Gift guide · Updated October 2026
Birdwatcher Gifts Under $50
A good gift for a bird watcher does not have to be expensive, but it should have the right bird on it. Everything below costs $50 or less, and every bird is checked against the field guide before it goes to print: today's official name, the right plumage, the marks a birder looks for first.
The list is split into two groups. Under $30 is mugs, journals and bandanas. From $30 to $50 are the embroidered caps and beanies, tees, tumblers and totes. Everything is made to order, so allow up to 10 days to make it plus 5 to 10 business days in the post. Three tees clear the $120 free shipping line, and there is more in Gifts under $40.
Under $30
Small, specific, and easy to wrap into a stocking.
Page one: the date, the place, and the bird that started it. A 150-page hardcover with a Great Blue Heron printed all the way round.
An owl against the moon on a hardcover field journal with lined pages. For the people who stand in a field at dusk and wait.
Mallards on an evening pond on the cover of a hardcover sketchbook. A Mallard drake in breeding plumage looks like a decoy painted a little too well.
For the count: tallies by species, the temperature at dawn, the mile marker where the shrike was sitting. A good gift for the person who already owns the clipboard.
A Great Blue Heron in the marsh, drawn as a one-ink navy engraving on cream in the old banknote manner. Wear it as a neckerchief or a head wrap.
A wood duck drake on a sunrise creek, colour from corner to corner. Tie it as a head wrap, round the neck, or fold it into a pocket square.
A great blue heron giving you the side-eye, one word: judging. Round the back, a small fish who knows it is next. A 15 oz ceramic mug.
A chickadee puffed into a perfect snowball on a snowy branch, and a second one waiting out the snow round the back. 15 oz ceramic with a red inside.
A great egret in full breeding plumes, its lace-fine veil spilling across a blush pink ground. A 15 oz ceramic mug with a pink inside.
The one red bird nobody has to look up. Males and females both sing, and both stay put all winter. A 16 inch pillow for the chair by the window.
Most people think of bluebirds as spring birds, but plenty stay all winter and live on berries. A hardcover sketchbook with the bluebird on the cover, blank pages inside.
A Northern Saw-whet Owl, the size of a fist and almost never seen, in gold on a soft fleece stocking printed front and back.
$30 to $50
Caps, beanies, tees, tumblers and totes: the things that get used every week.
Corduroy for October, when swamp maples turn and Wood Ducks come squealing into flooded timber. One drake, embroidered on a vintage cord cap.
North America's smallest falcon, hovering over the median strip on fast wingbeats. Embroidered on a garment-washed cap in Khaki, one size, adjustable.
For the feeder check at seven, in slippers. A single Black-capped Chickadee embroidered on a cuffed knit beanie, one size, warm enough for the walk to the feeder.
Ruby-throated, rufous and Anna's: three hummingbirds, three throats that only light up when the sun hits them right. Embroidered in full-colour thread on a cotton twill bucket hat.
A vintage travel-poster coastline that runs all the way round: an Atlantic puffin, a headland, two lighthouses and gulls. A 15 oz ceramic mug with a blue inside.
LIFER in bold Scandinavian letters with a bluebird on top, and the same bird flying through sky-blue clouds round the back.
A barn owl framed like an old label on deep plum, under one word: MOONLIGHTING. A 12 oz insulated stainless wine tumbler with a clear lid.
A belted kingfisher diving through a breaking wave, in the manner of a Japanese woodblock. You usually hear one before you see one: a dry rattle down the shore.
An Atlantic puffin among sea-pink flowers above the waves, cut like a linocut in cream on deep navy. Puffins can carry a dozen small fish crosswise.
There is no blue pigment in that blue: it is light scattered by the structure of the feather. A soft pillow cut to the bird's own outline.
A Blue Jay among oak leaves and acorns. Jays plant more oaks than people do, burying acorns they never come back for. Fleece, printed front and back.
Everyone has the bird that made them pull over and buy binoculars. A struck match with the bird in the flame, on a heavyweight tee.
A male Painted Bunting is a fair candidate for a first lifer: blue head, green back, red below. The word is set in a confident script on a heavyweight tee.
Questions
Do these ship free?
US orders of $120 and over ship free. Below that it is a $7.95 flat rate. A tee and a badge cap together clear the line.
How long will a gift take to arrive?
Everything is made to order. Allow up to 10 days for making, then 5 to 10 business days in the post within the US. You get a tracking email the day it ships.
What if it does not fit?
Write within 30 days of delivery with your order number and the size needed, and we will help you exchange it. Each product page lists the garment's own measurements.
Is there something under $50 that is not a mug?
Yes. Hardcover journals start at $25, embroidered caps and tees are under $50, and the totes start at $48.