Yes. No account, no email, no ads. Pick a place and download the PDF.

Where does the bird data come from?

Public, license-clean records from GBIF, the IOC World Bird List, USGS, and iNaturalist.

Does it work outside the US?

Yes. Every US state, plus countries, continents, and a global list — anywhere with bird occurrence records.

A birding tradition: count how many species you can see in one place over a calendar year. The same approach works for a Big Day, Big Week, or Big Month.

Can I customize my checklist?

Yes. Filter by season, common vs rare, and family before you download.

Big Year Bird Checklist for Illinois

A free printable Illinois bird checklist. Pick your goal, get the PDF.

Illinois's checklist is built on the Mississippi Flyway. Prairie remnants, the great rivers, and Lake Michigan migration combine for a strong inland big year.

The tool builds you a printable checklist of every bird realistically possible in Illinois, grouped by family, with seasonal markers and a space to log the date you spot each one. It's drawn from public, license-clean records — not a generic national list, but the species that actually occur where you're birding.

Pick Illinois (or any area inside it), choose your goal — Big Day, Big Month, Big Year, or a life list — and download the PDF. Free, no account, no email. Print it, fold it in a field guide, and start checking birds off.

What you'll find on a Illinois checklist

A Illinois checklist mixes widespread residents with the specialties that make the state worth a big year. A few you'll want to target:

Greater Prairie-Chicken — A vanishing prairie-lek bird.
Henslow's Sparrow — Grassland skulker.
Smith's Longspur — Scarce migrant in stubble fields.
Le Conte's Sparrow — Wet-grass skulker.
Bell's Vireo — Scrubby-edge summer singer.
Bobolink — Hayfield songster.
Eastern Meadowlark — Open-country flutist.
Cerulean Warbler — Floodplain-canopy warbler.
Prothonotary Warbler — River-swamp gold.
Franklin's Gull — Massive migration flocks.
Sandhill Crane — Big fall migration.
Northern Cardinal — State bird, year-round.

Your generated PDF includes every realistic species for the exact area you pick, with seasonal markers and a space to log each sighting.

This is a preview. For your full printable list:

Build a complete, customizable Illinois checklist — filter by season, by how common a bird is, and by family, then download the PDF.

What kind of list do you need?

Birders use “Big” challenges to make birding count. Pick the timeframe you're working with — we'll tune the list for it.

Better With Birds

Shop the birds you love

Chasing a Illinois big year? You're going to like the apparel, prints, and stickers we've designed around these birds.

Greater Prairie-Chicken, Henslow's Sparrow, Smith's Longspur, Le Conte's Sparrow — all illustrated and designed by Jaymi at Better With Birds. Made-to-order, never mass-printed.