KOS Events

Current & Upcoming Events

2026 T-Shirt Design Contest

Calling All Artists & Graphic Designers — Enter the 2026 KOS T-shirt Design Contest

Announcing the 2026 Kentucky Ornithological Society t-shirt design contest. We invite artists and graphic designers to create designs that celebrate Kentucky birds. The designs we receive will be submitted to the KOS membership for voting. The winner will be awarded a $200 prize and will be featured on the KOS website. All submissions will become the property of KOS.

This contest is open to KOS members. If you aren't a member yet, you can join KOS for only $25 at birdky.org.

Specifications:

The entry can be hand-drawn or a digital image. All images should be the artist's own work with no restrictions on use for production of T-shirts.
Include the words: Kentucky Ornithological Society. You can include any other text that you like, including KOS, a whimsical phrase — anything that you choose.
A Kentucky bird or birds should be featured.
Design will be printed on the front of the t-shirts only.
JPG, PNG, and PDF formats will be accepted (high resolution)
Print area size — up to 12" w x 16" h
The background color will be coordinated with the chosen image.

Your design must be submitted between July 15 and July 31, 2026. Email the file to janet.kistler@birdky.org. Name the file "first name.last name 26Tee"

If you have any questions, email janet.kistler@birdky.org.

KOS 2026 Fall Meeting

The KOS fall meeting is planned for Lake Barkley State Resort Park in September. Lodging is available at nearby Kenlake SRP. The fall meeting is KOS' annual business meeting for important KOS business, including election of officers and board members.

For more information, please visit our Upcoming Meetings Page

Past Events

Jump to Current & Upcoming Events

KOS Second Annual Breeding Bird Blitz

The second annual Breeding Bird Blitz (BBBlitz) is finished and the results are in! A summary is below, and a photo album and some anecdotes from participants can be found below that.

Here's a message with the details from event organizer Janet Kistler:

2026 KOS Breeding Bird Blitz

What a great time of year to go birding! The second KOS Breeding Bird Blitz was held from June 12—15. Kentucky birders submitted reports from all 120 Kentucky counties, which was our primary goal. Many of Kentucky's hills and hollows are not extensively birded, so this is a great opportunity to gather data about our summer residents.

Six counties were missed in 2025, so the KOS provided extra incentive for folks to report from those counties. Participants who signed up and submitted eBird reports were awarded one raffle ticket for each county they birded, and two tickets for each of the missed counties from last year. A winner of the $200 gift card for Kentucky State Parks was announced after all the reports were in. Congrats to KOS member Mary Howell Cromer in Oldham County for taking part and winning the prize.

The organizers were thrilled with the response this year, with over 100 registrations. Many participants made extra efforts to ensure every county was included. One eager-beaver birder visited 14 different counties! We appreciate everyone's contributions, whether you went on a multi-county jaunt or enjoyed birding on your home turf.

Last year's Blitz came during unusually wet weather conditions and a huge cicada emergence, in contrast to this year's drought conditions in many parts of the state. Did the conditions make a difference? It's hard to say. Last year 153 species were reported, and this year 156; so species numbers were similar.

This year there were more Black-bellied Whistling Ducks, but fewer Canada Geese, Blue-winged Teal, and Wood Ducks. Newly reported this year – an Anhinga, a Common Gallinule, Cattle-Egrets, a Merlin, and a Neotropic Cormorant. Sixty Mississippi Kites were reported on 18 lists – wow! Cliff Swallows outnumbered the other swallow species with 1,244 reported on 60 lists. Impressive, but a little less than last year. 95 Bobolinks were reported – way up from last year’s 18. Dickcissels made a good showing, as well – with many more reported this year.

Twenty-two species of warblers were reported, including small numbers of Blackburnian, Black-throated Blue, Chestnut-sided, Black-throated Green, and Canada. The Common Yellowthroat once again lived up to its name, being the most abundant warbler in the state by far with 729 listed. Thirty-five Swainson's Warblers were reported (14 lists). Raw numbers don’t really show trends, but it’s fun to compare the two trip reports. You can find them here: for 2025 – https://ebird.org/tripreport/384239 and for 2026 – https://ebird.org/tripreport/537702

The Blitz team wants to thank our committee for their input, the KOS Board for sponsoring the event, Steve and Meg Brown for all the tech work, and Ronan O'Carra for all the help with maps and eBird integration. It’s a team effort. We look forward to doing it again next year!

Blitz Photos Slide show

Meg Brown has created a slideshow of photos submitted by Blitz participants, and it's presented here for your enjoyment. It's not too late to submit a photo (or photos) that you took during the Blitz! Instructions for submission are below the slideshow.

How to submit photos: Please attach* a few photo files to an email and send them to Meg.Brown@birdky.org. If you want to send more than a few, send several emails with a few photos per email. Please include the following information:

Subject of photo
Name of photographer
Date of photograph
Location of photograph

No watermarks please.

* We ask that you please ATTACH photo files to your email instead of embedding photos. The icon to attach items to emails usually looks like a paper clip. Embedding, which is done using copy and paste, can reduce the photo quality. Please do NOT send links to cloud photos or cloud folders/albums.

Blitz Anecdotes

Do you have an interesting story or anecdote about your Blitz experience? We have a few to share (see below), but we'd love add yours as well. To add to our list, send your anecdote in the text of an email to Meg.Brown@birdky.org, and we will add them.

We are already looking forwrard to next year's KOS Breeding Bird Blitz!

2025 T-Shirt Design Contest

The Voters Have Spoken And the Winner is...

Kingfisher by Samantha Engstrom.

We thank Samantha for her winning entry. She wins a $200 prize!

