Thayer Birding Software

Are you the local bird expert?
You soon will be!

The software includes 1,007 Species with 6,586 Color Photos, 1,506 Songs, 552 Videos, 700 Quizzes, an ID Wizard, Side-by-Side Comparisons, and much more.

Learn More!

About this software

This software is FREE to everyone and being provided by Peter Thayer, president of Thayer Birding Software.

This software will run on computers with Windows 7, 8, 10, and 11 and on Mac OS running Parallels. Mac OS (natively) and Linux are no longer supported.

Click the Download menu option or click here to get started!

If you like it, please consider supporting the birds with a charitable donation to Cornell Lab of Ornithology

A demonstration video can be viewed by clicking the following image.

Download and Installation Instructions

Supported environments:

PCs or a Virtual Machine running Windows 7 through 11. This includes Macs running Parallels.
If you're viewing this on anything else (mobile device (Android or iPhone), Linux, or Mac OS) stop right now. GBNA will not run on any of these environments.

Make sure you have enough disk space to handle the download, the extracted setup files, and the installed software and media.

Temporarily, you'll need a total of 21 GB -- 7 GB for the downloaded zip, 7 GB for the extacted files, and 7 GB for the installed software. Once it's installed, you'll only need 7 GB.

This contains all the setup files.
And this can take one to two hours (or more) depending on the speed of your connection.

Extract all the files in the zip to a folder.

You should have built-in support for zip files. Select the zip file in File Explorer -- Extract All should appear in the menu.
Recommend extracting the files to an external drive (e.g. USB or Thumbdrive) so you can save a copy of the install for the future.

Run the setup program (setup.exe) that's included with the files. Use the license key "4204-0408-5050-5118".
Test the installation by opening the new icon on your desktop.
Cleanup your disk space.

Once GBNA is installed, you don't need the downloaded zip and the setup files. Deleting them gives you 14 GB of disk space back.

Learn more about the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, click the image below.

A Note from Pete Thayer

Even though Thayer Birding Software was closed in 2021 (after 25 years in business), I wanted to continue to make this amazing software available.

Please note that we are no longer associated with the web site ThayerBirding.com. As a result, some of the links in the on-line help files will no longer function.

One-on-one technical support is no longer available.

This software can be downloaded at no cost to you -- but the contents are copyrighted, so you may not use the photos, songs, maps, etc. on your personal web site.

If you enjoy this software, please tell your friends, teachers, and local nature organizations about it.

Attention Mac users: a number of folks have been able to run this birding software on their Mac computers by first installing a Windows emulation program. Parallels seems to get great reviews. Their web site is at https://www.parallels.com/