camera, or field guide.”

Peter Kaestner

World’s only birder with a list exceeding 10,000 species

“This book is an authoritative and interesting compilation of history, bird finding, and species accounts of 381 birds that have been recorded there. Matt Anderson and his co-authors are to be commended for this valuable update of an essential volume for anyone living or visiting this birdy part of the world.”

Jim McCormac

Noted naturalist, blogger, and columnist for The (Columbus) Dispatch

“Birds of the Toledo Area is a must-have for those interested in the feathered crowd, especially those who routinely visit northwest Ohio. I highly recommend it.”

Gallery

Preview

A look inside the book

Book cover
Read Preview

About the Authors

Matthew Anderson

Matt Anderson

Grateful to be following in his dad’s footsteps, Matt has been an avid birder for more than five decades. Born and raised on The Andersons Farm in South Toledo – now a part of the Metroparks system – Matt was blessed to have great birding along Swan Creek right out his back door. He and his wife Kate raised six children, living both adjacent to and very near Oak Openings Preserve Metropark. Matt has devoted most of his birding time over the past three decades within the Oak Openings Region. His annual breeding bird censuses, ongoing since the early 1990s, have revealed much about nesting bird populations and trends of this region. Since 1992, Matt has been compiler of the Toledo Christmas Bird Count, which typically sports the largest list of any of Ohio’s CBCs. Additionally, Lou Campbell bequeathed the duties of writing the Toledo Area Annual Bird Reports to Matt in 1995, and he has been compiling these comprehensive annual recaps, published in the Toledo Naturalists’ Association Yearbooks, every year since. In the past, he has served on the Ohio Bird Records Committee, as Seasonal Editor for The Ohio Cardinal, and as co-author of Birds of the Toledo Area (2002). Matt’s brothers, Alex and Tom, and his son, Ted, are also birders. Matt spent the first eight years of his career with one of the big public accounting firms and has worked in various roles at The Andersons, Inc. over the past three and a half decades. Matt’s birding time is being increasingly disrupted by the growing number of in-laws and grandkids!

Tom Kemp
Tom Kemp
Co-Author
Tom taught high school biology for 30 years, retiring in 2006. He is co-author of Birds of the Toledo Area (2002), a former editor of The Cardinal, and has served as member and Secretary of the Ohio Bird Records Committee. He was a field assistant and regional coordinator for the second Ohio Breeding Bird Atlas and has compiled the Grand Rapids-Waterville Christmas Bird Count since 1978. Tom is a lifetime resident of northwest Ohio where he and his wife, Laura, raised three sons and now enjoy visits with five grandchildren.
Greg Links
Greg Links
Co-Author
Greg Links began looking at birds at the age of seven, sparked by afternoons spent in a friend’s backyard watching warblers and other neotropical migrants splash about in the waterfall of their koi pond. His budding interest deepened around 1980, when a chance encounter with Lou Campbell and Mark Shieldcastle at the old Crane Creek Bird Trail introduced him to bird banding. Holding a freshly-banded Black-throated Blue Warbler that day became a defining moment—his “spark bird”—transforming curiosity into a lifelong passion. Greg has since traveled the world in pursuit of birds and has served on the boards of the Ohio Ornithological Society, the Ohio Bird Records Committee, and the Toledo Naturalists’ Association. He and his wife, Kelly, live in Ottawa Lake, Michigan, and are proud parents of three children and grandparents to three grandchildren.
Elliot Tramer
Elliot Tramer
Co-Author
Elliot Tramer’s career path was set at age 10 when a day camp counselor sparked his passion for birds. He received a B.A. in Biology from Western Reserve University and a Ph.D. in Ecology from the University of Georgia, then served for 38 years as a Professor of Ecology at The University of Toledo. Dr. Tramer has authored or co-authored about 60 scientific papers and was Founding Director of the University of Toledo’s Environmental Science undergraduate program. He received the Herbert Osborn Award for lifetime contributions to Ohio biology from the Ohio Biological Survey in 2010. Dr. Tramer has served on the Ohio Bird Records Committee and the board of the Black Swamp Bird Observatory and conducts bird surveys for the Toledo Metroparks and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. He is the author of Richness and Rarity: The Natural History of Lucas County, published in 2020 by the University of Toledo Press and a co-author of Birds of the Toledo Area (2002). He lives in Whitehouse with his wife, Dr. Christine Manzey.
Steve Lauer
Steve Lauer
Co-Author
Steve Lauer’s interest in birds started in 1966 while working on Bird Study Merit Badge in Boy Scouts. It further developed when he took an Ornithology class as a biology major at Heidelberg College (now University) in Tiffin, Ohio. Steve’s primary interest is birds of prey. He had a federal banding permit for many years, participated in hawk migration counts, and has spent time at several hawk and eagle banding stations. He has been involved in Metroparks Toledo’s Oak Openings Breeding Raptor Project since 2006. Steve was a co- author of Birds of the Toledo Area published in 2002. After a 42-year career in the water treatment industry, Steve and his wife, Paula, are happily retired in Whitehouse, Ohio. They have two children and two granddaughters.