Keynote Speaker

Bill of the Birds

Bill Thompson III (or BT3 as he is better known) will join us as the 2015 Keynote. Bill is a lifelong birder, the co-publisher of Bird Watcher’s Digest (BWD), and the author of many books on birds and nature. He’s been on the editorial team of BWD since May of 1988, and during that time has watched birds in 49 U.S. states (still missing Hawaii) and more than 30 countries. Bill writes the Bill of the Birds blog and creates and hosts a podcast called “This Birding Life” which gets more than 750,000 episode downloads annually. He is the president and a founding board member of The Ohio Ornithological Society, and also serves on the board of directors for the Roger Tory Peterson Institute. He is devoted to introducing kids to nature and birding and considers his Young Birder’s Guide to Birds of North America to be his proudest professional achievement. Bill lives on a farm in southeastern Ohio with his wife, Julie Zickefoose, and their two children, Phoebe and Liam. In his spare time, Bill writes music and performs with his country-rock band The Rain Crows. His favorite North American bird is the red-headed woodpecker, which we didn’t know when we picked the species to represent the festival this year!

Join us on Friday night for the Birders’ Social and Bill’s presentation “More Perils & Pitfalls of Birding.” Bill has been birding for four decades and in that time he has had some—ummm—unusual experiences, met some unusual people, and learned a great many lessons (the hard way) about birding and human nature. In this completely new take on his wildly popular “Perils & Pitfalls” talk Bill tells tales of birds, birders, and the amazing things that happen when you’re out there watching. As has been his standing policy, if you don’t laugh at least once during this talk, Bill will clean the binoculars of everyone present.

Bill will also be leading a few tours, signing his numerous books, and making sure everyone has a great time at the 10th anniversary of the Tawas Point Birding Festival.