Our Mission

Colorado Field Ornithologists' roots go back to 1935 when students of the Denver Museum of Natural History ornithologist, Robert Niedrach, formed the Colorado Bird Club. The growing membership of the club considered their ventures into the field to study birds as contributions to ornithology. You can learn more about these early days of the organization precursor to CFO and Denver Field Ornithologists in The early years: Colorado's oldest birding organization hatches, fledges, and soars written by Sharon Tinianow in the January 2025 issue of The Lark Bunting (pg. 14). 

As other bird clubs emerged around the state, members of the Denver-centric Colorado Bird Club saw a need for a truly statewide ornithological organization and invited birders from around the state for a weekend of field trips, scientific papers, a banquet, and keynote speaker. The statewide convention in 1963 became the pattern for future annual get-togethers. As their communication with other clubs and birders matured, the Colorado Bird Club renamed itself Denver Field Ornithologists, leaving the newly emerging statewide organization to claim the "Colorado" name and become Colorado Field Ornithologists (CFO). 

In 1967, CFO started publishing its scientific journal, now called Colorado Birds, Quarterly Journal of Colorado Field Ornithologists. You can find the full archive online.

Over the past sixty years Colorado Field Ornithologists has become an organization of all sorts of people interested in birds, building the bridge between amateur birders and professional ornithologists.  We study Colorado's birds, seek to conserve these birds and their habitats, and work to make our activities educational and enjoyable for all who participate - beginning birders, intermediate and expert birders, competitive listers, professional ornithologists, birding tour guides, naturalists, bird photographers and audio recordists.