KOS also wants to extend our gratitude to the artists who took part in our first t-shirt design contest. The designs were varied, creative, and beautiful. KOS members had difficulty choosing their favorite one. Here are the artists, along with their creations:

BIRDKY LISTSERV Rules

By using Birdky LISTSERV, you agree to follow the rules found in our Conditions of Use below. Please read this entire page to be sure you agree. If not, please unsubscribe and discontinue using Birdky LISTSERV.

Philosophy of Birdky LISTSERV

The Kentucky Ornithological Society (KOS) provides Birdky LISTSERV as a service to the Kentucky birding community. It is a forum for sharing information quickly and efficiently. Discussions about wild birds, birding, and related conservation efforts are invited. These exchanges should be informative, entertaining, and respectful. Members are encouraged to feel a sense of community in which they can post to the Birdky LISTSERV without fear of humiliation or personal attacks.

These guidelines will help you get started. The Conditions of Use, found below the Guidelines, are the rules by which Birdky LISTSERV will be managed. KOS prefers to guide BIRDKY with a light touch and a common-sense approach that permits free and open discussion. The rules will be enforced if the need arises.

Guidelines

To Subscribe

Send email to: birdky-request@freelists.org with "subscribe" in the subject line.

To Unsubscribe

Send email to: birdky-request@freelists.org with "unsubscribe" in the subject line.

How To Post

These are the basic steps and rules for creating a Birdky Post.

Send an email message to birdky@freelists.org
Include a descriptive subject line with your email. Do not leave the subject line blank.
In the body of the message, use plain text only. You may also include links to appropriate content, such as an ebird report or an article of interest.
Do not include photos, images, logos, attached documents or files. Do not paste content you have copied from webpages, articles or other emails into a birdky post. Do not include HTML code, or other code snippets.
At the bottom of the the message, include your actual name and location.
Be respectful in posts, discussions, and responses at all times.
If you have concerns about the content of a post or discussion, if you feel harrased, or if you have a dispute with someone over a Birdky LISTSERV post, DO NOT post to the Birdky LISTSERV about your concerns or engage in a public dispute. Instead write to the LISTSERV manager, Gary Ritchison at gary.ritchison@retiree.eku.edu to request help with the issue.

Conventions

There are some traditional and useful prefixes that may be used with the subject line. The format for this is "PRE: Text of subject," where PRE is replaced by one of the prefixes below. They are a shorthand way to catch the attention of your intended audience.

RPT: - Denotes a Report. For example, "RPT: Special Sighting"
RFI: - Request for Information.
RBA: - Rare Bird Alert.

Conditions of Use

The following rules are the KOS conditions for use of Birdky LISTSERV. By subscribing to and using the Birdky LISTSERV, you agree that you have read these rules and that you will follow these rules.

Failure to follow the rules for Birdky LISTSERV can result in loss of your right to use the service.

If you break the rules, you may receive a warning that you are out of compliance, be temporarily suspended from using the service, or banned entirely.

Required Elements for Posts

Posts to Birdky LISTSERV must contain:

A descriptive subject line. Do Not leave the subject line blank.
A message body that contains plain text.
Your real name.
Your real location. This can be a county, city or town name. The location can be where you are reporting from or where you live.

Optional Elements for Posts

Posts to Birdky LISTSERV may also contain:

Links (URLs) to websites or other online content you are referrencing in your post.
Email addresses for yourself or someone you are referrencing in your post.
A Title. In addition to the subject line, you may add a title for your post, at the top of your message body.

Acceptable Content and Behavior

All posts and replies to Birdky LISTSERV must be respectful.

Topics - News about wild birds, birding, and bird-related conservation efforts are all examples of acceptable content.
Topics - Posts should be about acceptable Kentucky-related topics. Posts about other states, the nation or the world are acceptable, if they have some connection to Kentucky.
Discussion - Responses to posts about the original topic, which expand the discussion, or add to it, are encouraged.
Referring Links - When the topic is about another website or other online content, links to that content may be included.
Email Addresses - When the topic mentions contacting someone, email addresses may be included along with other contact information.
Your Email Address - Your email address may be included in the body of the message. For example you could include your email address in the signature block.

Uncceptable Content and Behavior

Posts and replies to Birdky LISTSERV may not be disrespectful.

Inappropriate Topics - Any topic that is not covered by our Acceptable Content list above should be avoided. Examples of unacceptable topics include:
- Pet birds, caged birds and domestic birds
- Ethics of hunting or falconry
- Feral Cats
Off-topic Responses - Replies that change the topic of the original post are not allowed.
Advertising - KOS is a non-profit organization that does not promote any product or service and advertising is not allowed.
Note: discussions about products or services are not considered advertising.
Angry Discussion - Disagreements, angry responses and any aggressive content is not allowed.
Inappropriate or Offensive Content - KOS promotes a family-friendly atmosphere on Birdky LISTSERV. Any content, text, statement or image that is considered to be inappropriate or offensive by KOS is not allowed.
Attachments - Photos, images, documents and other files should not be attached to your posts.
Cut and Paste - While small blocks of text my be pasted into your post for reference, pasting articles, web pages or other online content into your post is not allowed. Doing so can result in copyright infringement issues for you and for KOS.

Enforcement of KOS Birdky LISTSERV Rules

Common sense and a light touch will always be the starting point when a breach of the rules occurs. Most breaches are accidental or unintentional and will not result in any action. If a breach becomes serious or persistent enough to warrant action, KOS and the LISTSERV manager will take steps to resolve the issue.

Possible enforcement actions include warnings, temporary suspension of access to the LISTSERV, or a permanent ban of the offender from using the service. Any enforcement will be done privately with no public notice or comment from KOS.

If a potential copyright infringement issue occurs, KOS will take steps to remove the offending content.